I refer to Geoff Kirby’s letter (Echo July 12) ‘Rain not sign of climate change’ in which it was implied that the recent local severe flooding was due to one day of rain.

In the UK, rainfall is measured daily at 0900hrs GMT and the amount is credited to the previous day.

No rainfall amount was stated by Mr Kirby but I assume he used the Weymouth figure quoted in the Echo of 37mm for the seventh as a criteria for establishing 45 wetter days in the past 85 years and the once in two years likelihood of a repeat.

The rainfall of the previous 24 hours, however, was even higher with 51mm recorded.

Because heavy rainfalls often do not sit neatly within the meteorological or calendar day I always use two-day totals to rate the severity and impact of these falls and this one was of a magnitude to be expected only two or three times in 100 years.

Much of south and west Dorset received 80mm to 120mm of rain (approx three to five inches) with 80mm at Portland, closer to 90mm at Weymouth and 110mm around Dorchester and Bridport.

This was the highest rainfall totals from a single event since July 1955. The flooding was made much worse by the unprecedented rainfalls (five times the average) of the previous five weeks and the saturated state of the ground and the already high river levels.

Whether we are believers in climate change – man made or not – weather extremes are now much more frequent and we need to be prepared.

In the last three years alone we have had the warmest April on record in 2011 and wettest in 2012, the coldest December in 2010 and this summer (June to August) is already the wettest in 100 years.

John Oliver, Weatherbury Way, Dorchester