Global warming and climate change are causing a growing number of problems around the globe, but some places on earth have always had very strange weather. All these places have had strange weather phenomena to do with their rainfall. There’s either drought, or torrential rainfall. For some places on earth there seems to be no in between.

The most rain in one minute was recorded at Barot on the island of Guadeloupe on 26th November, 1970. 1.5inches, 2.68 centimetres fell in one minute.

March 16th 1952 is the rainiest day ever recorded. On Reunion Island just east of the Island of Madagascar, 73.62 inches, or 187 centimetres of rain fell. This is more that six feet of rain. Another 24 inches fell in the following 24 hour period.

In Cherrapunji, India, 189 inches of rain fell in the 15 day period between June 24th and July 8th 1861. Cherrapunji had 366.14 inches of rain in a month and 905.12 inches for the whole calendar year.

The driest place on earth is Arica, in Chile. It is in the Atacama Desert. For more than 14 years, between October 1903 and December 1917, there was no rainfall. Over a period of 59 years,Arica had just three hundredths of an inch of rain a year, on average. This is about 0.76mm per year.

On August 2nd 1966, rain began to fall at 7pm and became very intense at 7.45pm, continuing until 10.15pm. A resident of the town measured this as 5.75inches in his rain gauge. His neighbour, who lived about one third of a mile away, collected just 0.5 inches in his rain gauge. Measurement from around the area showed that the heavy rain fell within a half square mile area.

On November 11th 1958, in Alexandria, Louisiana, there were no clouds in the sky but rain fell for two and a half hours. The misty drizzle covered an area of 100 square metres.