SO what effect does it have when it rains for what seems like three days solid in Cumbria?

Well at Newby Bridge today we should all just be thankful that blue skies appeared.

After plenty of the wet stuff fell from the skies all the way through from Friday to Sunday, the River Leven, which has done so much damage with two serious floods at Newby Bridge in the last few years (2015 and 2009), was running high.

At 1.45pm today (Monday) the river was 1.5 metres above its typical range.

But thankfully, with the sun at last shining, it was flowing harmlessly past the beautifully positioned Swan Hotel and Spa at Newby Bridge and just adding to the picture postcard image of this wonderful setting.

In fact when it comes to the areas with the most rainfall in the UK in a survey revealed today (Monday, March 20), somewhat surprisingly Cumbria wasn't even on the map.

The survey was entitled - Revealed The Wettest Cities in the UK.

But the city of Carlisle - which experienced such devastating floods in December 2015 when Storm Desmond struck, and previously in January 2005 - wasn't even mentioned.

This despite the fact that Honister in Cumbria broke all previous rainfall records when 341.4mm (13.4in) of rain fell in the 24-hours between December 4-5, 2015.

There are also some surprising rainfall results from other parts of the UK in the tables here .

Thankfully as lighter nights are at last here, for the spring (vernal) equinox today, for the time being at least we've got a sunny late afternoon to enjoy in South Cumbria.