WHEN we tell people we live in a wet area of the country, we can back this up with data collected on a daily basis from areas in Craven.

But how many of us realise that on average more than a metre-and-a-half of rain falls from the sky each year?

One weather guru who knows the exact measurement of rain which falls each day is Kettlewell man Ian Cuthbert.

He has been measuring the wet stuff each day for the past seven or eight years at his home, The Elms.

The previous owners started collecting the data in 1957 and the monthly rainfall records have been sent to the Met Office and Environment Agency ever since.

"It is fascinating to see just how much rain is precipitated around Kettlewell each year," said Mr Cuthbert, who explained that it was the surrounding hills which caused the clouds to deposit their contents where they did.

Mr Cuthbert is joined in his daily routine by two other people. Ross Harrison collects rainfall records for Beckermonds, while Ian Robinson collects the same data in Arncliffe.

The three comparisons are published each month in the district's Link parish magazine.

A seven-year average is also given given for that month and shows Beckermonds being consistently ahead as far as the monthly rainfall averages go.

For instance in January 1997, Kettlewell and Arncliffe could barely scrape half an inch of rain, but Beckermonds had more than nine inches.

Mr Cuthbert's records show just two years when no data was collected - 1984 and 1986, and the first seven months of 1968. These are possibly due to new occupiers of the house.

The rain gauge is kept in the garden and is the standard five-inch type. It consists of a simple funnel-type gadget with the rain collected in a bottle.

It is emptied each morning and measured. The gauge itself is checked every three years by the Met office and the Environment Agency.

The statistics gathered over the past 46 years in Kettlewell shows the driest year so far as being 1975 when 967.6mm (38-and-a-half inches) of rain fell, while 2000 has been the wettest with 2074.4mm of rain (83 inches).

The data collected is used by the Met office to work out the national average each year.