January to July – continuing an extremely dry and cold spell from the previous year, several records for dryness are set, among them driest twelve months in the
England and Wales Precipitation series, with only 522.0 millimetres (20.55 in) for the year ending July 1785, and further records for dryness for periods of three to six months.[4]
^Lough, Janice; Wigley, Tom; Jones, Phil (1984). "Spatial patterns of precipitation in England and Wales and a revised homogeneous England and Wales precipitation series". Journal of Climatology. 4:1-25.