Evidence of storm? Help- insurance company dispute

[NotAnApricot]

My DD has had to put in contents claim as water came pouring through the ceiling during a storm. It was at the start of September during a period of particularly heavy rain.

The insurance company are disputing that there was a storm (according to their definition). So ridiculous, as a quick Google for that date links to multiple local news stories about the storm!

Does anyone know how I can get specific information about the amount of rainfall on a given date?

There is a video evidence of the water literally pouring through the ceiling across two floors (from flat roof to first floor and then onto ground floor) but we also need to show that this was caused by an actual storm.

Any advice?
TIA

*contents insurance claim

I had this the met office has an archive of UK weather. Apparently my wind was 3 miles too slow to be a storm despite it being called that in all the papers. Good luck!

You need to google for results from local weather stations. If there is one near you that didn't record wind speeds high enough over the time period it will not be classed as a storm. You need to show there were storm winds present locally not just in the country generally.

It sounds like the claims handler has already established that your local weather stations were not showing storm level wind speeds though. Rainfall levels would not show a storm, it is classed by wind speed. If heavy rainfall has compromised your roof this would suggest your roof was not well maintained (sorry, just that is likely what they would say). Insurance policies don't cover wear and tear, only exceptional weather events.

The insurance company defines a storm as high winds - or rain - at certain levels. I can’t navigate the MET archive, unfortunately.

There was an absolute deluge of water- I don’t know about the state of the roof (privately rented flat) but the rain was honestly unbelievable. My DH thinks it was due to guttering that was simply unable to cope in freak conditions. It was honestly like a monsoon!

I just need to show that it was more than 25mm per hour, somehow…