The English may make a national pastime out of discussing their weather, and many may genuinely believe their offshore island to be the wettest place in Europe. But is this true? Most places in southeast England have between 550 and 750 mm of rainfall a year. London's Heathrow Airport records an average of 588 mm. That may seem like a lot of rain, but spare a thought for the inhabitants of Europe's wettest community. In the average year, the village of Crkvice in Montenegro suffers 4892 mm of precipitation. Amazingly, drinking water availability is still an issue throughout the Orjen mountain region, in which Crkvice lies, for the hills of coastal Montenegro are deeply fissured limestones and so surface water is rare.

Crkvice seems like a thoroughly inhospitable spot, located as it is at an altitude of about one thousand metres, albeit with fine views over the Bay of Kotor (Baka Kotorska) and the Montenegro coastline.