August proves a washout for Scots

IT has felt like the month when monsoon weather has always been just around the corner.

And as a local authority issued sandbags in one flood-hit coastal town yesterday, experts confirmed what may have seemed obvious long before now.

Scotland saw more than a month's worth of rainfall across the country in the first half of August.

As many an Edinburgh Festival reveller will testify, the east of the country has suffered the most, with the rainfall level from 1-15 August 161 times the average norm for the whole month.

Dunbar, in East Lothian, was the worst-effected location in Scotland yesterday, with council staff called in to help worried residents in two streets, although no properties were affected.

Further torrential overnight rain was expected in the Lothian and Borders area. Severe weather warnings were in place for other parts of Scotland last night, with slow-moving showers and localised flooding predicted by the Met Office.

Several parts of Britain were hit by further heavy rain yesterday, with the south coast the worst affected, with some areas getting two weeks worth of rain in the space of a few hours. In Bournemouth, which experienced the most serious disruption, the force of a flash-flood was so fierce it caused huge cracks to open up along main roads and lifted manhole covers clean off, leading to fountains of water gushing out.

Stones were thrown up by the huge rain drops and sent crashing through shop windows while drivers had to abandon their cars when water poured over their bonnets.

In Portland, Dorset, 2.3in (57.8mm) of rain falling over a nine-hour period compared with a monthly average of 2.5in (64.3mm) for the county, according to the Met Office.

Some parts of Scotland saw more rain in 36 hours earlier this month than they normally experience for the whole of August.

Figures released by the Met Office last night showed the extent of the monsoon misery in Scotland.

While Scotland normally gets an average of 107.5mm per month at this time of year, it was hit by 115.6mm from 1-15 August.

The east of Scotland saw 133.6mm while the west coast fared little better, with 127.7mm.

A spokeswoman for the Met Office said: "Scotland as a whole has had 115.6mm of rainfall this month, which is much more than the long-term average for the whole of August."

A spokeswoman for East Lothian Council said it received a number of calls from householders in two streets in Dunbar - Countess Avenue and Spott Road - worried about flooding on the road after heavy rainfall from 1pm yesterday.

She added: "By the time our staff got there the problems had eased a bit, but we issued sandbags to a number of homes, as there was a weather warning in place for later in the day.

"It was just a problem with surface water on the road and some of the drains being unable to cope with the volume of water for a while, but there was no flooding of property and no damage done to buildings."

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency said no serious flooding was experienced in Scotland yesterday and no flood warnings were in place for any parts of the country.