Flooding made driest September a washout

Despite periods of heavy rainfall and floods that claimed five lives, it has actually been one of the driest Septembers on record, say the Met Office.

Only 38.5mm of rain fell this month, compared with an expected 62mm, and 19mm of that fell on one day.

On 5 September, some parts of southwest England saw more rain in 24 hours than they would typically see in the whole month, amid heavy precipitation across the country in the first week of September.

"Virtually no rain has fallen since 8 September," said Barry Gromett of the Met Office. "It's really been feast or famine in terms of rain - without the deluge at the start of the month we'd be looking at record-breaking low rainfall.

"For most of the country, about 85 per cent of the expected rain for the entire month fell in a few days."

More than 200 flood warnings were issued by the Environment Agency this month and police in the North West had to rescue motorists from their cars. The severe weather eventually claimed five lives and caused millions of pounds of damage.

The dry September ended the seventh-wettest summer on record which also saw the fewest hours of sunshine of any August on record.

September temperatures have been as expected, with a mean temperature of 14.6C, only 0.3C above the average.

Britain is expected to return to more usual weather in October and November, with a wetter end to the year.