Wet start to the month

SHETLAND has already experienced over a third of its average rainfall for August, despite only being less than four days into the month.

The isles were inundated with a deluge of heavy rain on Wednesday that lasted much of the day.

It caused a small landslide on the side of the road in Tingwall, while four football matches were called off after pitches became waterlogged.

The Met Office confirmed that Lerwick had 21.6mm of rain throughout Wednesday, with most of it falling between 8am to 8pm.

The Shetland average for rainfall through the whole of August is 85.7mm. During the first three days of the month, however, Lerwick experienced 29.4mm.

The wettest August on record in Shetland was in 2014, when 172.4mm rained down on the isles.

The second highest amount of rainfall in August was 167.9mm in 1952.

In contrast, Lerwick was named the second sunniest placed in the whole of the UK in June.

The isles’ capital enjoyed a total of 226.2 hours of sun, with only the Valley region in north west Wales having more rays.