The wettest winter washout on record

Met Office verdict on our three-month downpour

SCOTLAND’S brutal winter season finally came to an end yesterday – with news that it was the wettest ever recorded.

Statistics from the Met Office confirmed that the rainfall which washed over the country in the three months of December, January and February was record-breaking.

Downpours delivered an average of two and a half feet of rain across the country, resulting in asp ate of floods which inundated homes and caused chaos on roads and railways.

December was the wettest month ever recorded and January and February continued the soggy scenario, with rainfall totals much higher than normal.

‘It’s been a truly remarkable winter in Scotland,’ said Nicky Maxey of the Met Office.

‘Winter was the second-wettest across the UK as a whole and it turned out to be the warmest on record for England and Wales.

‘ But Scotland endured the worst rain it has ever seen – and these records go back to 1910.’

Argyll was the wettest part of Scotland – with a total far higher than the Scottish average. It suffered 1055.7mm of rain over the three months – the equivalent of three and a half feet.

Scotland’s two wettest winters ever have happened in the last three years.

The rainfall total of 756mm (almost 30 inches) for 2015/16 exceeded the previous record two years earlier of 744mm (29.2 inches). More than 100 homes were evacuated i n Hawick, Roxburghshire, on December 5 as torrential rain swept in ahead of Storm Desmond.

Tayside and Perthshire also endured flooding, with the River Tay peaking at levels not seen for a decade.

New Year brought no respite and the country was first-footed by Storm Frank, which resulted in bridge pillars on the west coast rail line being almost washed away. The damage took almost two months to repair.

The statistics make for grim reading. February’s rainfall total of 147.2mm (5.8 inches) was 13 per cent up on normal. January’s figure of 257.5mm (10.1 inches) showed a rise of 45 per cent on the average f or the month and December’s massive 351.4mm (13.8 inches) was more than double the amount that is usually experienced in the final weeks of the year.

Miss Maxey said: ‘In Scotland, it was a case of needing waders rather than wellies this winter. While the three-month period was remarkable for its rainfall, it followed on from a very wet November as well.

‘There was also less sunshine in each of the three months we call winter. In January, Scotland got just 63 per cent of the sunshine hours it would normally expect.’

The coldest temperature of winter was -14.1c (6.6f) recorded at Braemar, Aberdeenshire, on the morning of February 14.

Even as we get into the spring month of March today, the Met Office is warning of heavy rain for parts of Strathclyde and southern Scotland.

And scientists are detecting atmospheric events that indicate a growing risk of snow at Easter.

‘Waders rather than wellies’