Soggy end to Scottish summer as some areas record wettest August on record

I’m sure most of you will agree that rain has been the defining characteristic of this summer, but the amount of rainfall in Skye this month has been truly remarkable.

Nestled in the shadow of the Black Cuillin is a small white cottage known as Allt Dearg House, located between Broadford and Portree.

This area, one of the wettest places in Scotland, has experienced a staggering amount of rain this month. So far, there have been only 13 days without rain this summer, and none of those dry days have occurred in August!

Currently, the SEPA rain gauge at Allt Dearg House is showing a total of 660mm of rainfall for this month alone. To put that in perspective, that’s nearly the same amount of rain that parts of Moray receive in an entire year.

Even by the already wet standards of Allt Dearg, this is exceptional – August’s average rainfall here is typically around 280mm. This month, we’ve seen almost two and a half times that amount, making it likely the wettest August on record for the area.

It’s also the wettest month of the year so far – a rather bleak summer month. I can only imagine how many camping trips have been cut short this month!

Achnagart in the Highlands, Tyndrum in Stirlingshire, and Threave in Dumfries and Galloway are also on track for their wettest August on record.

An equally astounding figure comes from a rain gauge high up in the hills of western Renfrewshire, within the Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park, where 410mm of rain has been recorded so far in August. This is the wettest month there since December, with the usual August rainfall being around 200mm.

While those of us in the west of Scotland might be lamenting this exceptionally wet month, the story is quite different in the east. Eastern regions, such as eastern Fife and East Lothian, have been much drier. Dunbar has recorded only 32mm of rain this month, with nine completely dry days in August.

Meanwhile, just across the water, St Monans has seen about 37mm so far this month. This means that Allt Dearg in Skye has received over 20 times the amount of rain compared to Dunbar—a stark contrast!

Looking at the summer as a whole, although August has been notably rainy, central and eastern parts of Scotland experienced much less rainfall than usual in June and July, which might balance things out somewhat.

However, there were exceptions: the north Highlands had a particularly wet June, and north Aberdeenshire saw higher than usual rainfall in July. Resallach in the north Highlands had its wettest June on record, though we’re nowhere near setting a record for August here.

So, while the extreme rainfall in some areas this August may push up the overall seasonal totals for Scotland, it seems unlikely at this stage that the country has had its wettest summer on record.

The wettest summer remains 1985, a year when Edinburgh Airport experienced its wettest July since 1948, Fort William had its wettest July in over 50 years, and both Paisley in Renfrewshire and Eskdalemuir in Dumfries and Galloway recorded their wettest Augusts on record.

That summer, Paisley went on to have its wettest September on record following August’s deluge.