IT WILL come as little surprise that last month was one of the top 10 wettest Scottish Augusts recorded.

WWF Scotland released its findings on the miserable summer weather yesterday and they made for reading as gloomy as the overcast Tayside skies.

The organisation, which has its headquarters in Dunkeld, said the data showed an increasing climate change trend, with most months warmer and wetter than average.

As well as the exceptional rainfall, which made last month the 10th wettest on record, it was also the sixth dullest August ever, with the least sunshine since 1978.

July was very warm and a bit wetter and less sunny than average while June was slightly warmer and quite a bit wetter than average.

The fifth month was the warmest May ever in the Scottish records, which go back to 1914, as well as being the fourth driest ever, with only 34% of the usual rain for the time of year.

March and April were both average, apart from very wet conditions in April in eastern Scotland.

February was more than 2C warmer than the long-term average and January was more than 1C warmer and the third wettest recorded.

WWF Scotland climate policy officer Dr Sam Gardner said, “August was a month of real climate chaos, with floods and landslides causing major disruption to transport systems and damage to people’s homes across Scotland.

“We are already experiencing 20% more rain than we used to and the heavy, intense rainfall we saw in August is in keeping with the kind of impacts predicted under climate change models.

“At the same time globally, over the past few weeks, we have witnessed extreme weather events such as tropical storms and hurricanes on a worryingly frequent scale.

“We need to play our part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions if we are to stave off the worst impacts of climate change.”

WWF is calling for a robust climate change bill to go through the Scottish Parliament.

Dr Gardner added, “Scotland has the potential to produce the best climate change legislation any-where in the world, setting the benchmark for the climate talks over the next 18 months.

“The SNP have promised an 80% cut by 2050 but already we think they are backing away from including the growing emissions from our share of international aviation in the target.”