Record-breaking rain brings wettest month since records began to Bedfordshire

East Anglia was home to the hottest, sunniest, wettest and driest locations in England in September.

The changeable month saw unsettled spells of heavy showers and thunderstorms as well as periods of warm and sunny weather.

However, record-breaking rainfall in the last week of September has led to the wettest calendar month since records began for one county in the East.

Bedfordshire recorded 163.9mm (6.5ins) of rain in September, more than three times the average rainfall they usually get in the month.

The wettest place in Bedfordshire, and also across the UK as a whole, was Woburn - where rain gauges measured 252.6mm - almost 10 inches - of rain.

Yet only 109km (68 miles) away, Shoeburyness in Essex was the driest and sunniest place in England this September.

Residents here saw only 35.8mm of rain and basked in 164 hours of sunshine.

Averaged across the whole region, East Anglia saw its wettest September since 1995.

With such extremes in both the east and west, the average rainfall was 84.1mm - still 61% wetter than an average September.

Although Bedfordshire holds the title for the wettest county in the East last month, Northamptonshire was not far behind, recording 148.6mm of rain and also breaking its September record.

Despite being wet for many, it was not particularly cool, with temperatures slightly warmer than the long term average.

In fact, Cambridge Botanic Gardens saw the highest daily maximum temperature in the UK on the first day of the month, when the mercury soared to 30.1C.

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