A WET weekend is expected during the British summertime - but August turned into a wet month.

Instead of enjoying long days of sunshine and heat, residents and tourists were more likely to be reaching for their umbrellas than their suncream as much of the schoolchildren's summer holidays ended in a washout.

The torrential storms ensured Sussex suffered its wetted August for almost 70 years, with 15 of the the 31 days being a washout.

Figures from the Met Office reveal the county experienced 144.2 millimetres of rain throughout the month, more than double the average.

This is the highest since 1946 and the fourth highest since records began in 1910.

Among the15 rainy days, August 13 recorded the heaviest downfall at 35.4mm with residents and workers in Brighton battling to keep the water out.

And August 24 was another bad day, with 20mm falling, although rain was lighter on the rest of the affected days.

The Bank Holiday weekend was also a washout as the “typical British summer” began to draw to an end.

The Met Office said there were some good days during the month with a lot of sunshine but there were also some particularly heavy thunderstorms which led to above average rainfall.

Low pressure across the UK as a whole meant August was generally unsettled and cool.

Met Office chief scientist Dame Julia Slingo said: "No-one can deny that we have had a pretty disappointing summer with a lot of unsettled weather and only a few warm spells, especially through July and August.

"Our weather has been dominated by low pressure over and to the west of the country that has brought us periods of heavy rain from the south - what we call the Spanish Plume."

On one of Brighton's worst days residents caught a bin floating past their front door on camera.

Dame Julia said early predictions that temperatures and rainfall would be near normal were proved wrong.

She said: "As the season progressed all the leading models around the world failed to capture the signal for unsettled weather over the UK.

"We all know that forecasting months and seasons ahead is still in its infancy and much more research needs to be done."