IT'S official - East Lancashire has splashed its way through the wettest August since modern records began.

Instead of long, hot, sunny days and baking holiday weather, East Lancashire has been hit by its worst deluge in decades.

Today the Met Office said it had not recorded a wetter August since digital records began in 1961.

And experts confirmed that the past four weeks have probably been the worst since

the mid-1950s. In 1985, the previous wettest August on digital record, 184mm of rain fell in the area. But this year 189mm had fallen with seven days of the month remaining.

The Met Office said rain figures are likely to top 200mm by the end of the month tomorrow, with more wet weather to come.

The incessant rain comes just a year after the UK basked in record temperatures of over 100 degrees Farenheit.

But since early August this year East Lancashire has been hit by flash floods which have left homes and business up to 5ft in water as drains failed to cope.

Brownhill, Wilpshire, Ribchester, Bolton-by-Bowland, Sawley, Clitheroe, Darwen, Oswaldtwistle, Great Harwood, Rishton, Laneshawbridge, Earby, Colne, Waterfoot and Cowpe have all been affected.

The Met Office has blamed the remains of storms in the Atlantic such as Hurricanes Alex and Danielle and tropical storm Bonny.

A spokesman said: "There has been 10 times more rainfall this August than last and the contrast is extreme.

"It is mainly due to the sources of weather being different - last year our weather was from a continental high."

BBC weatherman John Ketley, originally from Todmorden, said: "It had been a freaky year this year and a dire August.

And Fred Ollerton, Lancashire representative for the National Farmers' Union said Lancashire farmers had suffered.

He added: "The rain has probably affected as many farmers as the foot-and-mouth four years ago.

"There has been so much waste because of all the wet weather and we are losing money. We just cannot dry the land."

Local weather expert Ted Boden, 80, of Rydle Place, Chatburn, has been recording weather for the Met Office since he came to the area in 1957.

He said he had recorded only five dry full days in August and nearly nine inches of rain.

Whalley weatherman Roy Fishwick, 62, a voluntary weather watcher for the Met Office, said: "I don't tot my figures up until the end of the month but I can tell by glancing it is off the record since I started in 1980 and for as long as my memory before that."

But it's not all bad news. The 28-day forecast for September predicts high pressure and more sunshine.