LERWICK has been the sunniest place in Britain this month, meteorologists say.

The town had 136 hours of sunshine in the first 25 days of August, according to MeteoGroup UK, the weather division of the Press Association.

It had far better weather than the second sunniest place in the UK, Wittering in Cambridgeshire, which has seen 107 hours of sun for far this month. Much of the rest of the country did not even reach 100 hours of sun.

John Hutchinson, a Meteogroup forecaster, said Shetland had been lucky to escape the bad weather which has hit the rest of the UK.

He said: “Normally the low pressure moves to the north of Scotland but the lows have been further south than normal so the worst of the weather has been across central areas of the UK.

“Lerwick has been above all the bad weather so it has had sunny spells. Shetland really has been fizzing above the gloom and rain that has been affecting everywhere else.”

Lerwick is the only place in the UK which has seen more sun than average so far this month.

Eskdalemuir in Dumfries and Galloway has yet to reach 40 hours of sun, while many places have yet to see half their average August sunshine.