Preston saw one of the driest Augusts since records began, according to experts from the University of Lancashire.
The Met Office had already declared the 2025 summer as the warmest on record – noting sustained high temperatures rather than any particular point of extreme weather.
Rainfall in the North West was below average for the period and that was especially true in August, the Met Office said.
Read more: Warmest summer on record declared as water levels at Brockholes remain historically low
But the weather station at the Jeremiah Horrocks Observatory in Moor Park has been recording the weather in Preston for 75 years and has records going back a further 100 years.
Astronomers from the University of Lancashire have analysed the data and said the period of almost no rainfall in the middle of August was unusual.
August saw 36mm of rainfall in total but from 7-24 August there was just 0.2mm. The driest Augusts in Preston are 1947 (3.8mm), 1976 (7.2mm), 1959 (16mm), 1995 (22mm), 2003 (24mm) and now 2025 (36mm).
Professor Derek Ward-Thompson, JHI Director, said: “What has made this August so unusual is not just that it was the 7th driest in 175 years, but that for almost 3 weeks in the middle of August there was essentially no rainfall at all, with only 0.2mm.
“Such a dry spell has not been seen since the record-breaking year of 1976, almost 50 years ago.”
September has started in much more unsettled fashion, with Sunday (7 September) seeing high levels of rainfall.
Professor Ward-Thompson added: “However, before we become too complacent, it is worth noting that in 1976, September was considerably wetter than the average. This week we seem to have seen the start of that pattern repeating!”
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