A downpour on Sunday resulted in last month being the wettest August on record, according to Bermuda Weather Service figures.

A total of 14.09 inches of rain fell in the month, beating the previous record of 13 inches set in August, 1997. The average rainfall for August is just 5.64 inches.

Monday, August 25 was the wettest day of the month, when 2.58 inches of rain fell. That brought the total amount of rain for the month up to 12.49 inches, just half an inch off the record.

However, just 0.12 inches of rain was recorded over the subsequent five days between August 26 and August 30 — even though Hurricane Cristobal was at its closest point to the Island during this period. But on Sunday the heavens opened up again, dumping another 1.48 inches of rain and smashing the August 1997 record by more than an inch. The Bermuda Weather Service began compiling rainfall data in 1949.

So far this year 44.77 inches of rain has been recorded — with almost one third of that coming in the last month.

There were just ten dry days during the 31-day month and the mean temperature of 79.8 degrees was also well below the norm of 82.3 degrees.

A Bermuda Weather Service spokesman earlier said that the heavy rains had been caused by unusual weather patterns, with an upper level trough remaining stationary between the Island and the US East Coast.

“This brought a cold front over the area in the beginning of the month, the front became stationary and has continued to develop surface low pressure centres ... which have continued to provide energy for heavier showers and thunderstorms.”

While the wet weather might be good news for gardeners, water trucking companies have seen demand dry up in what is normally a busy time of the year.

David Eatherley, owner of D&L Water Service, said the wet spell had hit his business hard, with no requests for deliveries being made during the month.

At peak times his company can make around 20 deliveries a day.

“It’s been drastic — it’s knocked us right out of business,” he said.

Mr Eatherley, who has run his business for nine years, added that he provides a tank cleaning service as well as water deliveries — but that customers had cancelled requests for tanks to be cleaned because they were full.

“Understandably nobody wants to clean their tank when it’s full of fresh water,” he said. “Why empty the tank when it’s full, just to have to pay to have it filled back up again? So I think people are waiting until their tanks empty before they get them cleaned. Hopefully it’s going to start drying up and in the next month or two we can get some business before the start of another winter. But yes, it’s been very hard.”

Darren DeSilva of Water Now said: “It’s certainly not ideal for our industry given that we had a very wet winter coming on top of a very short summer season last year. We supply water when the demand is there, but if there’s plenty of water around and no demand for our services, it is what it is.

“That’s the nature of the business — it’s unpredictable. During times like these we get much needed time to focus on maintenance, and prepare for the next time that we are needed.”