Rainy weather breaks UK record for three months to June

April to June this year has been the wettest second quarter in the UK since records began in 1910.

The figure was confirmed on a second day of disruption after torrential rain doused parts of the country leaving thousands without power.

Transport and schools were also affected after Wales, the Midlands, north-east England, Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland were deluged.

Even without the latest storms, this is the second wettest June since 1910.

Up to 27 June, total UK rainfall was 130.1mm - just 6mm short of the 2007 record.

It is already the wettest June on record for Wales, with 186.3mm of rain this month, compared with the previous record of 183.1mm set in 1998.

The Met Office confirmed it had been the wettest April-June period in the UK since 1910.

Polly Chancellor, the Environment Agency's national drought co-ordinator, said it meant that river and reservoir levels across England and Wales were now normal or above for the time of year.

The revelations came as the West Coast mainline between England and Scotland was closed for a second time on Friday, and thousands in north-east England had no electricity.

As a result of Thursday's torrential rain, all East Coast rail services were suspended between Newcastle and Edinburgh from Thursday evening until about midday on Friday after 40 tonnes of earth fell onto the line.

Network Rail had said the section of track was unlikely to reopen before Saturday morning, but an hourly service has now resumed. A near-normal service is expected to operate between London and Leeds, and London and Newcastle.

Hundreds of engineers will be working throughout the weekend to repair areas of the track beds which were torn away by floods at Haltwhistle on the Newcastle to Carlisle route and Scremerston on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) between Newcastle and Berwick.

The West Coast mainline between Scotland and England, which was closed for a time in both directions on Friday because of damage to overhead power lines between Lockerbie and Carstairs, is moving again - but delays are still expected and engineers say further repairs will have to be carried out during the night.

First TransPennine Express and Virgin Trains are running their scheduled West Coast services, but long queues have been reported at Glasgow Central Station.

In County Durham, a number of landslips on roads mean temporary traffic control measures are in place, but by the end of the day all routes should be passable with care.

Elsewhere:

• West Mercia Police have named a man found dead in a stream at Bitterley, near Ludlow, Shropshire, as 66-year-old former teacher Michael Ellis

• About 2,450 properties in north-east England are still without power as a result of Thursday's storm, according to Northern Powergrid

• The Tyne and Wear Metro network is running a reduced train service and replacement bus service between some stations

• More than 40 schools remained closed in Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and County Durham on Friday, including the 500-year-old Royal Grammar School in Newcastle

• Families hit by severe flooding in and around Belfast on Wednesday have been told it could be months before their homes are habitable again

• Coventry's Godiva music festival, which was expected to attract 100,000 people to the city's Memorial Park, has been called off, but organisers say the Olympic torch event due to take place there on Sunday night will go ahead

BBC Weather's Jay Wynne said the weather was now back to normal after Thursday's "exceptional" storms and there were no weather warnings currently in place.

"It's pretty wet, but nothing too unusual," he said.

Over the weekend there will be some sharp showers, but not everywhere, he said.

Thursday's flooding began with downpours in Northern Ireland on Wednesday night where many roads became impassable and about 1,000 homes were left without power.

An inch of rain (25mm) then fell in parts of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Birmingham and the Black Country, in just two hours on Thursday.

Despite the recent wet weather, four water companies, Sutton and East Surrey Water, South East Water, Veolia Water Central and Veolia Water South East still have hosepipe bans in place - they rely heavily on groundwater from chalk aquifers for customer supplies,

Elsewhere, levels at all but three reservoirs are classed as normal or higher for this time of year, while groundwater levels are largely improving after two dry winters in a row left much of England in drought conditions.