Scotland enjoyed less rain than last year Despite communities have been deluged from Jedburgh in the Borders to Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire, Scotland's rainfall for 2012 has yet to exceed the annual average of 1570.9mm. And while the latest statistics do not include the last soggy week of what looks set overall to be the UK's wettest year, that unwelcome but likely record has been largely driven by downpours in England where annual rainfall had already risen above the 854.8mm annual average to 1095.8mm by Boxing Day 2012. Although much of Scotland, England and Wales remained on flood alert today (Monday) the predicted dry spell for the bells heralds a brighter start to 2013. However forecasters warned yesterday that the extremes of last year - which saw Scotland go from an early heatwave to snow in one of the weirdest ten days in recent memory - were not a freak one-off. Dan Williams, spokesman for the Met Office, said yesterday: "Normally Scotland has higher rainfall than England but this year England is already over its annual rainfall, while in Scotland the total rainfall until December 26th this year was 1546.3mm, which is still below the annual average there. It has been the wettest year on record for England up until December 26th and it looks like it will be a close run thing [that 2012 will be the wettest on record for the UK overall] but we don't have the final figures yet for the whole of 2012, and it might not be a record wet year for Scotland. Weather pattern The torrential rains during 2012 have been blamed on the unusual position of the Jet Stream - a high altitude band of wind influencing the weather - which moved further south than in previous years, bringing more wet conditions with it. Met Office research has also suggested that global warming caused by carbon emissions has also increased the number of episodes of severe downpours, with the average number of so-called "extreme" periods of rainfall rising steadily over the past few decades. The cause is thought to be simple physics, as warmer air can hold more moisture, increasing the amount of water which can fall as rain. Arguably the most extreme variation in weather of 2012 in Scotland occurred in the Spring when residents of Aboyne had a surprise chance to sunbathe, followed days later by an equally unexpected opportunity for skiing. The Aberdeenshire village smashed the previous record for the hottest March day in Scotland reaching an unprecedented 23.6C. Just nine days later temperatures plummeted as bitterly cold Arctic winds brought more than six inches of snow overnight. Although it seemed very strange, forecasters said yesterday that such quick changes are not that rare. Mr Williams added: "That kind of thing where we see big shifts in temperature is actually fairly common in the UK because we are between tropical air and polar air. All you need is a change in wind direction to bring fairly large changes in temperature. It would normally happen in March or April and September or October when there are big changes in temperature between north and south. The UK as a whole had 1,291.2mm of rain from January 1 to December 26 in 2012 (the average of 1546.3mm in Scotland and 1095.8mm in England). When the last rain-soaked week is included, it is expected to overtake the current wettest year officially on record for the UK of 2000, when 1,337.3mm fell. After so much rain it was easy to forget that 2012 also brought drought conditions across the UK. And while the mainland in Scotland was repeatedly flooded, in June the historic Tobermory distillery on the island of Mull was forced to halt whisky production for the first time in nearly two decades after the loch from which it draws water dried up due to a lack of rainfall.