But with 107 hours of sunshine in August, Wittering residents caught more rays than anyone else in England.

Only a handful of locations in the whole of Britain have seen more than 100 hours of sun – many seeing less than half the average for this time of year.

In fact, the village of Eskdalemuir, in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, has yet to reach 40 hours of blue skies and warm weather, making Peterborough seem positively exotic.

But despite the seemingly bright outlook for city sun worshippers, the 107 hours is still more than 80 hours less than the August average.

And with more than a month's worth of rain falling in the first half of August, this year's summer has been a complete washout.

Met Office spokesman Barry Gromett said: "The average sunshine for Cambridgeshire in August is 190 hours, so this year has been really poor.

"August has been a very dull month, dominated by low pressure systems.

"There has been plenty of cloud and rain for most of us."

While Wittering residents have had the best of the sun in England this month, it is a much more surprising location that saw more sunshine than anywhere else in Britain.

The Shetland Islands, to the north of the Scottish mainland, has seen 136 hours of the sun so far, 16 more than their August average.

Mr Gromett said: "It is quite odd for that amount of sun to be seen so far north – normally we see figures like that for places much further south.

"However, jet streams which have blown areas of low pressure further south than normal, and the far north has escaped much of the bad weather."

And the gloomy skies look set to continue into the September, with more unsettled weather forecast.

Mr Gromett said: "While it is set to get brighter on Friday and Saturday, it looks like low pressure will be back on Sunday, with more rain and cloud forecast.

"Looking at September, things do look like they will settle down – but we have been saying that all summer. It is very much a case of wait and see.

"The atmosphere is in a very disturbed state at the moment, and we can't really look beyond a week with any real accuracy."

Media and communications officer at RAF Witttering, Tony Walsh, said: "I am not surprised that Wittering is the sunniest place.

"I have travelled across the country, and it always seems to be one of the driest places, and visitors here always seem to be surprised about how good the weather is.

He added: "Sunshine is not the most important things for our operations here. We are more dependant on visibility for when pilots are coming into land or taking off, or cross winds on the runway."

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