Edinburgh has had its wettest January for more than 100 years, with nearly three times the average amount of rainfall.

Met Office forecasters say 178 millimetres of rain have fallen in the Capital since the start of the month, the highest since they began measuring in the 1890s.

They have warned people to prepare for more wet and windy weather over the next few days, with winds set to reach up to 60mph.

Flooded roads have already caused misery for thousands of motorists around the Lothians this month, while the Water of Leith has almost reached bursting point. Matches at Tynecastle and Easter Road have been cancelled in the past week due to waterlogged pitches.

Pat Boyle, a city-based Met Office adviser, said: "This winter has been extremely wet. We're safe to say this is the wettest January on record. We've already had 178mm of rain. The wettest I could find for January is 50mm less than that, looking back as far as 1890.

"The average for Edinburgh is 61 mm, so we've already had nearly three times that.

It's almost impossible to find one explanation for it, but it is line with what we would expect from climate change."

The pattern has been matched across Britain, with an average of 170mm of rainfall. This makes it the fourth wettest January nationwide since records began.

There tends to be more rainfall in the summer. The wettest month ever in Edinburgh was August 1948, when 239mm fell.

Although there have been no serious floods this month, there have been a number of problems with flooded roads.

Heavy rain on January 10 caused several roads to be closed in the Lothians, including the A7 in Midlothian. There was a major clean-up operation in West Lothian after blizzards caused many roads to flood.

Tuesday's CIS semi-final match between Aberdeen and Dundee United was postponed because of the waterlogged field at Tynecastle. That came days after the Premier League meeting between Hibs and Gretna at Easter Road was called off for the same reason.

Paula Bushell, a marketing manager from Stockbridge, said she had had to put up with flooded roads several times this month. She said: "Every time there is heavy rain, Glenogle Road floods to such an extent that the road becomes like a ford, with cars having to drive slowly through, with the underside of vehicles being completely submerged.

"It's been particularly bad this month because there's been so much rain."

A council spokesman said the authority had contingency plans in place to deal with flooding and worked with emergency services.

He said: "If the Scottish Environment Protection Agency advise us that flooding is probable, then the plan will be implemented and communicated to the public in the areas identified as being at risk.

"Severe weather has the potential to create other types of emergency such as structural damage and we have staff with the expertise on hand to address this."