Aberdeenshire was also faced with less rainfall per year and slightly more weekly sunshine hours than the Scottish average.
BBC: Aberdeenshire leads Bank of Scotland Quality of Life list
Experts at East Malling Research (EMR) have created versions of the fruit which are better at coping with higher summer temperatures and less rainfall.
Agricultural villages disappeared, to be replaced by the temporary camps of pastoralists, whose herds grazed on wild plants which required less rainfall than farmed crops.
Residents in Aberdeenshire also enjoy a relatively good climate with less rainfall per year that the average for Scotland, and, on average, one hour more sunshine per week.
Temperatures in Death Valley have been known to reach a hundred and thirty degrees, and rainfall averages less than two inches a year.
Sandwiched between two of the world's most famous deserts - the Namib and the Kalahari - Namibia is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, with less than 370mm of rainfall on average each year.
CNN: Namibia country profile: moving on from a difficult past
Along the coast of the Gulf of Sirte, between Misratah and Benghazi, rainfall is rather less, so that the desert reaches the coast.
Rainfall was close to or above normal over much of western Scotland but elsewhere it was dry, particularly over much of southern, central and eastern England where less than 10% of normal rainfall was recorded.
During winter, parts of England received less than 60% of the average seasonal rainfall.
Average rainfall in Kent is 25% less than at the turn of the last century, while at the same time the county's population and each household's water use has increased.
Parts of north-west Scotland saw about 110% of normal April rainfall, while parts of south-east England saw less than 10% of normal.
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