EXTREME weather caused by climate change is leaving local councils facing a multi-million pound bill.

And a major study has now been launched to gauge how local authority services will be affected by changing weather conditions.

Lancashire County Council has forked out £1.5million to repair storm damage to buildings in the past four years.

Fixing highways damaged by the weather cost £700,000, and 350 school days were lost to bad weather over the same period.

Council bosses say things are getting worse after an internal report warned the true cost of bad weather was "grossly underest-imated".

The report says council staff are witnessing more damage by extreme weather, more often.

County hall is working with government body UK Climate Impacts Programme to carry out the study.

Using tougher road surfacing on the county's roads will be looked at, because regular hot weather would melt the type currently used.

And drains will need to be cleared out more often if flooding increases.

County Councillor Matthew Tomlinson, cabinet member for environment and transport, said: "The thing about climate change is it's going to get wetter in winter and hotter in summer.

"The overwhelming evidence is that it's happening and what we are trying to assess is how this will affect services."

Alex Harvey, a scientist with the programme, said they would be looking as far ahead as 100 years to see the possible impact of extreme weather.

He said: "We want to make local authorities aware that if they do not start making changes now there will be severe consequences in the future.

"Storms like we have seen in recent years could become common towards the end of the century.

"We want to make them aware that buildings that are expected to last a long time and things like roads may not last."

Met Office spokesman Pete Falloon claimed temperatures of 90 degrees Fahrenheit would one day become commonplace in the county.

He added: "In the next 50 to 100 years there will be hotter summers and warmer, wetter winters.

"We will have a 30 per cent increase in rainfall and hot and warm summers".

Nature expert Ron Freethy added: "The weather is changing, and it will cost money to adapt.

"Global warming is a factor but the weather has always changed throughout history."