End of summer as rainy weather hits the UK

PACK away your suncream and shorts. The great British summer is well and truly over, weathermen warned last night.

Even two unbrellas couldn t keep this businessman dry Even two unbrellas couldn't keep this businessman dry

After a sizzling June and July, August looks set to be a damp squib with cloudy skies and cool temperatures. And there is no Indian summer in sight, with a cold and wet September predicted and even some snow in the North.

The start of August was duller and wetter than usual, with below average amounts of sunshine. Torrential downpours yesterday led to localised flooding. And the wet weather is set to continue.

Much of Britain baked in scorching weather throughout June and July but for the past week the country has seen regular showers which are likely to intensify into storms.

Jonathan Powell, senior forecaster with Positive Weather Solutions, said: “It’s curtains to summer – it’s more or less all over. High pressure which should have taken control just hasn’t materialised. Atlantic weather fronts have dominated, driving temperatures down and they won’t budge.

“Summer is fading. We should have been cracking 30C in the first week of August but we got to 22C at best.

“September looks chilly, and cold enough for some of the rain during a wet month to fall as snow over higher ground to the North.”

Met Office spokeswoman Sarah Holland said: “The unsettled weather is likely to stay with us into the second half of this month.

“Over the next five days most ­people will see some showers and some areas could also be thundery. Temperatures for the next few days are going to struggle to reach above 20C.”

The Daily Express revealed earlier this week how our summer has been blown off course. Scientists believe a freak blockage in the winds that blow weather ­systems round the world could be responsible for the sudden end of high temperatures in Britain as well as the floods in Pakistan and wildfires in Russia.

The jetstream’s high-altitude winds normally blow from west to east, bringing mild Atlantic lows to Britain and Europe. But meteorologists have found rare “persistent wave patterns” in the winds since mid-July which have been keeping weather systems in one place and producing freak conditions.

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