UK weather: Cool bank holiday sees out ‘extreme’ month

Low temperatures not expected to break records

(Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

A cool, cloudy morning awaits most of the UK this bank holiday Monday, signalling the end of a month of “extreme” weather that has included two named storms, a heatwave and the hottest August day recorded in 17 years.

Although the long weekend has been “unseasonably cool”, the low temperatures are not expected to break any records, the Met Office said.

Overcast skies in the morning will make way for fine sunny spells as we move into early afternoon and temperatures will reach the high teens in parts, but it sits in stark contrast to last year’s August bank holiday, which was the hottest on record when the mercury hit 33.2C at Heathrow Airport.

Light winds and sunshine will be welcome after a chilly start in the single digits in areas including London, Manchester and Glasgow, where the temperature will struggle to rise above 9C until later in the morning.

It will feel rather more pleasant from about lunchtime when highs of 18C will be felt in the capital and Cardiff, while the midlands and Glasgow can expect 17C.

Alex Burkill, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said the variety of hot, cold and windy weather is unlikely to be reflected in the monthly averages, despite it being the first August with a named storm.

“It has been quite extreme at times, we’ve had some very hot weather and then the two storms towards the end of the month,” he said.

“Even this bank holiday has been unseasonably cool, it’s not that often that we get temperatures around freezing in August.

“(The weather) has brought everything this month and that’s not really going to be captured in the monthly averages.

“They’re not going to show the extremes that we’ve had.”

Dry cloudy spells are expected overnight, with a chill in the air for clearer areas, including Southampton, Peterborough and Edinburgh, and Tuesday morning will be much like Monday with patchy cloud and sunny spells for most.

Additional reporting by Press Association