UK summer set to end wet and windy, but likely warmest on record

The UK is set to end meteorological summer on a wet and windy note this weekend, but that is unlikely to prevent the season from becoming the warmest on record, the Met Office said. A deep area of low pressure tracking in from the Atlantic is expected to bring spells of rain and gusty winds across much of the country from Saturday into early Sunday, while meteorological data through late August shows a season mean temperature well above the previous high.

Based on Met Office figures through late August, the mean temperature for the meteorological summer stood at 16.13C, higher than the existing record of 15.76C set in 2018. Zoe Hutin, a senior meteorologist at the Met Office, said the prolonged warm spell of the past two and a half months means the comparatively cooler conditions arriving now will not significantly affect the seasonal average. She added that mean temperatures would need to fall to around 10C for the summer not to surpass the current record, making a new high "almost certainly" inevitable.

Forecasters warn that the approaching low pressure system will deliver heavy rain and strong winds for many. David Oliver, Deputy Chief Meteorologist at the Met Office, said a...