Thundery outlook for bank holiday

A disappointing bank holiday in line for sun-seekers

The August bank holiday weekend looks like being another wash-out, with the UK set for some very unseasonable weather

The UK Met Office has issued a warning predicting thundery showers, heavy downpours and the risk of flooding across most of the UK during Friday night and Saturday.

The forecast will come as grim news to the many thousands of brides who planned their wedding for the August bank holiday weekend thinking they would enjoy bright sunshine and high temperatures.

But a spokesperson for the Met Office said it was not all doom and gloom with warmer weather returning by Monday.

Stranded motorists

He said: "Saturday will be the worst day with thunder storms and wet weather affecting many parts of the country.

"But by Monday it should be dry with sunny intervals as better weather spreads from the South across Britain."

The British weather has once again demonstrated its great talent for deteriorating over a bank holiday weekend.

The AA is expecting up to 40,000 calls

Heavy rain over this year's Easter weekend brought chaos to the country's roads and the skies opened to make the Whitsun weekend wet and miserable too.

The AA has predicted it will be called out to as many as 40,000 stranded motorists over the four-day holiday weekend.

A total of 2,000 patrol officers will be on duty each day to deal with an estimated 15 million holiday-related journeys.

Expected traffic hotspots include the south coast, the west country and the west coast of Wales.

Festivals

Central London is also expected to be extremely busy as two million revellers make their way to the Notting Hill Carnival on Sunday and Monday.

The Reading Music Festival in Berkshire is also expected to attract large crowds and the AA warned people to be patient around these areas.

But more than one million people have decided to take no chances with the British weather and will be flying abroad.

International airports around London are handling up to 1.5 million passengers throughout the weekend with favourite destinations including New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Malaga and Palma.