Bank holiday brightens up

A disappointing bank holiday in line for sun-seekers

Despite a wet beginning in many areas, weather watchers say the August bank holiday may not be a complete wash-out.

Predicted thundery showers and heavy downpours affected some parts of the UK during Friday evening and Saturday, but many were not as bad as expected and did not result in flooding.

A Met Office spokesman said: "There were quite a lot of spectacular thunderstorms overnight but they had more bite than substance, as there was not much in the way of rain."

Some scattered thunderstorms were lingering over northern, central and eastern parts of the country on Saturday, causing a delay in the cricket at Lord's.

While localised downpours are expected for the rest of Saturday, Sunday and Monday seem likely to be brighter, although still unsettled.

"Most of the thunderstorms should edge away in the course of the day, and tomorrow should be brighter with some sunshine but scattered showers, heavy in some localised areas."

Stranded motorists

Few people will have been very surprised by poor weather in the UK 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.