Weather report: Two weeks of wind and rain to come, say forecasters

A Met Office forecast of bad weather for the next two weeks has dampened hopes of an Indian summer this September.

 

In recent years the UK has often enjoyed unseasonably high temperatures in autumn, but forecasters are predicting that the storms that heralded the start of September may continue for two weeks.

 

Over the last few days, much of the UK has seen torrential rain and winds – and more rain with winds reaching up to 60mph may still be on the way, say forecasters.

 

Yesterday an RAF Tornado Jet flypast was called off because of the recent bad weather. The 1979 Tornado GR4 jet plane was built in Lancashire and has served in Afghanistan and Libya.

 

The Tornado Jet was due to fly over British Aerospace Systems' airfield at Warton, near Preston to mark one million flying hours and as a tribute to engineers who built it.

 

Elsewhere, Southend Pier in Essex had to be closed after it was hit by a barge in heavy winds – and on the south coast off Dorset, the Weymouth RNLI lifeboat was called out to an 120ft sailing boat with 16 crew, which had lost its mast and rigging in high winds.

 

In Blackpool, holidaymakers had to run for shelter when high winds whipped up a sandstorm – and the Hovercraft between the mainland and the Isle of Wight had to be cancelled because of high seas.

 

The Met Office is forecasting temperatures in the low- to mid-teens for the rest of the week, with cloudy and windy conditions.

 

In the south-east, temperatures may edge up to the low twenties, but the chill factor from the wind will make it seem cooler.

 

Even activities requiring wind pressure have suffered from the current conditions – in Bristol on Sunday, attempts to break a world record for the biggest kite in the world had to be cancelled by organisers of Bristol International Kite Festival.

 

A kite the size of a football pitch suffered a tear in its tail and body and was unable to take to the skies for a third time because of the windy conditions.

 

Met Office forecaster Dan Williams said that the UK weather would continue to be unsettled into next week – but added that for the rest of the month the weather might become more regionalised.

 

'There's a clear north west-south east divide," said Mr Williams.

 

He said: "North-western Britain is looking unsettled with showers and even gales. For the south east, we'll see some rain but in general it's going to be drier and more settled with warm sunny spells at times.

 

"We're expecting this divide to continue for the next few weeks.

 

"On Friday, although we are going to maintain quite wet and unsettled conditions, temperatures will be quite warm.

 

"Friday and Saturday in the south-east and south coast we could see temperatures as high as 23C."

 

Meteorologists in the UK are blaming an area of low pressure over Scotland for the current squally weather conditions across the UK.

 

One bonus of this year's unpredictable weather is a bumper year for some fruit crops – warm weather in the Spring followed by a cool, damp summer means that apples, pears and plums are now plentiful in the UK's orchards.

 

However, some weather experts are saying that, in parts of the UK, weather conditions and early berries on the trees mean that the month looks more like November than September.

 

The UK is not the only country to suffer heavy rain and wind – in the US, Tropical Storm Lee led to the postponement yesterday of a match between Britain's Number 1 tennis player Andy Murray and America's Donald Young in the fourth round of the US Open at Flushing Meadows.

 

Even worse weather is predicted, said a spokesman – but officials at the US Open are hoping play will resume this afternoon.