Quote: Britain's woeful summer that never was will come to an end with thunderstorms and heavy rain, the Met Office has warned.
Forecasters have issued severe weather warnings for most of Britain tomorrow - only Scotland and the north east of England might escape the torrential downpours, it predicted.
Some summer sunshine will make a rare appearance today and Britain is expected to enjoy a short spell of warmer weather, with temperatures peaking at 81F (27C) in the south and east of England.
But Sunday will see a return to the unsettled, wet conditions that have made this August one of the wettest and dullest on record.
Dave Elliott, a forecaster with the Met Office, said: "There could be half a month's worth of rainfall in a couple of hours."
The poor summer weather has been largely due to the position of the jet stream this year - the ribbon of fast moving air in the atmosphere which brings in weather systems from the Atlantic.
This is in a more southerly position than usual, putting Britain in the firing line for weather fronts which usually come in over northern Scotland and Iceland.
The UK has had just 96.3 hours of sunshine in the in the first 26 days of the month, 40 per cent below the August average of 165.1 hours.
Figures from the Met Office show that this August was the UK's seventh wettest since records began in 1914. There was an average 12.5in (317.7mm) of rain fall between June 1 and August 26. in Northern Ireland, it was the second wettest August ever, with 15.5in (392.7mm) of rain.
The Met Office said the return to unsettled weather coincided with the end of the meteorological summer, the last day of August.
It said Monday would see a return to clear skies and some sunshine.
Topic: Weather forcast for Sept?
