Thunderstorms and Heavy Showers to Dominate UK Weather as Summer Fades
Summer sunshine has been abruptly cut short. Thunder, torrential rain, and even hail have swept across the country, with parts of the UK enduring hours of downpours overnight.
A Met Office yellow warning covered much of southern England on Friday, stretching from London and the South East across to Dorset, Wiltshire, Essex, and Cambridgeshire, as bands of heavy rain and gusty winds pushed through.
Some places saw staggering amounts of rainfall. Heligan Gardens in Cornwall recorded 63mm. Mount Batten in Devon picked up 56mm. Dorset’s Friar Waddon wasn’t far behind on 49.9mm. All within the space of 11 hours.
The official alert expired at midday, but the skies have remained unsettled. Showers, gusts, and bursts of sunshine are set to roll across the UK this weekend, and the bad spell looks far from over.
Dan Stroud, Met Office meteorologist, told The i Paper: “We can expect the current unsettled spell to persist through this weekend and throughout much of next week. There will be sunny spells and showers and much heavier spells of rain.”
Many of us will start the weekend with sunny spells
But don’t put the raincoat away just yet – it will quickly turn wet and windy in the west as a band of rain sweeps in ️️ pic.twitter.com/ccoovfO9as
— Met Office (@metoffice) August 29, 2025
Saturday is tipped to bring the worst of it, with the chance of gales along western coasts. Temperatures will stay cool – from 16°C in northern Scotland to 23°C in East Anglia. Sunday looks slightly calmer, though still damp in places.
And the outlook isn’t exactly cheerful. Stroud added it is “likely to remain unsettled for much of the new month of September.”
While rain lashes some regions, others remain critically dry. Natural Resources Wales has declared a drought in North Wales, joining the south-east of the country, which entered drought status earlier this month.
In England, the Environment Agency issued a flood alert for rivers Cray and Shuttle on the Kent-London border after water levels surged. A stark reminder of how quickly the balance can tip.
Despite the soaking, reservoirs are still struggling. Ardingly Reservoir in West Sussex is only 44% full. Four water companies – Thames Water, Southern Water, South East Water, and Yorkshire Water- continue to enforce hosepipe bans. Experts warn those bans will likely stretch into autumn.
The National Drought Group has confirmed five English regions are officially in drought: Yorkshire, Cumbria and Lancashire, Greater Manchester, the East Midlands, and the West Midlands.
This stormy turn comes off the back of what is set to be the hottest UK summer on record.
The Met Office has already said 2025 is “almost certainly” the warmest summer ever measured, with provisional figures showing an average temperature of 16.13°C up to 25 August. That beats the current record-holder – 2018 – by a clear margin.
Stroud explained: “Provisionally, summer 2025 is running with a mean average temperature of 16.13°C, which is comfortably above the current holder of the warmest summer on record, which is 2018.”
If confirmed on Monday, all of Britain’s top five hottest summers will have happened since the year 2000.
And while hot, this summer has also been exceptionally dry. England just went through its driest spring in more than a century.
The forecast points to more of the same, unsettled skies, sudden showers, fleeting sunshine. No return of the scorching heat.
Mr Stroud summed it up: “It’s looking like an unsettled and changeable month. It is a case of more sunny spells and showers, some on the heavy side.”
So, the uk weather remains a paradox, thunder and flooding for some, drought and restrictions for others. A summer of extremes, and an autumn that shows no sign of calming.
