Rainy weather is forecast to stick around until the end of August, the Met Office has warned, with another wet and windy week set for London.
The UK is unlikely to reach anywhere near the record-breaking heat felt last July, with downpours further expected to put a damper on the British summer of 2023.
In the capital, cool temperatures remain with scattered showers on Tuesday, before a wet and windy Wednesday and brighter weather into Thursday and Friday.
The maximum temperature for the week in London is expected to be just 23C on Tuesday.
But conditions look set to become drier and sunnier by the end of the month.
Met Office spokesperson Stephen Dixon said: “There are some signals for later in August of an increased chance of some drier spells.
“There’s no strong signals for any kind of prolonged or extended heat that we saw last year but there are some some warmer interludes possible, more likely later in August.”
Last year was the first time the mercury rose above the 40C mark in the UK.
Mr Dixon added that Britain is on the northern side of the Jet Stream, bringing low pressure, instead of the southern side, which has developed heat over southern Europe, where wildfires have destroyed homes and scorched forest land for weeks.
He said: “Typically we are to the south of that jet stream and what that allows, and what it allowed last summer, is for a high pressure to build over the UK, and allows the UK to kind of draw up warmer air from from the south.
“More air was kind of fed in from the equator almost and moved over the UK and so that high pressure, coupled with the time of year it was, allowed that day on day to rise to the UK to that record level of 40.3C that we saw at Coningsby in July.
“We just haven’t been in that weather pattern this summer.
“It’s down to that jet stream and how it how it develops weather towards the UK.
“At the moment, it’s kind of directed towards the UK, which helps to develop these low pressure systems and gives us a bit of a little autumnal-feel for the weather that we’ve seen in recent weeks and yeah, not so much for what we saw last year.”
Temperatures of 40.3C was recorded in Coningsby, Lincolnshire on July 19 last year. The average night and daytime temperature for August last year was 16.6C.
Mr Dixon said the weather will be mainly cloudy with some sun across the UK, aside from southern Scotland and northern England which will have wet and rainy weather and some isolated rainy showers further south as well.
Rain is forecast to increase overnight as windy weather on Wednesday moves towards the east, particularly hitting the southern coast.
Mr Dixon said: “As we head out to the end of the week, that unsettled theme continues, albeit not to the same extent as seen on Wednesday.
“Some drizzly rain around on Thursday and cloud continuing.
“On Friday, the better weather is more likely further west with more frequent showers in the east on Friday and then in the weekend, it looks likely for another low pressure system to influence things from the west again… but another unsettled weekend to come.”
Temperatures are forecasted for between 15 and 20C for the coming week across the UK.
