Flood alerts have been issued across the north of England where heavy rain disrupted sporting events and left festivalgoers drenched.
It has been a soggy final day of the Open Championship golf tournament in Hoylake and downpours have blighted the fourth Ashes cricket Test in Manchester on Sunday.
The Bluedot festival in Cheshire had to turn away revellers with day tickets as the damp conditions meant only those already on site could be accommodated.
In Newcastle, the Northern Pride festival also succumbed to the elements and had to end early due to safety concerns, following a rainy march by more than 15,000 LGBTQIA+ people.
A Met Office warning for rain stretched from north Wales, across northern England and up to the border of Scotland, where meteorologists warned of localised flooding.
Fifteen flood alerts were in force north of the Midlands, mostly in north-west England where the rain refused to budge for most of the weekend.
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said “minor surface water flooding impacts” were possible in those areas, but that the overall flood risk for England and Wales was very low for the next five days.
The unseasonal weather was particularly troubling for cricket fans, as it gave Australia the opportunity to clutch a draw from the jaws of defeat in the crucial fourth Test against England at Old Trafford.
The washout would allow Australia to go into the fifth and final Test leading 2-1 in the series, meaning they would retain the Ashes and end England’s hopes of winning the contest for the first time since 2015.
Marco Petagna, a Met Office meteorologist, said: “Certainly localised flooding is quite possible. The rain warning we have out now until midnight certainly suggests the potential for standing water on the roads, so journey times could be impacted, and there could be some disruption for local bus and train services.”
He said more wet and windy weather was due to arrive from the west in the middle of next week, with the outlook staying unsettled and thunderstorms and further flood risk possible.
The forecaster said the UK was on track to have its dullest July on record, with noticeably fewer amounts of sunshine than average over the month.
The downpours were expected to move southwards overnight into Sunday, bringing a wet start to the week in central and southern England.
A mix of sunny spells and sharp showers are forecast for the rest of the week in much of the UK.
