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© National NewsRain-lashed: Commuters cross London Bridge on Friday
After days of heavy rain, a band of low pressure will hit the UK on Sunday and bring cooler weather for much of next week, according to forecasters. The sweltering summer is about to become a distant memory with a dramatic plunge in temperatures.

The Met Office is expecting unsettled windy conditions, with a mix of sunshine and showers, and possibly even snow on higher ground in Scotland. Spokeswoman Nicky Maxey said today:"It's getting cooler, definitely. It's the end of the summer - autumn starts on September 1. We have some colder northerly winds coming in and temperatures will drop next week. We're looking at average or below average temperatures and the night-time low could be down to single figures."

Sun-lovers should make the most of today when the top temperature in southern areas will reach 22C. That is due to drop to 19C by Tuesday. Further north, in Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle, the mercury should hit 17C today and tomorrow but it will slip to a chilly 14C by Tuesday. Leon Brown, meteorologist at The Weather Channel UK, said: "Next week temperatures will be four to five degrees below normal over the North and three below normal in the South." Veteran former BBC forecaster Michael Fish added: "It could well get cool enough around that middle part of the week for some of those showers to fall as snow on the mountains. Makes you shiver doesn't it? Winter's not very far away."

But there was some good news as the outlook for the August Bank Holiday weekend is cheerier, with fine and dry conditions expected in many areas. It also emerged yesterday that the UK was lashed by almost an entire month's ­rainfall in the first 13 days of August.
Figures from the Met Office showed 86.1mm - 3.38in - of rain fell as the tail-end of Hurricane Bertha swept across the country.