Summer deluge cancels faculty sports activities days, live shows, and flights in UK

Schools have been forced to cancel their sports days and fetes today as Britain continues to get soaked in a summer deluge. 

Some disappointed parents say ‘there’s no point arranging it anymore’ as parts of the country prepare to be hit with a month’s worth of rain tonight. 

Deanery CofE Primary in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, called off its sports day as the downpours caused the multi-use games area to become waterlogged and ‘too dangerous’ to compete on.  

In Cambridge people sheltered under umbrellas and braved the downpours to go on the city’s famous punting tours along the River Cam. 

While in Wales the unseasonable weather triggered a rare phenomenon as four giant waterspouts formed off the coast in Gwynedd. 

The ‘terrible’ weather has also been blamed by the All England Club’s chief executive Sally Bolton for a drop in the number of tennis fans heading to Wimbledon this year. 

Singer Hozier meanwhile has cancelled his gig tonight at the Chepstow Summer Sessions just hours before he was due to perform as heavy rain caused the arena and car parks to flood.

Planes are struggling to get off the ground too as torrential rain and storms across the Atlantic cancelled flights last night forcing fed-up passengers to sleep on uncomfortable plastic chairs at Heathrow.

The Wimbledon courts were sheltered from being drenched in a month’s worth of rain in its first week that saw more people decide to stay away and instead watch the tournament from the comfort of their homes. 

A total of 282,955 fans passed through the gates at SW19 in the first week – almost 4 per cent fewer than last year’s total of 293,681 during the same period. 

Bolton bemoaned the weather for the drop-off in numbers as she said: ‘The weather has been so terrible that perseverance in the queue has been even greater this year than it ordinarily is.

‘We’re never about maximising our attendances, we’re all about protecting the queue and making sure that we have still got that accessibility, accepting that as a result of that was some variability on the numbers that we will end up achieving.’

Low pressure fronts are sweeping across the country from the south, pushing the rain that has plagued southern and central parts of England and Wales in recent days to the north.

A yellow weather warning for rain has been issued for swathes of northern Scotland, running from 10pm today until the end of Wednesday.

Up to 90mm of rain is expected to fall in that time; the average UK rainfall for July is 82.48mm. 

The alert covers the Highlands as far west as Ullapool, Wick to the north, Peterhead to the east and Arbroath to the south.

For those further south there is better news: clear spots will follow across central England and Wales – cloudy rather than sunny.

But there are heavier showers later today, particularly across London and east Anglia – bad news for the Wimbledon crowds.

Flood alerts are in place across parts of Devon, which is set to be hit heaviest by the downpours this morning, as well as along the Coln, Upper Loddon, Lower Colne, Frays and Thame rivers in the south, and tributaries in Leicester.

Temperatures will peak at a very unseasonal 21C in central England, as little as 18C in the North, and just 16C in Scotland. 

Alex Burkill, meteorologist with the Met Office, said today would be a ‘rather soggy’ Tuesday.

‘There’s going to be rain across many parts because of a weather system that has pushed in overnight…it’s a wet start across the southern half of the UK,’ he said.

‘Some bright and sunny spells will develop but those temperatures will be a little bit below average elsewhere. It’s going to be quite cool for the time of year.

‘It is going to be especially wet across northern parts of Scotland here, totals really building up…we could see in excess of 90mm.’

Britain’s summer has been unexpectedly wet to date – with cooler temperatures than normal and wet weather far more frequent than expected for this time of year thanks to the jet stream lingering on Britain’s shores.

Hopes of a return to more seasonally appropriate weather have been dashed for the week – with some sunny spells to come on Wednesday but temperatures barely hitting 20C from now until Sunday.

Stormy weather in recent days has caused chaos for holidaymakers – with travellers hoping to fly from London’s Heathrow Airport forced to sleep in the terminal overnight due to catastrophic conditions over the Atlantic.

Two British Airways planes were struck by lighting at the weekend – forcing the airline to withdraw both jets for safety checks.

And the recent unsummery conditions are thought to have hit attendance figures at Wimbledon.

Attendance on a particularly soggy Friday last week was the lowest for day five of the Grand Slam tournament in 25 years.

High street retailers are thought to have suffered too – with no rush to grab the usual clothing associated with this time of year because there has been no good weather in which to wear it.

June’s poor weather saw consumer spending slump as shoppers gave up on their gardens and DIY and bought new televisions to watch the Euros instead.

Total retail sales across the UK were down by 0.2% on last June according to the BRC (British Retail Consortium)-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor.

Separate figures from Barclays show consumer card spending fell by 0.6% year on year in June – the first decline since February 2021 – as the colder weather early in the month hampered spending at clothing stores, pubs and garden centres.

Karen Johnson, head of retail at Barclays, said: ‘The dreariness didn’t dampen spending across the board, with takeaways, digital content and entertainment all benefiting from people sheltering at home.

‘Hopefully we’ll see sustained interest in the Euros – regardless of England’s fate – and sunnier weather driving people to their local in July.’