August 'will end with torrential rain'

Britain is going to see a very wet end to August, with more torrential rain and gales sweeping the country, weather experts warned today.

A band of heavy rain is moving across the country, with showers and thunderstorms already breaking out in Wales, north west Scotland and the South West of England.

That rain will move east, with the South East likely to see a very wet end to the day today.

The rain will be "really torrential" in some places, according to one expert, who warned that may be very localised flash flooding in some areas.

There will be more of the same on Wednesday, and although there will be a brief respite on Thursday, with some sunny spells, today's weather is a precursor for an even worse spell later in the week.

There will be heavy rain and high winds, which look set to reach gale force in the west of Scotland at the beginning of the weekend.

The latest bout of bad weather comes towards the end of a month which has seen devastating floods in Cornwall, landslides in Scotland and flash flooding in London.

The bad weather is being caused by low pressure and warm air carrying a great deal of moisture into the atmosphere in the UK.

Hurricanes on the western Atlantic have also been feeding into the weather systems affecting the UK.

The National Farmers' Union yesterday warned that many farmers faced financial ruin as the wet weather threatened to ruin this summer's harvest.

The NFU said that the wet summer had forced many farmers into writing off large quantities of their crops, as torrential rain made harvesting impossible.

Farmers have only collected half their crop this year, and are now under pressure to harvest the rest within the next few weeks or face recultivating their land.