Low chance tornado could hit UK as rain forecast for bank holiday weekend

There is a low chance of a small tornado on Wednesday as the UK faces a wet and windy bank holiday weekend.

Forecasters say the chance of a tornado or isolated funnel cloud is extremely low and no warning has been issued by the Met Office.

The country will see a change to wetter conditions on Wednesday with scattered heavy downpours and thunderstorms affecting affecting parts of the Midlands and southern England.

The unsettled weather is set to continue on Saturday with spells of rain, turning heavy rain in the north and west, and into Sunday with wind in the north-west and showers in the west.

Downpours and thunderstorms are not unusual for UK weather in spring, and the risk of any particular place seeing a tornado on Wednesday is extremely low. No tornadoes have been reported so far.

A Met Office spokesperson said: "Funnel clouds and small scale tornadoes are possible in the UK in the sort of weather set up we have at the moment, with an unstable atmosphere and warm surface temperatures from the prolonged dry spell and strong sunshine.

"Any tornado would only be small scale and there is no warning.

"The risk is now diminishing as temperatures cool into the evening."

Areas around Brighton and Hove have seen the worst rain so far, with around 0.3in (8mm) of rainfall recorded in Plumpton, East Sussex.

The showers and thunderstorms should quickly die out during the evening.

Northern parts of the UK have been largely sunny, with the wet weather affecting the south.

Thursday is set to be a drier day with few showers across parts of the South West, and Friday is expected to mostly fine.

On Saturday it will be a cloudy start for most. The best of any sunshine is likely to be in the south-east of England. There will be some patchy rain at times in the west, with the heaviest bursts and strongest winds across north-west Scotland. Temperatures will range between 17–20C.

Sunday is likely to be the better day of the weekend. A mixture of sunshine and showers, mostly in the north and west, with gusts exceeding 45mph. It will feel cooler in the showers, with highs of 14-17C, but further south and east it will be a little warmer, potentially reaching 22C.

Then for bank holiday Monday, with low pressure still anchored to the north of the UK, the showery theme continues. Expect a blustery day of sunshine and showers, and some of these could be heavy and thundery.

This spring is currently the driest spring in over a century but there are still a couple of weeks of May to go.

May has been a pretty dry month so far - many sites have seen below 20% of the average rainfall.

As of last Friday, 3.2in (80.6mm) of rain had been recorded for the UK this spring.

Some areas of the UK have gone three weeks with no measurable rain, leading to the Environment Agency warning of a 'medium' risk of drought without significant rainfall.

Many of the UK's rivers also hit exceptionally low levels in May.

Dry and sunny weather has also led to a larger area of the UK burned by wildfires this year compared with any other entire year.

The high pressure which has been in charge so far during May, bringing us that warm and sunny weather, is on the move - with everything set to change this weekend as low pressure moves in from the Atlantic, bringing a spell of much-needed rain.

The late May bank holiday doesn't have the best track record for sunshine.

Over the past two decades, just seven out of 20 have been dry or mostly dry across the UK.

The other 13 were marked by rain or cooler, unsettled conditions - and this year looks likely to follow that well-worn path.

Do not expect any significant change in the weather pattern as we move into the following week.

The outlook remains changeable, with sunshine, showers and blustery winds continuing into early June. Keep an eye on the forecast for your area – check BBC Weather online or our BBC Weather app.