UK weather: First day of meteorological autumn brings warmer temperatures after chilly August bank holiday

But Met Office eyes weather warning for Wednesday as winds and rain bring potential for disruption

The first day of meteorological autumn is set to bring slightly warmer weather across the UK, after the mercury failed to hit 20C at any point during the August bank holiday weekend.

Cool, crisp and misty conditions will bring an autumnal start to the morning, in a theme likely to define early September, with temperatures quickly rising to a more comfortable level as the day progresses.

Despite a band of patchy rain moving eastwards across Northern Ireland and Scotland on Tuesday, conditions will be mostly dry elsewhere with warm sunny spells bringing temperatures in the high teens and low twenties across much of the country.

However, a weather front approaching from the west will see winds start to pick up in the evening, with a bout of significantly wet and windy weather establishing itself on Wednesday.

The Met Office has not yet put out a weather warning, but meteorologists said they will be monitoring the rains closely and fear they could cause disruption, citing possible trouble for drivers on Wednesday.

“It’s nothing too remarkable, but it could cause some problems on the roads, it could lead to some potential for disruption, that’s why we’re just keeping an eye on it for a warning,” said Met Office forecaster Emma Salter, cautioning that there may also be some gales along exposed coastlines.

“It won’t reach the far south east until later and when it does it will start to break up and ease, so really the southeast quadrant is getting away with a pretty decent day on Wednesday,” she added.

By Thursday, conditions are set to improve significantly, with drier and brighter weather forecast.

While the weekend will be a “mixed bag”, according to Ms Salter, with sunny conditions “one minute, possibly a shower the next”, there will be “a lot of fine and dry weather around, and those showers will be fairly few and far between”.

“But it does look like as we move into next week that we do get an area of high pressure starting to become established,” Ms Salter said. ”What that means is we’ll have fairly light winds and a lot of dry weather around, so something a little bit drier and brighter for next week to end the story on a nice little glimmer of hope.”

Meanwhile, the Met Office has released the list of storm names for the coming year, in collaboration with Met Eireann and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.

Aiden, Bella, Christoph and Darcy will be the first named storms to hit the UK in the coming months, chosen from suggestions from the public which reflect the diversity of the three nations.