An area of low pressure tracked across Scotland during Sunday night and through Monday, although weather fronts associated with this depression gave a very wet Monday across large parts of England and Wales. During the early hours, a warm front crossed slowly from Wales into the Midlands, although rainfall amounts associated with this were generally small. However, as the following cold front arrived in west Wales and south-west England after midnight, it become very active indeed, giving some heavy bursts of rain.

Between the hours of 00:00 and 12:00, rain fell heavily across most of Wales and south-west England, as well as parts of north-west England and the Midlands. 12-hourly rainfall totals for these areas included 16mm at Milford Haven in south-west Wales, 15mm in Rhyl on the north coast of Wales, and also 16mm at Coleshill in the West Midlands. However, during the early part of the afternoon, the cold front crossed into eastern England, East Anglia and south-east England, giving even higher rainfall totals here. Skies further west brightened markedly, with a sunny afternoon following.

By the end of Monday afternoon, it was becoming clear that significant rainfall totals were recorded across much of England and Wales. Topping the list of wettest places were Chivenor in north Devon, and Kenley in south-east London, both recording 24mm of rain. It's worth bearing in mind however, that these locations did not see rain fall steadily over the 24hr recording period. In fact, such was the nature of the frontal structure, much of this rainfall fell in very short periods of time, perhaps just an hour or so in some places. Typically, the wettest places today saw up to a quarter of the average rainfall one would expect for the month of August in England and Wales, and in some cases slightly more.

With another deep depression set to drive its weather fronts across the UK on Wednesday, it looks like the summer water shortages could well be coming to an abrupt end!