Chilly Britons light FIRES and pull on woolly socks as temperatures plunge but crowds flock to beach

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Chilly Brits are lighting fires and pulling on their woolly socks this Bank Holiday Monday as the nation prepares for the coldest last August bank holiday in 50 years.

Forecasters are predicting today to be the coldest late August Bank Holiday for 50 years, as temperatures tumble to just 11C (52F).

The chilly spell is in stark contrast to last year’s late August Bank Holiday Monday which was the hottest on record, when the mercury hit 91.8F at Heathrow airport. 

Despite the chilly conditions the sun is still shining brightly which has encouraged many people to leave the warmth of home and hit the beach. 

It brings an end to a rollercoaster month of extreme weather which saw a blistering heatwave, torrential rain and two storms.

The hottest August day in 17 years was recorded only a few weeks ago when temperatures soared to 36.4C (97.3F).

The sharp temperature drop hasn’t gone unnoticed by Brits who were looking forward to their bank holiday as many people took to social media after they were forced to light fires and don warmer clothing. 

Sarah Williams said: ‘It was bloody freezing, I can’t remember an August Bank Holiday so cold – I even lit the fire. Summer is officially over.’ 

Another person tweeted: ‘Waking up and it’s 11 degrees outside? Summer fully got deleted. We didn’t even slowly transition into autumn, it just happened.’

Joe Stephenson posted that the temperature was now far too low to keep wearing his summer wardrobe but that he also wasn’t quite ready to give up on his summer shorts just yet.

‘It’s getting too cold for shorts but I’m far too loyal to them to admit this and make the change so I will continue to wear three layers on top but just shorts on the bottom,’ he said.

Other tweeters were less afraid of giving up their summer wardrobe, with one person saying: ‘It’s gone from too hot to wear a lot to freezing in days. I’ve got my slippers out already to keep my feet warm.

‘Stupid British weather!’ 

Brigid Coady was also not afraid to admit she had dumped her summer outfits in favour of warmer clothing. She said: ‘Ahh August Bank Holiday… broke out the sweaters.’

People are also resorting to turning the heating up and burning fires in an attempt to keep themselves warm this bank holiday.

Emma Cawley asked: ‘Is it awful to want to lift a fire in August??’

While Melanie Chiswell Brooks admitted: ‘I caved. I’ll admit it. Bought logs for the woodburner.’

Helen Crossley posted a picture of her fire already roaring when she tweeted this morning to say: ‘Fire. It’s August right? It was just too chilly.’  

The nippy temperatures haven’t stopped people making the most of their bank holiday weekends though, with photographer Andrew Fusek-Peters, 54, waking up at 4.30am to snap the moment the sun began to emerge in Shropshire.

In a collection of four photos, Fusek-Peters was able to capture the exact moment that sunlight started to rise over Caer Caradoc and its 459-metre summit.

He said: ‘I thought “what the hell is that” because it looked like somebody had a torch shining up on the horizon.

‘It was the weirdest effect I think I’ve ever seen. It turns out they’re called crepuscular rays.

‘It’s a known phenomenon but not really that often seen. It looks like a Photoshop job as it is such a strange effect.

‘The sun is obviously causing those rays to rise up along the horizon.

‘I thought there was something rather beautiful both about that and the fact the heather is in bloom in the foreground.

‘The response I’ve had on social media has been amazing, everybody is saying how utterly beautiful it looks, so I’m really pleased.’   

Despite the plunging temperatures this bank holiday, Alex Burkill, meteorologist at the met Office, said that the variety of hot, cold and windy weather would likely not be reflected in the monthly averages.

‘We’ve not broken any records with how cold it’s got,’ he said.

‘Daytime temperatures (on Sunday) did struggle, but the lowest maximum temperature was 12.5C and the record is 9.1C, so we’re quite far off that.

‘Monday daytime temperatures will struggle again, probably only just about getting into double figures in some places, but i’d be surprised if we broke any records.

‘It has been quite extreme at times, we’ve had some very hot weather and then the two storms towards the end of the month,’ he said.

‘Even this bank holiday has been unseasonably cool, it’s not that often that we get temperatures around freezing in August.

‘(The weather) has brought everything this month and that’s not really going to be captured in the monthly averages.

‘They’re not going to show the extremes that we’ve had.’

Last week, the UK was battered by Storm Francis, which saw gusts of 81mph hit The Needles near the Isle of Wight, just days after Storm Ellen had struck.

The Met said it was ‘unseasonable’ to have two named storms occur in August within such a short period.

‘It’s not that usual for us to get these types of storms in August, in fact it’s the first time we’ve ever had a named storm in August,’ said Mr Burkill.

‘To then have another one week after the other is even more extreme.’

The storms followed a spell of blistering heat, which included a high of 97.3F (36.4C) at Heathrow and Kew Gardens – the hottest August day recorded in 17 years.