The UK's Olympic weather is set to take its leave along with the remaining athletes, as unsettled conditions surround a band of heavy rain moving in from the Atlantic.
Warm temperatures will continue, however, and there is the prospect of a finer and more settled spell returning in time for the Paralympics, which start on 29 August.
Inured to a summer barely deserving of the name, thousands of fetes and festivals should overcome the worst of the weather, thanks to the UK's famously changeable meteorology. Even the worst day on this week's forecast, Wednesday, offers almost everything from sunny spells to gales and heavy rain.
The Meteorological Office has flagged up a yellow – or "be aware" – alert for a large lozenge on its UK map, stretching north in a largely straight line from the Devon-Dorset border to the Lake District. Everywhere to the west of this should be prepared for heavy rain and – especially in the south-west – gales, which could cause damage. Yellow is the third most serious of the Met Office's four weather warnings.
Thunderstorms will continue for the remainder of the week, in familiar summer fashion, with dramatic spectacles of largely sheet lightning in their wake. The forecast to the weekend says: "Remaining windy on Thursday, with sunshine and showers. Less windy, but further occasionally heavy rain likely on both Friday and Saturday. Generally humid, especially in the south-east. Warm nights continuing."
The Met Office said of the longer term: "As we move towards the end of August, it looks like remaining unsettled in all areas, but with some short-lived drier and brighter periods. Daytime temperatures by this stage largely around average or a little below, with the best chance of occasional above-average temperatures in the south-east."
Bad weather in the Cairngorms in Scotland led to a helicopter operation on Ben Macdui, a peak second only in the UK to Ben Nevis at 1,309 metres (4,295ft), when 14 hillwalkers were guided to safety by mountain rescue teams from Aberdeen and Braemar and officers from Grampian police. The aircraft was despatched from HMS Gannet shore base at Prestwick in a supporting role.
The last-known cuckoo in the UK has left for the Mediterranean in another small sign that autumn is drawing closer. The bird, christened Idemili by the London family who found her with a broken wing, has not had to make the journey under its own steam.
British Airways took the bird on a flight to Italy after liaising with the British Trust for Ornithology, whose spokesman said: "She had been attacked by other birds, probably due to her weakness because of ill health, and she sustained wounds to one of her wings and a badly pecked head.
"She is the last to leave England – her fellow cuckoos have all moved to warmer climates in the Mediterranean on their way to Africa, most of them in July."
Idemili is the river goddess of the Igbo religion in Nigeria, the ultimate wintering point of many UK cuckoos. Her journey – under her own wing power from Italy onwards – can be tracked on the BTO's website.