BRITAIN was told to expect torrential rain, flash flooding and raging thunderstorms at the weekend but the extreme weather was more like a damp squib.

While nobody would have suggested Worcester enjoyed a summery June weekend, some may be left wondering where all those nationally-predicted thunder clouds went.

The Met Office issued a severe weather warning on Friday for rain for southern England, the Midlands and most of Wales while Severn Trent warned of flash flooding.

Though it failed to materialise events across the county were still faced with the prospect of cancelling last minute or experienced lower numbers at the gates.

Saturday was a particularly grey and wet day in the county with Ian Michealwaite, from Pershore-based netweather.tv, saying temperatures in Worcester reached about 18C with one local weather station recording 8mm of rain.

Mr Michaelwaite said: "The main thing the thunderstorms lost was the energy and the heat is what gives it energy.

"There were periods of heavy rain across the country.

"In Worcester, Saturday was a pretty wet day but, compared to what it could have been, it was dark and miserable rather than the spectacular torrents of rain and storms we expected.

"And they were expected by everyone."

Defford Air Day was due to take place on Saturday but was cancelled the day before due to the weather forecast while many summer fairs were thrown into jeopardy by the weather warnings.

Tickets sales were also hit at Three Counties Agricultural Show on Saturday despite advance sales being up by 30 per cent.

Ken Nottage, chief executive of the Three Counties Agricultural Society, said they had been slightly handicapped by predictions of heavy storms.

"In the event these didn’t happen and, although there was drizzle during the day, it was no means bad weather, but by then people had made their minds up.

"Still the sun came out on Sunday and allowed us to hopefully make up ground.”

There is better news for people holding events this week with Mr Michaelwaite saying there had been no rain predicted.

Temperatures are expected to remain between 19C to 21C with Thursday being a particularly warm day with temperatures potentially reaching 23C.

"It's not looking like a bad week and we can expect pretty much what we have had today (Monday) but a little bit better.

"It would have felt fresh this morning but it has been topping out at 18C.

"There's going to be plenty of bright spells, about 19C to 21C but crucially no rain predicted at the moment.

"Without the light breeze it should feel like the mid-20Cs.

"Thursday is probably going to be the best day with less cloud and should reach 22C/23C."

He said it was too early to predict the weekend's weather but said the outlook was currently not too bad.

"Saturday is looking better than Sunday but there is currently no rain."

However, it was not all good news with the warm weather bringing with it high pollen levels.

"The only downside is there is some really high pollen levels predicted.

"The grass pollen is very high."