It has been a gloomy start to the summer holidays with cloud, rain and wind forecast for Oxfordshire on a weekend when a major music festival is taking place. 

The Met Office said some areas will see “heavy and persistent” rain on Saturday. 

This comes as festival goers have headed to Steventon near Didcot to enjoy Truck Festival- now in its 26th year. 

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Rain in 2017 saw much of the Hill Farm site turn into a mud bath. 

The entire first two weeks of the holidays are set to be a washout across the UK, but there are signals that indicate during the second week of August the weather could start to become more settled.

The UK is seeing poor weather due to the position of the jet stream – which is also pushing high pressure to the south where parts of Europe are seeing a heatwave.

Herald Series: A wet and muddy Truck Festival A wet and muddy Truck Festival

Rachel Ayers, meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “At the moment it’s divided, we sit on the cold side of the jet to the north of it, we’ve got low pressure coming.

“It can stay like this for quite a while as it has been for the last few weeks.

“It’s hard to say when it will all break down, it’s not looking like anything will soon.

“The heatwave is starting to ease a little in parts of Europe, but now the focus is moving to Italy and Greece away from Spain.”

She added: “Looking at a longer range, it will be cool and changeable, into the second week of August it could be a little more settled.

“But it doesn’t mean we’re not going to see any settled interludes in the meantime, on Tuesday we’ve got a nudge of high pressure which means showers will be less heavy and more isolated, so it’ll bring a more settled day.

“The overall picture for the next couple of weeks is mostly damp and no prolonged spells of settled weather or above average temperatures.”

The temperature will be changeable but likely below average over the coming weeks, the forecaster added.