A record two million Britons are fleeing the dreadful August weather by heading abroad this bank holiday weekend.

They left Britain facing an unpredictable mixture of sunshine and showers, with festival-goers swamped by mud as a campsite flooded.

For those seeking to get away for a break in Britain, the holiday traffic jams were already under way this morning as the first of 16.5million drivers took to the road.

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Glorious mud: A music fan wallows at the Leeds Festival after torrential rain flooded the campsite

Holiday jam: Traffic crawls along the A30 near Exeter following a motorbike accident today

Some of those left behind got away from work in time to catch some sunshine, like those who reached Fistral Beach at Torquay in Cornwall yesterday afternoon.

But music fans attending the Leeds Festival had to make the best of a raw deal as rain swamped the campsite.

And there's not much hope the revellers' weekend will improve much as the whole of the North is set for a soaking.

According to weather forecasters, showers are much more likely than in southern regions.

And temperatures are expected to hit 23c (73f) in the Home Counties by Monday compared with 18c (64f) in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The good news is that by the end of next week, the weather will be significantly better in all parts of the country.

Surprise sunshine for early bank holiday visitors at Newquay's Fistral beach, Cornwall, today

A warm front moving in from the South West will bring more settled conditions and warmer temperatures.

The poor weather of past weeks has been the fault of the jet stream positioning itself to the south of the UK instead of to the north. It is now back in its normal spot.

Sarah Holland, a Met Office forecaster, said: ‘Broadly speaking, there is something of a divide between the South and the North and the North is going to be more unsettled.

‘There will be lots of cloud around yet the South will be drier. Looking ahead to next week, central and eastern England will see drier and better weather than of late.

‘Just as people go back to work things are starting to look better and the North will catch up by the end of next week.’

Many Britons have been prompted to head abroad this weekend by recent torrents of rain at home

Miss Holland said it was too early to forecast a late spell of fine weather. ‘September will be more settled, but it’s too early to say if we will see an Indian summer – and even then they technically take place in October,’ she added.

‘All we can say is that things will be more settled than August.’

So far this month, England has had 80.2mm of rain compared with the usual 66.8mm. Northern Ireland is on course for its wettest summer ever with 175.9mm, nearly double the average.

The Environment Agency still has one flood warning in place on the Ritec river in Tenby, Pembrokeshire.

Making a splash: At least Labradoodles Barkley and Lottie can enjoy running around at York Racecourse

It was thought the poor weather would dampen the enthusiasm for the bank holiday getaway.

But last night, the M5 in North Somerset, the M1 in Derbyshire and the M27 in Hampshire were all clogged.

A Highways Agency spokesman said: ‘We had a quiet start on the roads this morning, but it got busy from late morning and many people left work early this afternoon.’

On the trains, Network Rail has a major programme of engineering work planned for the weekend. Significant delays and diversions are expected.

Some 420,000 holidaymakers are expected to fly from Heathrow today, 260,000 from Gatwick and 160,000 from Manchester.