Is Hurricane Bertha going to hit the UK? Nobody really knows

Earlier this week, meteorologists warned that 'Hurricane Bertha' (see below) was making its way across the Atlantic and was headed for the UK

Cue hyperbole. Even the, usually understated (ahem), Daily Express was drawn into a fit of hysteria:

The Express was so excited that it even dragged out former weatherman Nathan Rao to write the story, despite him leaving the paper last week.

But they weren't the only ones; our sister title the Independent went for the headline: Hurricane Bertha threatens to ruin the British summer. Along with most of the other nationals.

Yesterday afternoon, the frenzy briefly abated as the Met Office said it was "increasingly likely that the UK will miss any serious impacts" of the storm.

Headlines were updated to reflect the fact that France was more likely to take the brunt of the storm and Britain may well escape scot free.

But alas, as of Thursday afternoon, the Met Office updated its website with a renewed weather warning for large swathes of the south and west of the British Isles.

They believe there is a 60 per cent chance Britain will receive the tail end of the storm.

The Met Office, however, did offer this disclaimer:

At this stage there is more than average uncertainty in the forecast...

This is a particularly volatile situation, and this warning is likely to be changed as the event approaches.

So, basically the weather forecasters are feeling a bit like this:

And so are we.

As an aside, it should also be pointed out that the storm is, in fact, not a hurricane - Bertha did exhibit some hurricane force winds (that is, over 75mph) when it was in the Caribbean but it has now been downgraded.

Although, admittedly, 'mid-latitude storm Bertha' just doesn't sound quite so sassy.