OVER A MONTH OF RAIN HITS UK IN TWO DAYS WITH FLOOD WARNING IN PLACE
Parts of the UK could see more than a month’s worth of rainfall in just two days, as heavy downpours are expected to continue throughout Friday.
The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for rain covering southern England and south Wales which runs until midnight, following a similar alert on Thursday.
Downpours could lead to some flooding and travel disruption in the worst affected areas, with difficult driving conditions and some road closures expected for parts of the country.
Friday’s showers could take the total amount of rainfall for certain regions to between 50 and 100mm over 48 hours – Okehampton in Devon having seen 44.4mm on Thursday alone.
The average September rainfall for southern England and South Wales is around 60-90mm.
The forecaster said it was likely that further warnings will be issued across the weekend.
Met Office meteorologist Aidan McGivern said: “The outbreaks of rain that we’ve seen arrive through Thursday across the south and south west will essentially keep going during Friday and into the weekend.
“There will be ebbs and flows in the rainfall. There’ll be pulses of heavier rain at times and then lighter rain at times.”
After a relatively calm start to Friday, he said the rain would become “heavier and more persistent through the morning” with the wettest weather likely to the south of the M4.
Clouds are expected to move north in the evening with the rain easing off.
“Depending on where you are in the UK, you’ll experience radically different types of weather,” he said, with plenty of warm sunshine expected under brighter skies for much of the country, except for the North Sea coast which will see plenty of cloud.
The UK is expected to experience a north-south weather divide, with temperatures potentially reaching 27°C in western Scotland on Friday.
The warm weather could extend to parts of Northern Ireland, central and western England and Wales, the Met Office added.
The weekend remains unsettled for large parts of England, but will start mainly dry before cloud and outbreaks of rain return to the south with showers further north.
It will be cooler on Sunday into Monday with further outbreaks of rain reported.
The Environment Agency introduced six flood alerts, where flooding is considered possible, in England on Thursday including three in Devon and on the River Thames between Putney Bridge and Teddington Weir.
The agency said while surface water flooding is “possible and not expected” across the warning area on Friday, inland flooding remains possible until Monday.
No warnings have been issued by Natural Resources Wales.
2024-09-06T08:47:48Z dg43tfdfdgfd