Heavy rain and thunderstorms are battering Britain with torrential downpours marking a decidedly wet start to August. The Met Office has issued three weather warnings for this weekend covering swathes of the north of England, along with parts of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The first of the three alerts in place today warns of the potential for flooding and disruption in a few places, and is in place for the north of England until 9pm tonight.
The warning reads: “Spells of heavy rain early on Sunday will be replaced by some heavy showers and thunderstorms from late morning.
“Some places will miss these, but where they do occur, 15-20 mm rain could fall in less than an hour with 30-40 mm falling in 2-3 hours in a few places.
“Lightning strikes will be an additional hazard, mainly during the afternoon. These showers and thunderstorms will then slowly fade during Sunday evening.”
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Northern Ireland also falls under a yellow weather warning, which is in place until 9pm tonight.
While Scotland is faring a little worse off, with the alert not due to expire until 11.59pm tonight.
The Met Office said: “Heavy rain is expected to develop in some areas overnight, Sunday then expected to bring further slow-moving heavy, thundery downpours.
“Some places will miss these, but where they do occur, 20 to 30mm rain may fall in a short space of time with 50 to 80mm building up over several hours in a few places.
“Many of the showers and thunderstorms will ease on Sunday evening but there is a small risk of heavy rain persisting into Sunday night in a few places.”
Across the rest of Britain, Monday will spell another day of sunshine and showers, “some of which will be heavy with thunder and hail in places”.
The Met Office forecast adds that later into the week, conditions will start to look “less unsettled with showers gradually dying away to leave sunny spells.
“Further rain, and locally strong winds, arriving later Wednesday from the west, moving east and southeast. Rather warm.”
While BBC Weather forecast says: “A brief ridge of high pressure early in the week will bring the best chances for some widespread dry weather, but another deep Atlantic low pressure system is set to push in around midweek. Temperatures are expected to be mostly near or below normal.”
With what’s been a rather damp and dreary start to the month, many of us are looking to the end of August in the hope of finding some sunny spells to look forward to.
However, it’s not looking hopeful. The BBC Weather monthly outlook suggests it will be “staying wetter, cooler than normal for August”.
The forecast says: “As we make our way into the second half of August (and the final few weeks of meteorological summer), low pressure is likely to be a major player in the weather pattern for northern Europe.
“This will continue our cooler, wetter weather of late, and it is looking increasingly likely that this will be around for much of the week.
“High pressure is expected to try and build in from the southwest, but the most recent model guidance is favouring a delay in the arrival of some drier weather.