National Severe Weather Warning

The Met Office has issued National Severe Weather Warnings for thunderstorms across large parts of the UK on Tuesday and Wednesday, where heavy and slow-moving downpours could lead to flooding and disruption in places, and then for rain in the south on Thursday.

Heavy rain and thunderstorms

Met Office Chief Meteorologist Neil Armstrong said, “Although some places will miss these heavy showers and thunderstorms, where they do occur they’ll be quite lively bringing torrential downpours with 25 to 35mm rain falling in an hour and a few places seeing perhaps 40 to 50mm rain in a couple of hours.

“With this heavy rain falling in a short time we could see some disruption to transport or damage to properties due to localised flooding, as well as the chance of lightning and hail.”

Upcoming forecast

Away from the heavy showers and thunderstorms there will be some bright spells this week and it’ll feel warm in the sunshine, with temperatures into the low 20’s Celsius for many.  However eastern areas of the UK will often be cooler and cloudier, especially coastal parts of eastern Scotland and east England.

Weekend forecast

Looking ahead to the weekend, Deputy Chief Meteorologist Martin Young said, “As winds swing to the southwest over the weekend it’ll turn fresher and breezier and east coastal areas should lose the low cloud and mist, feeling warmer here as a result.  On Saturday we’ll see a spell of rain moving across the UK from the west, but most can expect a drier day on Sunday.”

Further ahead

Commenting on next week’s weather, Martin continued: “There are signs of a spell of warm and settled weather across southern parts of the UK next, with temperatures quite widely reaching mid-20s Celsius.  It’ll be unsettled across north-western areas with temperatures closer to average.”

Stay connected

You can check the latest weather warnings on our severe weather warnings pages and you can get the most accurate and up to date forecast for your area using our forecast pages and by following us on Twitter and Facebook, as well as using our mobile app which is available for iPhone from the App store and for Android from the Google Play store.

Government guidelines

Whatever the weather, we are all being urged to remember the Government Coronavirus guidelines.