Storms, heavy rain continue to batter Britain

LONDON: Heavy downpours have washed across vast swathes of the UK, with more rain and thundery showers poised to batter Britain.

Yellow warnings for rain and wind came into force across nearly all of the UK on Friday as unseasonable weather caused widespread disruption. The Met Office said the band of heavy rain that had pushed across the country would be followed by heavy showers or thunderstorms.

Meteorologist Bonnie Diamond said: “There has been a lot of rain over the last 24 hours with more heavy showers to come on the way today and tomorrow. So we will certainly see an impact in terms of localised flooding, difficult driving conditions and transport delays.” Diamond said that between 9pm on Thursday and 9am on Friday, Antrim in Northern Ireland had seen 39mm of rainfall — the largest amount in the 12-hour period — with the country’s August average just 97.4mm.

This was closely followed by Shap in Cumbria, which recorded 38.6mm — more than half of England’s August 69mm average — with Gwent in Wales clocking 34.8mm — a third of the country’s 107mm August rainfall average.

Amid the heavy rain and the threat of flooding, the Environment Agency (EA) advised people to “stay away from swollen rivers” and not to drive through flood water as “just 30cm of flowing water is enough to move your car”.

Strong winds were also expected to cause disruption until midnight on Saturday, with the Met Office warning stretching across west Wales, Devon and Cornwall, to parts of the Channel coast.

A second wind warning will then come into force on Saturday covering the whole of Wales and southern and central England as far north as Blackpool, Huddersfield and Grimsby.The threat of slow-moving, heavy thundery showers — which could cause torrential downpours — have also prompted a yellow thunderstorm warning.

Diamond said the rainfall is “pretty unseasonable for August” and along with the thunderstorms and predicted blustery conditions — with potential gusts of 60mph — the weather might “catch some people out”.