UK weather forecast: Floods to disrupt roads as torrential rain sweeps across England

Up to 90mm of rain to fall Sunday, accompanied by hailstones and gusty winds

Flooded roads and railways are causing travel after torrential rain across southern England on Saturday — and forecasters warn up to 90mm of rain could fall again on Sunday.

24.1mm of rain fell within just one hour in Canterbury, Kent, yesterday. The town of Writtle in Essex received the most amount of rain, at 53.1mm by the end of the day.

Greater Anglia trains said flooding on the railway and debris had delayed and cancelled trains between Colchester, also in Essex, and Marks Tey station for several hours.

Elsewhere, Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service were called to rescue two people and a dog in Bishop’s Stortford after the car they were in became stuck in floodwater.

Low cloud and foggy conditions also caused the cancellation of three commemorative flypasts by the Red Arrows on Saturday.

The RAF display team had planned to fly over London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast to commemorate 75 years since VJ Day, but bad weather across England and Scotland meant the flypast was only able to take place in Belfast.

Meteorologist Matthew Box said Sunday is likely to bring large hail and gusty winds as well as rainfall of up to 90mm in places hit by multiple thunderstorms.

“We’re going to see essentially some pulses of potentially thundery showers pushing their way up from the channel through the course of the morning affecting southern counties,” he said.

“In the afternoon we’ll see some home-grown showers develop across the southern half of England and then they’re all going to drift gradually northward.”

The Environment Agency has issued one red flood warning in Loughborough, where rising levels at the River Soar could lead to flooding of the A6 and business properties around Belton Road.

Five less-serious flood alerts have also been issued for areas in the West Midlands, including in Birmingham, Warwickshire and south Staffordshire.

The Met Office’s yellow thunderstorm warnings remain in place across most of England and all of Wales until Monday night.