UK weather: ‘Danger to life’ warning as days of heavy rain to cause major flooding

Storms forecast to bring travel disruption and damage housing

The Met Office has issued thunderstorm warnings for later this week, cautioning flooding could pose a potential “danger to life”.

Heavy rain and storms are expected to lash parts of the UK on Thursday and Friday. While the Met Office’s yellow warning for Wednesday only covers the east coast of Scotland, the alert for Thursday is more widespread and covers Scotland and the north of England.

Heavy showers are forecast to cause travel disruption and flooding, which could close roads and damage houses. “There is a small chance of fast-flowing or deep floodwater causing danger to life,” the Met Office warning said.

Bonnie Diamond, a meteorologist at the Met Office, told The Independent: “The Wednesday warning comes into force at midday, so there is a chance along the east coast of Scotland that thundery showers could be triggered and in that case, although some places could avoid the heavy showers, there is the potential for 15-25mm of rain in one hour and 30-40mm in two to three hours.

“On Thursday it’s more of a widespread warning, covering much of Scotland and northern England. There is a risk of heavy showers and thunderstorms developing. We could be seeing 20-30mm of rain in an hour and up to 40-50mm in two to three hours. Where they do occur, there could be some heavy downpours and risk of flooding and lightning.”

However, the weather is predicted to become drier and more settled over the weekend.

“It’s a bit of a north-south split across the UK tomorrow,” Ms Diamond said, “with dryer and more settled weather and sunny spells across the south, whereas in Northern Ireland and Scotland it will be pretty cloudy and wet today and tomorrow at times. On Wednesday, there’s a thunderstorm warning out, and showers also in parts of western Scotland and Northern Ireland. Further south, though, in Wales and England it’s a mostly dry day with sunny spells.

“On Thursday, there’s a thunderstorm warning out for large parts of eastern UK, but for a lot of places that don’t see any heavy showers Thursday will be dry with sunny spells with the exception of Wales, where there will be cloud and patchy rain.”