UK weather: Britain faces rain and thunder before sunny spells over weekend

Met Office issues yellow warning for rain in southwest England and Wales

Britain faces unsettled and showery weather on Wednesday, with thundery weather expected in some areas.

Most of the UK will see a mixture of cloud, sunny spells and showers, along with longer spells of rain.

The Met Office said the heaviest showers will be seen over western Scotland, Wales and parts of the Midlands, and issued a yellow weather warning for heavy rain over parts of Wales, Devon and Cornwall.

The warning says there is a small chance of fast flowing or deep floodwater and cautions that communities could be cut off by flooded roads.

“We’re certainly seeing a change in our weather,” Met Office spokesperson Nicola Maxey told The Independent.

She said: “There’s changeable conditions so more unsettled weather over the coming days with rain and showers.

“Northern Ireland and Scotland are staying reasonably dry through tomorrow but we’re looking at some widespread heavy rain developing this evening in south Wales and southwest England.

“Tomorrow evening the heavy rain is more over northeast England. So we’ll see some persistent rain in northeast England tomorrow evening.”

A low pressure system to the south of the UK will bring rain, she said.

Wednesday will see “the winds pick up, so mainly cloudy and showery for much of the country and then [Wednesday night] that heavy rain for south Wales of the southwest and then [on Thursday] there’s a mix of cloud and sunny spells, with some showers around for many people but tomorrow evening we’ve got that heavy rain again in the northeast.

“There’s also showers [on Thursday] for the southern half of the UK, there’s the chance that we could see some thunder.”

The rest of the week will likely be mixed, with dry weather for Scotland, Northern Ireland and northwest England predicted on Thursday, as well as sunshine over the western parts of the UK.

However, more unsettled weather is also predicted, with some showers and windy weather, especially over the south.

“We’ve still got the potential for heavy rain and the risk of some thunderstorms developing for Friday,” Ms Maxey said.

“Saturday is still a chance of seeing some scattered heavy showers. We’ve got this low pressure system to the south of the UK which is bringing these spells of rain and showers and also a front that moves into the east side of the country as well on Thursday night into Friday.”

“So it is quite a changeable few days.”

The weekend is forecast to see some sunny spells but most areas will also see rain or showers, which the Met Office said could be thundery.

A brisk easterly wind will likely ease later in the weekend, resulting in generally warm weather, asides from on the North Sea coast.

Ms Maxey said: “We’ve got again some rain for Saturday so there’s a chance you might see some coastal fog to start with and some showery rain on Saturday particularly in the east of the country and then widespread heavy scattered showers.

“Some of those showers could be torrential with the chance you will see some thunder.

“Temperatures picking up as some warmer air comes in, certainly seeing some warmer temperatures but with a humid feel with the rain. Southern England could see temperatures in the mid 20s before the end of the week.

“We’ve got all this rain so it’s not going to be like where we had a long spell of hot weather recently.

“It’s cloudy, there’s rain, so it’s more a humid feel but temperatures will pick up and perhaps feel slightly cooler in the wind but the southern half of the country could see warm temperatures

“That unsettled picture continues into next week.”