UK weather: Thunderstorms and torrential downpours to lash Britain

Thunder, lightning and heavy downpours expected across much of England

Britain looks set for further thunderstorms and heavy downpours as the warm and humid conditions continue through the week.

The Met Office has issued two yellow weather warnings for thunderstorms on Wednesday, both of which are in place for the majority of England.

Plymouth, London, Cardiff, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester are all covered by the warnings, which have been issued for midday and will remain in place until 9pm on Wednesday.

There is a small chance of localised flooding in some areas, the Met warnings state, with as much as 2 inches of rain falling in two to three hours in some of the hardest hit areas.

“Yesterday saw a lot of thundery activity and we expect that to continue from midday today and into tomorrow,” Met Office spokesperson Grahame Madge told The Independent.

“Thunderstorms are expected across much of southern, central, and northern England.

“Areas along the north east of England, south west Wales and the Channel coast may escape storms, although people there may still see a flash or two of lightning.”

Temperatures will remain reasonably warm on Wednesday, with highs of 22C in Glasgow, 20C in Hull, 22C in London and 18C in Plymouth.

Thursday will get off to a cloudy start for large swathes of the UK, with outbreaks of rain in Wales and central England.

Eastern England will see the worst of the wet weather on Thursday, with heavy and persistent rain moving across the region as the day progresses.

Thunderstorms are also expected on Thursday, with some areas in south seeing up 2 inches of rain, according to the Met Office.

“What’s driving these thunderstorms is there’s quite a lot of heat at the moment with a lot of humid air mass,” Madge added. “When you get those two things aligning, that’s when you get the conditions that are required for thunderstorms.”

There will be some sunny spells in Scotland and parts of southeast England, with highs of 21C expected in London.

On Friday there will be a mixture of sunny spells and showers. There will be more cloud in the west, where showers will be most frequent.

Saturday will start dry with sunny spells. However, cloud and outbreaks of rain will spread in from the west during the afternoon.