Yellow weather warning for thunderstorms issued by Met Office

The forecaster has warned the rain is likely to be torrential and could lead to travel disruption and flooding

A yellow weather warning for thunderstorms has been announced across large parts of the UK for Friday and Saturday, with heavy, thundery rain likely to lead to disruption.

London, the Midlands, and the North East and West of England can expect torrential rain with potential flooding, with the warning in place from 9pm on Friday until 6pm on Saturday.

The forecaster said: “Thundery rain will reach the south of the warning area later Friday before spreading north to affect much of England through Saturday.

“Rain will likely be locally torrential, bringing 20-30 mm in less than an hour in many places, with 60-90 mm in less than three hours possible in a few places.

The yellow warning for thunderstorms covers parts of central and southern England (Yui Mok/PA) (PA Wire)

“Whilst rain will clear from the south of the area by early Saturday afternoon, further thunderstorms are likely to develop here. As well as heavy rain, impacts from frequent lightning, gusty winds and large hail are also likely.”

Across other parts of the UK, temperatures will climb to 28C with a chance of 29C on Thursday, before peaking at a potential 30C in London on Friday in another burst of hot weather.

Met Office meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey said: “This heat is not going to be as widespread as what we’ve just come out of, areas to the north aren’t going to be seeing the same highs.

“The heat we had last time was home grown, it wasn’t that humid, but because this heat is coming in from the south westerly direction, it is more humid. It’s going to be feeling more sticky.”

In Northern Ireland, a yellow weather warning for thunderstorms is already in place from 11am on Thursday until 8pm this evening.

The warning covers London, the south-east, and north-east of England as well as the Midlands (Met Office)

It comes as Southern Water has become the latest company to bring in a hosepipe ban, to protect rare chalk stream habitat, as England battles exceptionally dry weather.

The company said restrictions on hosepipes for activities such as watering gardens, filling paddling pools or washing cars would come in for households in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight from Monday.

It is the latest announcement by water companies bringing in hosepipe bans in response to the driest start to the year since 1976 for England.

Rainfall across England was 20 per cent less than the long-term average for June, which was also the hottest on record for the country, with two heatwaves driving unusually high demand for water, the Environment Agency has said.

Drought was declared in East and West Midlands on Tuesday, with the region joining swathes of northern England in drought status.

Yorkshire Water became the first major water company to bring in a hosepipe ban which came into effect last Friday.

South East Water has announced a hosepipe ban in Kent and Sussex from Friday, and Thames Water is bringing in a ban from next Tuesday for customers in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, most of Wiltshire and some parts of Berkshire.