Fog alert across UK as Met Office extends rain warnings ahead of weekend washout

Warning in Scotland covers areas that already saw prolonged downpours last week

The Met Office has extended alerts for heavy rain over the weekend as Scotland braces for floods again after the havoc wreaked by Storm Babet.

The weather agency extended its latest warning for heavy rain over the area by a further 24 hours, meaning it will be in place over much of the weekend.

The forecaster earlier issued two yellow weather warnings for Friday, the first for potentially heavy rain in Scotland and the second for possible disruption due to fog in parts of eastern England.

The warning in Scotland covers Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee, Perth and Kinross – areas that have already seen prolonged downpours last week including flooding from Storm Babet.

The warning was originally to run from 12pm on Thursday to 12pm on Saturday, but will now remain in place until 12pm on Sunday.

Rainfall this week comes after heavy showers brought by Storm Babet have led to the deaths of seven people, including three people north of the border.

Brechin in Angus was the worst affected area in northeast Scotland, where hundreds of homes ended up being evacuated after the South Esk river breached its banks.

“An area of low pressure becomes firmly in charge over the next few days to bring plenty of showers and further rainfall, especially to parts of eastern Scotland,” the Met Office said on Wednesday.

“There is a possibility of some localised impacts from rivers and surface water on Thursday and Friday in the north east, Caithness and Sunderland, and Easter Ross and Great Glen due to further heavy rain,” said the latest Scottish Flood Forecast update.

“Rivers levels in the north east are not forecast to be as high as experienced during Storm Babet and widespread significant flooding is not currently expected.”

Elsewhere, Network Rail Scotland warned: “More extremely heavy rain is on the way. It won’t be to the levels from Storm Babet, but it will affect the same areas, already with saturated ground. It will bring a risk of flooding.”

Additional reporting by agencies