Intense thundery downpours are expected to bring a chance of flash flooding to several parts of the UK on Friday night and into Saturday. A yellow weather warning has been announced for thunderstorms with heavy rain, likely to lead to disruption.
In France, a region of low pressure is set to develop as cool air high in the atmosphere. This air is likely to push over very warm and moist air across the surface. This creates an unstable atmosphere, with air rising upward to form thunderstorms. The thunderstorms initially seem to develop in France before heading northwards across the United Kingdom.
It is expected that the heavy rain will likely affect Central Southern England, South-East England, and the Midlands on Friday night. Later, the rain will shift across Northern England and Scotland by Saturday.
The heavy rainfall could be as much as a month’s worth of rainfall within a few hours. So, this condition could lead to flash flooding. Gusty winds, frequent lightning, and large hail are the additional risks that could disrupt transportation.
The rain across Northern Scotland could be slow-moving on Sunday and Monday.
The forecaster said that thundery rain would reach the south of the warning area later Friday before moving North to affect much of England through Saturday.
The first weather warning covers almost every area of England and is set for 9 pm on Friday to 6 pm on Saturday.
The flash flooding may lead to road closures and may even cut some communities off. The Met Office said that the lightning strikes could damage the buildings.
Sky Weather Producer, Joanna Robinson, said that the rain would be torrential in places, bringing up to 30mm in less than an hour. It could be 60-90mm in less than three hours for some isolated regions.
Despite the thunderstorms and heavy rain, it will remain hot. The temperatures are expected to increase to the high 20s for much of England. The weather conditions seem to remain unstable on Sunday and into the following week.
Across other parts of the UK, the temperature may rise to 28 °C, and there is a chance of 29 °C on Thursday.
The Met Office meteorologist, Jonathan Vautre, said that this temperature is not going to be as widespread as what people have just come out of. The areas of the north will not experience the same highs.
Over the recent weeks, drought has affected millions of people as announced across several parts of the UK, and hosepipe bans have been issued.
Since the rainfall will be much higher across various parts of the UK, and it will run off rapidly, it may cause overwhelming local sewers. At this moment, any rainfall will be used for plants’ growth, so it won’t affect the groundwater levels much.
