The Met Office has issued fresh yellow weather warnings for rain on Thursday and Friday, following a series of thunderstorms and heavy downpours that have led to flooding in parts of central and southern England.
Warnings for intense rainfall are in effect for most of England, excluding the northwest and parts of the West Midlands, as well as large portions of Wales.
The Environment Agency has currently placed 27 flood warnings and 60 lower-level flood alerts across England.
Over the weekend and into Monday, heavy rain caused widespread disruption, with homes and businesses inundated, roads and fields submerged, rail services halted or delayed, rivers spilling over, and even a football stadium in London forced to close after a sinkhole appeared.
The Met Office has also issued a yellow weather warning for rain in Northern Ireland, starting Wednesday evening and lasting until noon on Thursday. Heavy rainfall may lead to localized flooding and transport disruptions.
BBC Weather’s lead presenter, Simon King, noted that while the rain isn’t expected to be as intense as recent days, flooding could still occur due to already elevated water levels in some areas.
The key warnings for the upcoming week are:
- Southern England, southern Wales, and parts of the Midlands, starting at 10:00 BST on Thursday.
- An extension of this warning for southern England and southern Wales, lasting through Friday until 10:00 BST.
- A separate warning for northern England, east of the Pennines, and northeast England, from 10:00 BST on Thursday until midnight.
Up to 100mm of rainfall could be seen in the Pennines and North York Moors—roughly a month’s worth of rain.
