UK weather forecast: Thunderstorms hit London and South East

Thunderstorms and torrential rain have hit the south east of England this afternoon, with London Victoria and Kentish Town stations starting to flood amid warnings of a ‘danger to life’ caused by fast-flowing and deep floodwater. 

Yellow and amber warnings have been put out for huge parts of England and Wales by the Met Office. Torrential showers across swathes of the country have already left roads swamped, drains deluged and people desperately battling to keep floodwaters at bay – and more is expected as thunderstorms hit.

The Met Office has issued an amber alert for thunderstorms on Wednesday covering parts of England from Chichester to Ipswich and including London, Brighton, Essex and all of Kent.

There could be as much as 30-50mm (one to two inches) of rain falling in the region in less than an hour, causing ‘flooding and disruption’. 

The BBC reports that Holbeach in Lincolnshire received 146.2mm of rain in the 24 hours up to 9am this morning – representing 38 per cent of total rainfall in the area this year. 

Train services in East Anglia have been cancelled affecting thousands of passengers after one of the busiest main lines was closed by floods this morning.

Greater Anglia reported that due to heavy rain services running on the busy London to Ipswich and Norwich will be cancelled or revised adding that the disruption will last until further notice.

Network Rail says the flooding at a level crossing means that trains are unable to run between these stations. The organisation tweeted this afternoon that its weather alarms are going off in Kent and East Sussex, leading to trains going at a slower speed.

The yellow weather warning includes the whole of the south of England and reaches as far away as Leicester and Cardiff, where flooding and travel chaos is also highly likely. 

A hospital has even urged patients have even been urged to avoid an A&E department after its building was flooded. Bassetlaw Hospital in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, said that heavy rainfall meant ‘water was able to get into a few parts of the building’.

The hospital said in a Facebook post that colleagues were ‘hard at work’ fixing the problem. 

Hospital staff said: ‘Please note, we continue to ask local people in Worksop to only attend the Emergency Department at Bassetlaw Hospital if your need is urgent or life-threatening.

‘Due to the rain yesterday, water was able to get into a few parts of the building which colleagues are hard at work fixing – work we hope to finish soon.’

In the South West, parts of Cornwall and Devon have been hit hard, with dramatic scenes of torrential showers and flash flooding on roads in Newquay, Cornwall, Bishop’s Tawton, Devon, and Haywards Heath in West Sussex.

In Dorset people used buckets and makeshift containers to try to divert flash floodwater away from a restaurant in West Bay, while workers in Winchester were yesterday seen clearing a drain grid on a swamped road.

Streets were flooded in Port Talbot, Wales and in Loughborough, the Morrisons supermarket car park was flooded.

Volunteers rushed to save books from being ruined after a Waterstones bookshop was flooded in Swansea. Bookshelves were soaked when storms hit the store in in a torrential downpour.

Staff videoed rain pouring through the ceiling – with empty shelves and dozens of wet books on the floor.

In a Twitter post, they said: ‘With sincere apologies, we are now closed.

‘A lovely moment amongst the carnage – loads of customers rushing over to help us save the books (which we had to refuse for safety reasons, but thank you!) Normal service will (hopefully) be resumed soon.’

However experts have warned that it would take ‘weeks’ of heavy rainfall to help parts of the country recover from the driest July on record and the driest first half of the year since 1976, as the ground will struggle to absorb the water and surface run-off causes flooding.

This means wildfires are still a possibility on the ‘tinderbox dry’ land Britain has been left with.

Authorities moved Yorkshire to official drought status on Tuesday, following parts of the South West, southern and central England and the East of England last week.

Last night a huge fire ripped through a field near Buckley Hill Road in Bootle, Merseyside, with fire crews from Buckley Hill and Kirkby called at at 9.35pm to reports of a ‘major wildfire’, with witnesses worried about the Shy Lowen Horse and Pony Sanctuary, the Liverpool Echo said.

Scotland was hit by travel disruption across rail networks and on roads after torrential overnight rain, including flooding at Perth station.

In Combe Florey, between Minehead and Taunton in Somerset, the A358 remained closed yesterday afternoon after a mudslide on Monday night. Workmen removed more than 100 tons of mud and potatoes sliding in from nearby fields.

The Met Office warning reads: ‘Whilst some places will miss them, thunderstorms and areas of heavy rain will develop quite widely on Wednesday across central, southern and eastern parts of England and southeast Wales.

’20-30 mm of rain is possible within an hour, but where areas of thundery rain become slow-moving, some places could see 60 mm in less than three hours.

‘A few spots could see more rainfall than this still, whilst hail and lightning may be additional hazards.’ The Environment Agency had issued 29 flood alerts by Tuesday night.

The heaviest downpours on Tuesday were at Spadeadam in Cumbria, with 25.4mm of rain, and in Trengwainton House, Cornwall, with 18.4mm, the Met Office said.

Footage and photos shared to social media showed torrential rain and floodwater sweeping through towns across southern England and Wales, including Newquay in Cornwall, Bishop’s Tawton in Devon, Haywards Heath in West Sussex, Port Talbot in south-west Wales, and Bridport in Dorset.

Amid the weather warnings, Britons have been urged to prepare a ‘grab bag’ of essentials in case of flooding as torrential rain and thunderstorms hammer parts of the country today, causing mudslides while deluging rail lines and streets.

Firefighters said people should prepare a flood kit, with those living in basement flats or low-lying properties particularly at risk as the heatwave ends with a bang – and up to two inches of rain falling in three hours today.

The National Flood Forum said a flooding ‘grab bag’ should contain insurance and other important documents, mobile phones and chargers, emergency cash and credit cards, and any medication or prescription forms.

The London Fire Brigade said people should be ‘prepared and know what to do should a flood occur’ and ‘use sandbags to limit the water flow and move belongings to a higher level’. The Met Office said people living in ‘low-lying properties’ should make sure their valuable items are ‘ready to go’, or ‘on a higher level of your house’.

The guidance will apply to millions of people – with Environment Agency the estimating that 5.2million homes in England, or one in six properties, are at risk of flooding. This includes 2.4million at risk from rivers and the sea, 1million of these also susceptible to surface water flooding and a further 2.8million at risk of surface water alone. 

One Twitter user shared a video of floodwater in Newquay, writing: ‘I’ve never seen rain like this. Our road is flooding £Newquay.’

Another Twitter user in Bishop’s Tawton, north Devon, said: ‘(F)lash flooding causing use of sandbags to prevent water in house, despite recent flood work by @EnvAgency urgent need for solutions.’

ScotRail imposed speed restrictions on some routes on Tuesday, while in Perth, Network Rail said it dealt with flooding at the station.

Wednesday is the fourth day in a row of thunderstorm warnings in the UK and it leaves communities in areas like Sussex, Kent and Hampshire braced for possible heavy downpours.

Met Office forecaster Simon Partridge said that ‘heavy thundery showers could develop in warm muggy air’ and ‘there could be some high totals (of rainfall), particularly if you see some heavy thunderstorms come in one after another’.

People in northern regions should be able to enjoy a day that feels fresher, a little cooler and is mostly dry – with some sunny spells.

Mr Partridge said: ‘The ground has been so baked dry because of the heat and the lack of rain for a number of days. When the rain has come, it has been hitting ground that is completely dry and baked dry like concrete.

‘It is running off than more traditionally. If there is some moisture in the ground, it is a lot easier for it to soak up the rain that hits it. We have probably a higher run-off rate for the rainfall than we would normally have.

‘It is almost like all the fields have been tarmacked because the water has been running off them as there has been so little of it that has gone into the ground.’

Met office spokesman Stephen Dixon said parts of the country could see up to 50mm of rain within three hours: ‘We have got thundery showers possibly for a lot of people in the UK. Within the warning area, it is important to note that thunderstorms could pop up anywhere. That being said, some areas could miss the rain altogether.

‘That risk of thunderstorms will move to southern areas of the UK as the day goes on.’ Mr Dixon said this risk will continue throughout Wednesday.

‘Early on Thursday morning, the main risk that we are looking at is for the South East. The risk then decreases as the day goes on.’

And the National Flood Forum charity warned that the UK remains ‘reactive and not proactive’ about flood risk even though flooding had become a regular pattern for the country.

Speaking to LBC’s Nick Ferrari, Heather Shepherd, the charity’s flood recovery specialist, said: ‘Flooding has definitely increased. We see it now as a regular pattern every year.

‘I still think we are quite reactive and not proactive. As soon as flodding’s not in the headlines we tend to be a bit too laid back.’

Miss Shepherd also said that ‘building like mad everywhere’ was increasing the risk of floods, as ‘a lot of [building] is on places where water had space and it no longer has. It overwhelms our drainage infrastructure.’

Meanwhile, swimmers have been urged to stay out of Cumbria’s Lake Windermere because of a potentially toxic algae covering the water’s surface.

While the heatwave has now technically ended after eight days on Tuesday, it remains very warm in much of the UK with highs of 22C (71.6F) in London, Brighton and Exeter yesterday, 25C (77F) across the south on Thursday and 23C (73.4F) on Friday,

The flash floods emerge after a drought was declared last week in eight areas of England including Devon and Cornwall, Kent and south London.

Several water firms – including Welsh Water, Southern Water and South East Water – have already imposed hosepipe bans to tackle the shortage.

South West Water was the latest company to announce restrictions in Cornwall which will kick in on August 23.

Yorkshire Water’s ban will start on August 26 and Thames Water has said it is planning one but has not confirmed the date.

A £1,000 fine could be imposed on anyone who breaks the ban but water companies have not said if they have pressed for prosecutions in the past. 

Met Office spokesman Stephen Dixon said that thunderstorms and heavy rain is likely to hit parts of Scotland as well as areas of the South West and East of England.

He added that up to two inches of rainfall – almost a month’s worth of rain – could fall in just three hours in some parts.

He added: ‘That being said, it is quite hard to pinpoint exactly where these thunderstorms will crop up. Some areas will miss the showers completely.

‘But, where they do come down, there could be some impacts like surface water flooding – with the rain obviously hitting dry land –travel disruption and power cuts affecting homes and businesses.’

And Met Office meteorologist Greg Dewhurst warned that the bad weather conditions could pose difficulties for those hoping to travel and urged people to stay up to date with developments in their local area.

‘We’ll see some very heavy showers develop over the coming days, hail, frequent lightning, some flash flooding is possible like we’ve seen in places yesterday so our advice is to stay tuned to latest forecasts and local radio stations as well, to get the latest information,’ he said.

‘It is worth being aware that there could be disruptions or delays to travel.’

He added: ‘It will be in turns fairly breezy as we end the week, with some showery rain, particularly across the north of the UK, so temperatures generally around average for many but could possibly be a bit above for the far south, which is the mid-20s.

‘It looks probably most likely from late Wednesday to Thursday onwards it will become fresher for everyone.’

Professor Hannah Cloke, an expert in hydrology at the University of Reading, warned that the parched soil increased the risk of ‘dangerous’ flooding.

She said: ‘The ground is really dry and when it is so dry it acts a little bit like concrete and that water can’t get in so it drains straight off. There is the damage to homes and businesses these floods can cause, and inconvenience with transport disruptions –but if it is very heavy in one place it can also be very dangerous.’

On how it could affect cities like London, she said: ‘If you get heavy rain in a city, the drainage system can cope up to a point. But if there is really heavy rain it can overwhelm the system – the rain cannot run away quick enough.

‘Water tends to find the lowest pathway – that is why it is so dangerous for cities with these surface area floods. That is why it is of concern to the Tube and underground car parks and things like that.’

‘If we are in London and the parks are really, really dry, there is nowhere for the water to run so it is exacerbating the risks we already have in cities.’

In rural areas, Professor Cloke said flooding often hits low points in roads and under bridges.

Also yesterday, Ofwat chief executive David Black has defended targets set for water companies as ‘challenging but achievable’.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and asked if the targets set for leaks are tough enough, Mr Black said: ‘Yes, we set challenging but achievable targets for water companies, leakage being one of them.

‘So at the last price review we challenged the sector to reduce leakage by 16 per cent and the latest information we have shows that 13 out of 17 companies (are) on track to deliver that in the first two years.’

He added: ‘I can point elsewhere in the (targets) regime where fewer companies are succeeding, so for example on pollution incidence less companies are successful.

‘So we have set challenging targets and in fact at the last price review four out of 17 companies appealed our determination. So they thought the determination was too tough, and one of their contentions was that the targets were too challenging.’

Mr Black also said that overall, the water supplier sector ‘has underperformed against the price review’.

He told the BBC: ‘Where companies are falling short on leakage they will incur penalties on that. It may be that they are outperforming the regime elsewhere. But overall the sector as a whole has underperformed against the price review thus far into the period.’

Mr Black added: ‘So far to date the sector hasn’t succeeded in earning the – if you like – these standard rates of return.’

He said: ‘We certainly agree that customers should get better service and expect better service and that’s why we have set performance targets that aim in every case to drive better performance from companies.

‘There are some companies like Thames Water which have been repeated poor performers and we have taken action against them and other companies.’

Asked if he thinks there is nothing wrong with the system, Mr Black said: ‘No, I think that companies like Thames and Southern really need to up their game. I think it’s very concerning that other companies that may be performing better in the sector it casts a long shadow when we see poor performance.’