The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for thunderstorms across 42 UK areas as record-breaking heatwave temperatures spark severe weather risks including rain, lightning and flooding
Britons are being cautioned about what could be a series of savage thunderstorms today across swathes of the nation alongside even more unprecedented temperatures.
The Met Office has issued a yellow thunderstorm warning for 42 areas across the UK from 3pm until late this evening (May 26.) The alert encompasses sections of East Midlands, East of England, London and South East England, North West England, South West England, West Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber.
A Met Office prediction spokesperson stated: “While many areas will miss them and remain hot and sunny, isolated thunderstorms are possible this afternoon and into the evening.
” These could bring frequent lightning, large hail, gusty winds and the potential for 30mm of rain in less than an hour.”
Temperatures failed to drop beneath 21.3C on Monday at Kenley Airfield, south London, as the nation smashed the record for the warmest May night for the second successive day, the Met Office confirmed, reports the Mirror.
The country also logged its provisional all-time hottest meteorological spring temperature when Kew Gardens in south-west London reached 34.8C on Monday.
And the hottest May temperature could be shattered once more on Tuesday with an anticipated peak of 35C across vast stretches of southern England and Wales – which might even climb to 36C, the Met Office revealed. Those predictions cover the Midlands, the South East, South West, East Anglia and South Wales.
However, thunderstorms might be triggered in the afternoon, which would impact how scorching it becomes, the Met Office noted. The national weather agency has issued a warning of potential disruption for areas under the yellow alert, which could include power outages and flooding. It warns: “Where flooding or lightning strikes occur, there is a chance of delays and some cancellations to train and bus services.
“There is a slight chance that power cuts could occur and other services to some homes and businesses could be lost. Spray and sudden flooding could lead to difficult driving conditions and some road closures.
“There is a small chance that homes and businesses could be flooded quickly, with damage to some buildings from floodwater, lightning strikes, hail or strong winds.”
Many locations across England and Wales will hit the heatwave threshold on Tuesday, and some will have experienced five days of it by Wednesday, according to Becky Mitchell, who is a senior meteorologist at the Met Office.
Heatwave conditions were already achieved in eight parts of England by Sunday night: Heathrow, Kew Gardens and Northolt in London; Benson in Oxfordshire; Brooms Barn and Santon Downham in Suffolk; High Beech and Writtle in Essex.
Regions with thunderstorm warning
East Midlands
- Derby
- Derbyshire
- Leicester
- Leicestershire
- Lincolnshire
- Northamptonshire
- Nottingham
- Nottinghamshire
- Rutland
East of England
- Bedford
- Cambridgeshire
- Central Bedfordshire
- Essex
- Hertfordshire
- Luton
- Peterborough
- Suffolk
London and South East England
- Buckinghamshire
- Milton Keynes
- Oxfordshire
- Reading
- West Berkshire
- Windsor and Maidenhead
- Wokingham
North West England
- Cheshire East
South West England
- Bath and North East Somerset
- Bristol
- Gloucestershire
- North Somerset
- Somerset
- South Gloucestershire
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
West Midlands
- Herefordshire
- Shropshire
- Staffordshire
- Stoke-on-Trent
- Warwickshire
- West Midlands Conurbation
- Worcestershire
Yorkshire and Humber
- South Yorkshire
- West Yorkshire
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