Yellow thunderstorm warnings are in place across the country between now and Thursday.

Today thunderstorm warnings cover much of the UK away from northern Scotland warning of the risk of heavy showers, frequent lightning and gusty winds with 30 to 40mm of rain possible in an hour.

However, Chief Meteorologist Steve Ramsdale says; “a second yellow thunderstorm warning is also in place for parts of North West England, North Wales and West Midlands where the worst of the storms are likely to occur. Here exceptional rainfall totals could be seen of 60mm in an hour with a very small chance of 150mm of rainfall in 3 or 4 hours”.

Caroline Douglass, Flood Duty Manager at the Environment Agency, said: “Heavy thunderstorms across the Midlands and the north-west of England could lead to surface water and river flooding in some communities with possible disruption to travel and flooding of individual properties this afternoon and into early Tuesday morning. Isolated flooding is also possible more widely across England today through until Thursday due to further heavy thunderstorms.
“Our teams are ready to respond where needed and we urge people to check their flood risk, sign up for free flood warnings and keep up to date with the latest situation online, call Floodline on 0345 988 1188 or follow @EnvAgency on Twitter for the latest flood updates.”

The hot weather will continue for much of the week with heatwave conditions persisting in parts of southern and central England. Here temperatures will locally reach the mid to high 30’s C, for much of the week though temperatures will start to fall from their peak from Thursday onwards. Overnight temperatures will also be high for many.

Friday saw 36.4C recorded at Heathrow and Kew Gardens, the hottest August day since 10th August 2003 (38.5C, Faversham), while 34.5C was recorded on Saturday and 34C on Sunday.

The highest temperature on record for the UK was 38.7C recorded at Cambridge Botanic Garden on the 25th July last year, while the hottest August day on record is 38.5C recorded at Faversham on 10th August 2003).

The hot weather has resulted in Public Health England issuing heat health alerts for parts of England into next week.

There are tips on staying cool in hot weather on the Met Office website. With strong summer sunshine at this time of year, UV levels will be high in some areas and you can check the UV forecast for your area here.

Heatwaves are extreme weather events, but research shows that climate change is making these events more likely. A scientific study by the Met Office into the Summer 2018 heatwave in the UK showed that it was 30 times more likely to occur now than in 1750 because of the higher concentration of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) in the atmosphere. As greenhouse gas concentrations increase heatwaves of similar intensity are projected to become even more frequent, perhaps occurring as regularly as every other year. The Earth’s surface temperature has risen by 1°C since the pre-industrial period (1850-1900).

You can check the latest weather warnings on our severe weather warnings pages and you can get the most accurate and up to date forecast for your area using our forecast pages and by following us on Twitter and Facebook, as well as using our mobile app which is available for iPhone from the App store and for Android from the Google Play store.

Whatever the weather we are all being urged to remember the Government Coronavirus guidelines.