Summer downpours to bring lightning and flood risk

There’s no debating that the weather during the past month has been disappointing for most places – especially Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Thanks to the jet steam generally sitting over or to the south of the UK, areas of low pressure have been moving in off the Atlantic Ocean.

The result of this has been a wet and cool July, with the rainfall 34 per cent above normal and mean temperatures (an average of day and night temperatures) 0.6C below normal.

As if July’s weather wasn’t bad enough, August has picked up where it left off, and the next few days will see more downpours arrive.

Thunderstorms and flood risk

During the next 24 hours, a slow-moving area of low pressure will drift up from the south. It’ll have a lot of warm, humid, energetic air mixed in with it, which will fuel some thunderstorms.

The first batch of heavy rain and thunderstorms will arrive during the early hours of Thursday morning across southern parts of England, spreading northwards into the Midlands during the daytime.

Then another batch of heavy rain and thunderstorms will arrive during Thursday evening, spreading northwards across much of the UK into Friday morning.

The Met Office has issued a yellow “be aware” warning for heavy rain covering England, Wales and southern Scotland during Thursday and Friday.

It warns that some places could see a lot of rain (20-30mm) in a short space of time, with some places seeing as much as 50mm in just a few hours.

As a result, there is a low risk of some localised surface water flooding, given that the rain will be intense at times.

As well as heavy rain, there’s likely to be some hail, lightning and gusty winds mixed in, which could cause a few problems.

Any signs of warmth and sunshine?

At the moment, it does look like the rain will ease away in time for the weekend, with most of us having some drier, brighter weather for a time.

Looking ahead to next week, the mixed weather will continue, with days of cloud and rain interspersed with days of pleasant warmth and sunshine.

However, there are no signs of any prolonged spells of sunshine and warmth for the rest of August, with the changeable weather pattern likely to continue.

Don’t forget, you can get the latest forecast on the Channel 4 Weather website. I’ll also be posting updates on Twitter – @liamdutton