Flooding hits UK as thunderstorm warning issued

Parts of the UK have been once again been hit by torrential rain, thunderstorms and localised flooding as dismal summer conditions persist.

But there is hope on the horizon as forecasters have said sunnier conditions could be on the way by the end of the month.

The wet weather continued on Saturday with parts of London flooded due to heavy rain and the Met Office warning that torrential downpours will continue to affect the south east of England throughout the day.

There are also warnings of heavy rain, thunderstorms, flooding, lightning strikes, cold winds and hail in central and southern Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland for this weekend.

Videos and photos of heavy flooding on the roads and drains full of water were posted on social media by people in Walthamstow, east London, and Battersea in south London.

However, there is hope that summer may not be over with forecasters predicting the weather will clear up and turn drier and sunnier towards the end of August.

Met Office meteorologist Becky Mitchell told the PA news agency: “It’s going to stay quite changeable at least for the next week but as we head towards the end of August, there’s a likelihood we’ll see hotter spell of weather and drier more settled weather across the whole of the UK.”

While it is too early to predict temperatures at this stage, it could “potentially be in the high 20s”.

Ms Mitchell said that even though it may not seem like it, this summer has been “warmer and drier than average”.

She said: “It’s not been wetter on average but we’ve seen a lot of reports on the news about the flooding. That’s why it may feel like a bad summer, with not much warmth or sunshine.”

She explained that the only exception has been the south east of England, which has been wetter than usual and has already had 111% of its average rainfall for the summer.

Ms Mitchell added the cause of the torrential rain and thunderstorms is down to the fact that July was so hot.

She said: “We’ve had quite a lot of warm weather and there was a heatwave during the middle part of July. The end of that heatwave triggered a lot of thunderstorms and heavy and intense rain, which is what brought some of those flooding incidents across parts of the southeast.

“There has been a lot of rainfall in a short amount of time, creating localised flooding events rather than it being a wet period.”

The worst-hit places appear to be the City of London, which has had 143% of its average rainfall this summer, the Isle of Wight with 174% of its average summer rainfall, and Surrey with 126%.

Ms Mitchell believes the Isle of Wight will only get rainier and imagines the percentage will be “much higher by the end of summer”.

By comparison, Scotland has only has 38% of its average rainfall and Ms Mitchell said “a few northern areas have been much, much drier”.