More weather misery on the way for the south with almost half the average monthly rainfall for November expected to fall in 24 hours

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for heavy rain over southern parts of England during tomorrow and Saturday that could see nearly half the average months rainfall in just 24 hours.

An area of low pressure currently over the Atlantic will track across or close to southern England tomorrow evening, forecasters say.

It will bring with it a spell of very wet weather with 15 to 40mm of rain likely across a large part of southern England. The average monthly rainfall for England in November is 88.2mm.

Southern counties including London, Essex, Devon, Hertfordshire, Somerset and Sussex are to expected to be hit by torrential downpours.

The rainfall comes just days after Britain was battered by the St Jude storm which left four people dead and hundreds of thousands without power.

Many people last night spent a third evening in the dark as suppliers desperately try to reconnect power following the storm which hit on Monday.

According to UK Power Networks, 98% of power supplies have been restored over the past two days, but a total of 9,800 homes - 7,600 in eastern England and 2,200 in the South East - are still without power.

Forecasters are also predicting winds of up to 60mph in some areas this weekend. The depression is also likely to generate large waves which combined with tidal highs could lead to flooding.

The Met Office have issued a yellow weather warning and said: "Rain is expected to be the main hazard associated with this depression, 15 to 30mm of rain is likely quite widely (locally 40mm)."

"English Channel coastal areas will also be windy for a time with gales and gusts up to 60 miles an hour. Further inland, wind speeds are expected to be much lower."

Helen Chivers, a forecaster at the Met Office, said that despite the warning the weather was not unusual for autumn: "It is a typical autumn depression sweeping across the country. We're looking at 10mm to 20mm quite widely and perhaps 30mm in a few places. "

"60mph winds are most likely over higher grounds. But 50mph gusts are possible fairly widely in the south on Friday.

"The St Jude's Storm was something a little different.

"And although not completely exceptional it's not the sort of thing we would see every year. But the forecast for the weekend is the sort of thing that's quite typical for this time of year."

Despite this she warned there was "potential for a few problems as the ground is pretty saturated at the moment after last weekend and trees are quite widely still in full leaf."

"There is potential for a bit of localised flooding and disruption," she added.

A spokesman for the environment agency, which has issued five flood alerts, said: 'There is a medium likelihood of river and surface water flooding in parts of south and southeast England on Friday.

"Typical disruption could include localised minor flooding of land and roads and also localised travel disruption."