UK weather latest: Walsall man dies in storm floods as temperatures set to soar across UK

A pensioner was killed when his car was submerged by flash floods and another motorist was hospitalised when their vehicle was caught in rising waters from a huge thunderstorm.

The 80-year-old man died shortly arrived at hospital in Walsall, police said.

The Met Office said a site in nearby Edgbaston, recorded 58mm of rainfall in just one hour on Sunday afternoon and 81mm in a 12-hour period.

A hazardous response team also had to rescue another two people from a flooded vehicle in the region.

Paramedic Peter Bowles tweeted an image of fire crews rescuing the pair from the roof of the submerged car, saying one patient was taken to A&E.

Other Twitter users posted videos of several cars being submerged by flash floods in Birmingham.

Despite the torrential rain, forecasters have nonetheless predicted Bank Holiday Monday could be the hottest day of the year so far, with temperatures predicted to reach 29C in the south-east of England.

A Met Office spokesperson told The Independent: "We are going to see very warm if not hot conditions in the southern half of the UK today.

"However high humidity and high temperatures will lead to isolated showers and thunderstorms, especially in southern parts of the country."

The hottest day of the year so far was recorded in April, when temperatures reached 29.1C in London.

However, the spokesman said: "We could easily break that today".

More varied weather is predicted later in the week, although the Environment Agency still has more than 20 flood warnings and more than 40 flood alerts in place covering much of Central England.

A yellow weather warning for rain is also in place from the afternoon for large swathes of East Anglia, the South East including London, the South West and Wales.

"We could see temperatures around 25C tomorrow in parts of the country," the spokesperson said. "It will be slightly cooler due to some breezy weather coming in, but will still be a warm day. Once again the humidity will lead to isolated thunderstorms across the country."

Those hoping for a repeat of the lightning and thunderstorms witnessed over the weekend, will likely be disappointed, they said, because they are not expected to last into the night.

"The storms will continue to rumble on into the evening, however due to cooling temperatures they will ease off into the night," the spokesperson said.

Following the death of the elderly man in Walsall, Chief Inspector Paul Ditta from West Midlands Police said: "Our thoughts are with the family of the man who died today.

"There are a number of roads affected across the region that have been badly affected by the flooding. Many people will be heading away for the half term break and I'd urge people to take care on the roads and allow extra time to travel."