UK weather: Met Office warns heavy rain could cause travel delays

Met Office predicts the fog would be ‘dense in places’ and lead to disruption

Sam Hall
Wednesday 25 October 2023 00:54 EDT
UK weather: The latest Met Office forecast

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Heavy overnight rain could bring disruption to transport across the south of England and Wales, forecasters have warned.

The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for rain from 6pm on Tuesday until 10am on Wednesday, as well as one for fog further north.

Met Office forecaster Craig Snell said the wet weather meant there was “potential for travel delays and poor driving conditions” on Wednesday morning.

He added: “There could be a lot of spray on the roads and some difficult driving conditions as we start Wednesday morning. There could be some delays to public transport as well.”

The forecaster said the weather was more “typical” for October than that of Storm Babet, adding that the storm was “thankfully long gone”.

Mr Snell said: “It could be a bit of a tricky rush hour, first thing, but the rain will move out of the way and it will certainly be nowhere near on the scale of what we’ve seen further north.”

The forecaster said that much of the south coast of England and south Wales was likely to receive 15-25mm of rain.

He added that some areas along the Bristol Channel and the English Channel could receive 50-60mm of rainfall, but this “would be very localised”.

On Tuesday evening, the Met Office extended its yellow weather warning area west and northwest across parts of south Wales and south-west England.

It also moved it south in the South East, removing most of East Anglia from the warning area.

In its warning, the weather service predicts that bus and train services will probably be affected “with journey times taking longer”.

It also states that the flooding of a few homes and businesses is “likely”.

The yellow fog warning was issued just before 3am on Wednesday and runs until 11am with the Met Office predicting the fog would be “dense in places” and lead to disruption.

The warning covers the east of England, from East Anglia to north of Hull, and stretches across the Midlands to take in north-east Wales and north-east England around Manchester.

At least seven people are now thought to have died in incidents related to Storm Babet, while hundreds were forced to flee their homes in Scotland and north-east England.

About 1,250 properties in England flooded during the storm, according to the Environment Agency.

A total of 13 areas broke their daily rainfall records for October last week, including sites in Suffolk, South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Wiltshire, Kincardineshire, North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Northumberland, Derbyshire and Humberside, the Met Office said.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in