Met Office issues yellow weather warning to bring an end to UK summer heatwave
Two major thunderstorm alerts have been slapped on huge swathes of Great Britain, potentially ending soaring temperatures in parts of the country.
Met Office weather forecast: Hot and humid air arrives in the UK
Two major weather warnings have been issued for the UK tomorrow.
The yellow Met Office warnings for thunderstorms begin at midnight tonight and cover huge areas of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The dramatic change in weather comes just as Brits were enjoying baking summer heats, with temperatures expected to reach as high as 33C in some places this weekend.
Tomorrow things will cool down to as low as 12C in Scotland - however, the south is still predicted to be warm, with London reaching 32C by midday.
The first Met Office warning starts at midnight tonight and covers Northern Ireland including County Antrim, County Armagh, County Down, County Fermanagh, County Londonderry and County Tyrone. It ends at 7am tomorrow, Monday, August 12.
Another commences at 2am this morning and is in place until 1pm tomorrow with Scottish regions including Central, Tayside and Fife, Grampian, Highlands and Eilean Siar, Orkney and Shetland, SW Scotland, Lothian Borders and Strathclyde all affected.
English regions covered by the warning include North East England, North West England and Yorkshire and Humber.
The warning says: “Thunderstorms are expected to develop over western parts of the UK and move northeast during the second half of Sunday night becoming organised into Monday morning.
“Although not all parts of the warning area are expected to see them, an area of increasingly organised thunderstorms is likely to produce a combination of frequent lightning, heavy rain, hail and short periods of strong winds.
“Some torrential downpours are likely, with 20-40 mm in places, and a potential for 40-60 mm of rain to fall in 1-2 hours very locally, with hail up to 2 cm in diameter.
“Thunderstorms are expected clear towards the northeast by Monday afternoon.”
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Weather expert Jim Dale, senior meteorologist for and founder of British Weather Services said: “The story will be the excessive heat and humidity but yes, there will be a few sporadic and well scattered thunderstorms here and there between Monday and Tuesday.
“In which case it may pay sun revellers to keep one eye on the sky.
“Most will escape unscathed but the heat and humidity along with incoming fresher air from the west will mean a few will suffer the consequences.”
The Met Office also issues a longer-range forecast on its website which covers from Thursday, August 14 until Saturday, August 24.
It says: “Through the middle of August, a mobile westerly pattern is expected. A series of low-pressure systems are likely to track eastwards, mainly over or to the north of Scotland but perhaps also further south at times.
“The associated fronts will bring spells of cloud and rain at times, perhaps occasionally accompanied by rather breezy or unseasonably windy conditions in places, but interspersed with brighter, more showery periods.
“Most of the wet weather will tend to be focused in the west and northwest, with longer drier spells further south and east.”
It adds: “Temperatures overall will be close to or perhaps a little below average, however, there is a small possibility of very warm conditions returning to parts of the south and east, this perhaps most likely later in the period."
