Flash floods and thunderstorms blight first weekend of school holidays

The first weekend of the school holidays has already seen flash-flooding in the South East and Midlands.

According to the Huffington Post and the Daily Telegraph, 61mm of rain fell in just four hours on Saturday night in Market Bosworth in Leicestershire.

This compares with an average rainfall of just 80mm for the whole months of July.

The Met Office has urged residents in the Midlands and north of England to be prepared for storms that could cause surface water flooding and travel disruption. It also issued a level yellow alert for London.

According to The Sun, the Met Office also warned of "frequent lightning, torrential rain and the risk of localised travel disruption from lightning strikes" in the South East and East Anglia.

According to Leon Brown, meteorologist at The Weather Channel, the showers have spread across from France.

He told Aol Travel: "On Sunday the risk transfers to south west England and South Wales, including southern and western Ireland as a trough moves west from the Atlantic. The risk of some heavy downpours with hail and thunder. Local flash floods possible over Devon, Cornwall and Pembrokeshire. Central and eastern England fairing a lot better with a fine day.

But it's not all bad news. Leon adds that we'll see a brief return to the heatwave at the end of the week: "A cooler and fresher feel in the UK for the first part of next week with showers. There are signs of another pulse of heat moving north by next Thursday though with temperatures reaching 28C to 31C again in central and eastern England, possibly 32C in the south east."

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