UK weather warning: 70mph winds to batter coasts as Storm Kyle lashes Britain with rain

18 August 2020, 06:11

By EJ Ward

Heavy rain and strong winds of up to 70mph are set to batter Britain after days of thunderstorms hit across the country.

A new yellow weather warning is now in place across western parts of the UK from 8pm Wednesday until 11:59pm on Thursday, affecting Cornwall, the west coasts of Wales and Scotland, as well as most of Northern Ireland.

Over the next week, the weather is set to shift with the remnants of Tropical Storm Kyle pushing warm and tropical air in from the south.

Met Office forecaster Alex Deakin said that by Wednesday "it is set to get unusually windy for the time of year".

Britain's coasts are set to be battered by 70pmh winds, while gusts will maintain a speed of 65mph inland.

The Met Office warned: "Whilst winds may temporarily ease during Thursday morning, a band of heavy rain is likely to move east during Thursday afternoon and evening accompanied by some locally squally winds."

It added: "Low pressure systems will continue to dominate the weather this week so further rain is coming, but we will also see things turning windier and eventually we will lose the humid air and it will turn fresher."

The Met Office also issued a yellow warning for heavy rain through the centre of Scotland and into the borders region on Tuesday from 1pm to 9pm.

Some places could experience bursts of 20-25mm of rainfall in an hour or up to 50mm in a few hours, according to Met Office forecaster Greg Dewhurst.

The showers, which could lead to properties being flooded, road closures and transport delays, are set to ease by Tuesday evening.

Meanwhile, the Environment Agency issued a number of flood alerts for parts of the Midlands around Birmingham.

Mr Dewhurst added: "England and Wales continue to have sunshine and showers, some of the showers could be heavy with thunder, but overall the showers will probably be less frequent compared to the last few days and not quite as intense."

Parts of Northern Ireland and Scotland are likely to record heavier showers. In Scotland, these showers were likely to "merge into spells of heavy rain," Mr Dewhurst said.

Streets flooded in Barnstaple

Tuesday's top temperatures - most likely to be in the London area - are set to be around 25C.

England and Wales bore the brunt of the thunderstorms on Monday after flash flooding caused disruption to parts of southern England.

Mr Dewhurst described Monday's thunderstorms as "heavy and torrential in places", particularly across parts of the Midlands, East Anglia, south west England and parts of Wales.

The top temperature recorded on Monday was 25.1 C at Heathrow.

Many places had high rainfall totals on Monday including the 48mm recorded in Anglesey, Wales, the 43mm at High Beach, Essex, and 39mm in Wellesbourne, Warwickshire, while 27mm fell in Hawkridge, Somerset.

Mr Dewhurst said: "The highest rainfall totals were in quite widespread places and a lot of these totals fell in the space of an hour of two, so they had heavy downbursts in not very long periods of time."