The Environment Agency have issued 26 flood alerts with the forecast predicting between 20 and 30mm of rainfall in just a few hours which could potentially lead to power cuts
Thundery, wet weather will today stretch its tentacles across the country and wash away most of the May Bank Holiday sunshine. Yesterday’s dry, fine conditions meant giant octopus kites could be seen soaring along the coast.
But the sky-high octopi on Majuba Beach in Redcar, North Yorkshire, will be brought back down to earth today as storms are expected to make the good weather go out with a bang. Thunder and lightning are set to start rumbling their way across the Midlands and the North this afternoon with a yellow warning in place until 8pm.
Meanwhile, bands of rain in the East and Cornwall are expected to intensify – prompting the Met Office to issue a vast weather warning, from the east to west coast and from Middlesbrough down to Milton Keynes. Forecasters say sudden flooding could create difficult driving conditions, or even lead to communities being cut off by road closures.
Homes and businesses could be flooded, hit by lightning strikes or have their power cut off. And train and bus services face cancellations and delays. With the chance of between 20 and 30mm of rain falling in just a few hours, the Environment Agency has issued 26 flood alerts, most of them in Southern England, west of the capital, but also near Derby and Shrewsbury.
Tomorrow’s Bank Holiday Monday weather is also expected to be a mixed bag of sunshine and showers. Describing the bank holiday weather, Met Office meteorologist Craig Snell said: “Overall, it’s a pretty mixed picture.
“Saturday was probably the best of the bunch. There will still be some sunshine around on Sunday and Monday, but we’ll certainly be dodging downpours.”
Meanwhile, holidaymakers heading for sunnier climes faced serious delays yesterday as they tried to get away for half-term. Long queues formed at the Port of Dover as officials reported processing times of two hours at French border controls.
And the roads in the town were gridlocked because of the amount of traffic heading to the port. A Port of Dover spokesman said: “We are experiencing extremely high levels of traffic and are working with French border police, Kent Highways and Kent Police to clear the queues as quickly as possible.”
