{"id":108049,"date":"2026-08-21T09:29:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T09:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/108049\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T09:29:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T09:29:47","slug":"uk-weather-counties-hit-with-heavy-rain-and-thunderstorms-as-met-office-warns-of-flash-flooding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/108049\/","title":{"rendered":"UK weather: Counties hit with heavy rain and thunderstorms as Met Office warns of flash flooding"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Large parts of the UK have been hit with heavy showers and thunderstorms on Thursday, bringing the threat of flooding and travel disruption.<\/a><\/p>\n

The rain<\/a> showers will drift southwards and eastwards during Thursday, affecting other parts of Wales, the Midlands, East Anglia and southern England<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Met Office said some areas in the country had the \u201cfirst meaningful rain for a long time\u201d this week after a summer of punishing heatwaves<\/a> and extremely dry weather<\/a> has left some areas facing water shortages.<\/a><\/p>\n

The forecaster issued yellow warnings for thunderstorms in northern areas of England and Wales from Wednesday evening through to 10am on Thursday morning, after previous weather alerts for Northern Ireland and an area of eastern Scotland around Aberdeen on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Met Office warned residents there was a chance of flash flooding, with rain showers of 15 to 20 mm in an hour in some areas, with as much as 30 to 50 mm falling in a period of six hours in some places.<\/p>\n

Rising river levels have triggered a flood warning for Millingford Brook at Ashton in Makerfield, while flood alerts are in place in Crossens areas in West Lancashire, Lower River Wear, Middlesbrough Becka and Rivers Derwent, Team, Don and estuarine tributaries.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Met Office said some areas in the country had the \u2018first meaningful rain for a long time\u2019 this week after a summer of punishing heatwaves and extremely dry weather had left some areas facing water shortages (Getty)<\/p>\n

A Met Office weather forecast for Thursday reads: \u201cFrequent showers are expected, some being heavy and thundery with a risk of hail. The most intense showers are likely across parts of England and Wales, especially northern and central areas. <\/p>\n

\u201cMore isolated elsewhere and feeling cooler than of late.\u201d<\/p>\n

It comes as parts of the UK were hit by \u201cheavy pulses\u201d of rain early on Wednesday, but forecasters and officials warned downpours this week would not solve the drought overnight.<\/a><\/p>\n

The warnings come after overnight rain which saw Wisley, in Surrey, break its 62-day dry streak, the longest of any area in the UK, with 1.6mm falling in the early hours of Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Met Office data showed up to 23mm of rain fell in Billinge Hill, Merseyside, in the 12 hours to 6am on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, up to 13mm was recorded in parts of Northern Ireland and between 6-10mm fell across south-west England.<\/p>\n

Met Office Meteorologist Clare Nasir said in a video update for the weather service that \u201cheavy\u201d pulses of rain were also felt across Northern Ireland and Scotland.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen cloud and rain move in overnight into the early hours of the morning, just bumping into Northern Ireland and southern Scotland,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome higher rainfall totals are possible through the day across northern England as that rain extends southward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The forecaster\u2019s predictions on Wednesday morning said: \u201cRain will soon clear from the far southeast of England, whilst gradually easing across northern Scotland.<\/p>\n

\u201cOtherwise Wednesday will bring sunshine and showers. Showers locally heavy, especially in the north where hail and thunder possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cooler and wetter conditions come after the UK\u2019s fifth heatwave of the summer, during which the hottest day of the year was recorded in Kew Gardens, London, on Thursday when the temperature reached 38.1C.<\/p>\n

The UK is facing increasingly severe weather extremes such as heatwaves<\/a>, droughts and flooding \u2013 with a risk of surface water floods as heavy rain falls on baked dry ground \u2013 as a result of climate change, caused mostly by burning fossil fuels for power stations, vehicles, heating buildings and industry.<\/p>\n

\"ThunderstormThunderstorm warnings were issued across parts of England and Wales (Getty)<\/p>\n

All of Wales, and nearly three-quarters of England, are in drought as a result of the hot dry conditions.<\/p>\n

The Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales have applied to the English and Welsh governments for a drought order for the River Severn, warning of the impact the conditions are having on the Severn\u2019s habitats and surrounding farmers.<\/p>\n

If granted, it would require Severn Trent Water, South Staffordshire Water, Bristol Water and Hafren Dyfrdwy, to reduce the amount they abstract from the river by 5%, which they have said will not affect water supplies.<\/p>\n

The order would also impose a cap on the amount of water the Canal and River Trust could take for the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal and reduce releases from a reservoir at the river\u2019s headwaters to stretch the amount of available water over a longer period to support fish and other wildlife.<\/p>\n

As the Environment Agency announced the application for the drought order for the Severn, a spokesperson said: \u201cWe are exceptionally concerned about the impact that the drought is having on the River Severn\u2019s habitats and surrounding farmers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to see significant and sustained rainfall for this drought to end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SpectatorsSpectators look on as rain stops play during day one of the 1st Rothesay Test Match between England and Pakistan at Headingley (Getty)<\/p>\n

Water levels in the Severn are artificially supported by releases from groundwater and the Llyn Clywedog and Lake Vyrnwy reservoirs at the head of the river in Wales.<\/p>\n

But reservoir levels are declining and the proposed drought order \u2013 which would be the first on the river since 1989 \u2013 is designed to stretch the available water for longer, officials said.<\/p>\n

The drought order asks to slow down releases from the Llyn Clywedog reservoir, where water levels are at 48% and continue to fall.<\/p>\n

It would also impose an initial 5 per cent reduction on water abstraction from the Severn by the region\u2019s water companies, to keep more water in the local area.<\/p>\n

The Environment Agency said the water companies, which currently have no hosepipe bans in place, had confirmed the move would have no impact on public water supplies.<\/p>\n

And the abstraction cap on the Canal and River Trust for the Gloucester and Sharpness canal would be \u201cmanageable\u201d, according to the agency.<\/p>\n

The EA spokesperson said: \u201cThis drought order, if made, will stop the Clywedog reservoir from being completely exhausted and will prevent sections of Britain\u2019s longest river from drying out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still expect water companies to follow their drought plans and encourage an earlier use of Temporary Use Bans to protect public water supplies and preserve the environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery drop we can save is a drop more for your local farmers, local wildlife, and local rivers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without the order, releases from Llyn Clywedog reservoir are at risk of stopping and sections of the upper Severn could be at risk of drying out, resulting in the whole river experiencing record minimum flows and environmental stress, officials warned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[6764,1088,6355,529,985,6767,1311,2031,5,44767,6],"class_list":["post-108049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-color-image","tag-folkestone","tag-horizontal","tag-human-interest","tag-people","tag-photography","tag-rain","tag-social-issues","tag-uk","tag-umbrella","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117132802691964306","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}