Weekend storms warning for Wales

THE Met Office yesterday issued a weather warning for thunderstorms, covering Wales and south and western England, between 2pm and 9pm tomorrow.

The weekend’s high temperatures are expected to trigger showers, the Met Office said, some of which could be “torrential and thundery”, with more than 30-40mm potentially falling within an hour.

Rain, hail, wind and lightning are also predicted to hit some areas, although others parts of the country will see no rain at all.

Oliver Clayden, from the Met Office, said there could be some travel disruption over the weekend.

He said: “After a prolonged dry spell there is a chance of surface water flooding.

“There could be some surface water issues that could cause travel disruptions as well as the high gusts across parts of the country.”

Mr Clayden added: “This is going to be the warmest weekend of the year, which is to be expected as we go into summer.

“This weekend will also see hail mixed in with strong gusts of wind and rain hit parts of the country.”

The warning came as the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) upgraded an alert for hot weather in five regions of England.

Parts of the UK are predicted to be hotter than Marbella, Ibiza and Tenerife in the coming days as a “plume of warm air” moves in from the south, with temperatures likely to soar to 28°C.

The UKHSA initially issued yellow warnings for parts of England on Wednesday and yesterday now raised the level to amber for the West Midlands, East Midlands, East of England, south-east England and southwest England.

It means the impact of the heat is “likely to be felt across the whole health service ... and the wider population, not just the most vulnerable”.

Yellow alerts are less serious, and are used to warn that there may be some disruption to services due to weather conditions.

A further yellow alert was issued by the UKHSA yesterday for north-east England, northwest England and Yorkshire and Humber regions, while a yellow alert for London issued on Wednesday remains in place.

All alerts come into force from 9am today to 9am on Monday.

In Wales, temperatures are forecast to hit a high of 26°C in Cardiff today and 26°C in Wrexham tomorrow – with Aberystwyth also set to hit a maximum temperature of 26°C tomorrow.