Cornwall takes the brunt of UK thunderstorms, says Met Office
Thunderstorms and heavy showers have lashed parts of the West Country. And Cornwall has borne the brunt of the impact so far on Saturday.
A yellow weather warning for thunderstorms and heavy rain is in place across a large portion of southern England and Wales. The alert, encompassing all of Wales, south-west England, the Midlands, and parts of south-east and northern England, was activated at 1am and is set to remain until midnight on Sunday.
Met Office meteorologist Becky Mitchell reported: "The area we have seen most of the thunderstorms so far has been Cornwall, and there's been some large hail reported there as well."
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Ms Mitchell also noted that Cornwall experienced lightning strikes and cautioned that the substantial rainfall, estimated at around 30mm, could result in "tricky driving conditions" due to "probably quite a lot of water on the road".
"The only other place I've seen some thunder strikes was quite early this morning, about 6am, and that was in the Surrey and Oxfordshire region," she continued.
She added: “We have got heavy showers across Wales and London at the moment too. We haven’t seen any thunderstorms with these showers yet but there’s still quite a while to go through the afternoon when we could potentially see some more.
“Typically as the afternoon goes on, we’ll see higher temperatures and the heat can help trigger the thunderstorms to kick off, so I expect through mid-afternoon we’ll see some more widespread ones."
Further heavy, thundery showers, potentially accompanied by large hail, are expected across parts of Wales and southern England. Some affected areas could see 50 to 80mm of rain.
Ms Mitchell said the weather is expected to remain “unsettled” over the next few days, with “potential for some localised flooding”.
A weather warning for rain will come into force on Sunday for Wales and central south-west England before another comes into effect on Monday, stretching to cover areas further east and further north as well.