Met Office issues seven hour thunderstorm weather warning for south west

The Met Office this afternoon issued a severe seven-hour-long yellow weather warning that thunderstorms will hit, potentially causing flooding and dangerous driving conditions. The alert is for the South West from Bath down through Devon and Cornwall - and is in place until 8pm today.

There is another yellow warning for the Midlands and Wales including Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent and North and Mid-Wales until 11pm tonight (May 16). The Met Office said: “Scattered thunderstorms are likely to develop across the area, bringing some localised disruption.”

The Met Office said that the stormy weather could lead to disruption including a slight chance of power cuts and loss of other services to some homes and businesses.

There is a small chance that homes and businesses could be flooded, causing damage to some buildings, with spray and flooding on roads causing dangerous driving conditions.

A Met Office forecast said: “An area of heavy rain is expected to move west across parts of England and then into Wales during today. There remains some uncertainty as to how far north or south this band of rain will be, but there is a small chance that it will become slow-moving over parts of the West Midlands and northwest England, as well as into Wales later this afternoon and early evening. Should this happen, then some places could see 40-60mm of rain falling in 3-6 hours.”