Weather: London set to be battered by heavy thunderstorms over the weekend, Met Office warns

London could be battered by heavy rain and thunderstorms this weekend as forecasters warned of unsettled weather.

A weather warning for thunderstorms and heavy rain is in force across much of southern England and Wales, including western areas of the capital.

It came into effect at 1am and will last until midnight on Sunday.

Cornwall has seen the heaviest storms so far on Saturday, with large hail also reported in the region.

Met Office meteorologist Becky Mitchell said the capital had seen some heavy showers, adding: “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.”

The Met Office’s official online forecast says that outbreaks of showery rain will spread north and east from the south coast through Sunday morning, bringing “localised heavy downpours and a risk of thunder”.

Further heavy, thundery showers, potentially accompanied by large hail, are expected across parts of Wales and southern England with some areas potentially experiencing 50 to 80mm of rain.

Ms Mitchell warned there was “probably quite a lot of water on the road” in Cornwall, after reports of about 30mm of rainfall in the area, which could lead to “tricky driving conditions”.

“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,” the meteorologist said.

The weather will remain unsettled over the next few days with “potential for some localised flooding”, she added.