Summer finally set to make appearance – but we’ve got major storms first

Summer is finally on the horizon, but first we’ve got to get through thunderstorms bringing a month’s worth of rain to some parts of the country.

Isolated areas up in the Scottish highlands could see 80mm of rain in 18 hours today prompting the Met Office to issue weather warnings amid fears of flash floods and travel disruption.

Meanwhile, central and eastern spots in England may get more than half a month’s worth of rainfall in just an hour, with some areas seeing as much as 60mm lashing down.

At the other end of the spectrum, London is expected to see highs of 29C today and tomorrow while Birmingham can look forward to temperatures up in the mid 20s and Wales peaking at around 21C.

But as the storms move further northwards overnight more warm and humid weather will develop as the week goes on, eventually rising as high as 33C in the south east of England by Friday.

Heavy thunderstorms and rain will move northwards today, growing heaviest in Northern Ireland, North Wales and across the northeast of England, forecaster Nicola Maxey told Metro.co.uk.

‘Apart from that it’s going to be fairly murky, becoming brighter, particularly in the south west, fairly warm and humid in some areas and getting quite hot for eastern, southern and central England,’ she said.

‘As we move through tonight those thunderstorms will move northwards across parts of southern and central England with some fairly heavy showers around.’

A yellow severe weather warning for #thunderstorm has been updated: https://t.co/QwDLMfRBfs Stay #weatheraware @metofficeuk pic.twitter.com/XJ9KZR1b11

— Met Office (@metoffice) June 24, 2019

The Met Office has issued one yellow weather warning for rain and two for thunderstorms across the UK on Monday, when as much as 80mm of rain could fall between 12am to midnight on Tuesday.

In the north of England we can expect between 15 and 30mm of rainfall, with those areas worst affected seeing as much as 40mm.

Scotland is set to be hit by between 20 and 40mm while those on higher ground potentially seeing a whopping 80mm coming down in just 18 hours.

Parts of the South East and East Anglia are also covered by the warnings and the Ms Maxey said the east coast are expected to see up to 30mm of rainfall within an hour, with some isolated regions getting double that along with hail and gusty winds.

The warnings caution that there is a small chance that ‘homes and businesses could be flooded quickly, with damage to some buildings from floodwater, lightning strikes, hail or strong winds’.

Some may also be hit by power outages, the Met Office have said.

There is also a small chance of ‘fast flowing or deep floodwater causing danger to life’.

Areas hit by flooding or lightning strikes could have their misery compounded by delays and cancellations to bus and train journeys.

Drivers should also be on alert for spray and sudden flooding that could worsen conditions on the road as well as leading to closures altogether.

Good morning! Thundery rain will move north across Scotland, wettest in the east combined with extensive low cloud. Elsewhere, a murky start, some brightness developing but also further thunderstorms. Warm & humid & driest in the southwest. Latest https://t.co/cQSfu1VDbo ^Sophie pic.twitter.com/JnKl53Xet7

— Met Office (@metoffice) June 24, 2019

But as those storms move northwards overnight the dark clouds will give way to warm sunshine.

Those lucky ones on their way to Glastonbury can rest assured as the mercury is set to hit ‘30C or slightly above’ during the day ahead of warm nights.

The highest temperature of the year so far was 28.8C in Norfolk on June 2.

The June record is 35.6C, which occurred in Southampton in 1978.