UK weather: Thunderstorms and 60mph gales to batter Britain for NINE HOURS today, Met Office warns
THUNDERSTORMS and 60mph gales are set to batter Britain for NINE HOURS today, the Met Office has warned.
Forecasters have urged Brits to stay safe during “strong” as “hazardous” winds and heavy rain which could spark travel chaos.
Delays to road, rail, air and ferry transport are “likely”, while power cuts and loss of other services is possible.
It comes as the Met Office has placed the Southeast of England under a yellow weather warning.
The wind and rain alert is in place from 1pm today until 10pm tonight during which Brits will be hit with strong southerly winds.
Gusts are expected to reach 50-50mph inland – while the coast could be battered with gales as severe as 65mph.
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Meanwhile as much as 30-40 mm of rain will fall in 3-6 hours in some parts of south England.
Alex Deakin, of the Met Office, said: “The first weekend of October and it’s going to be very, very autumnal.
“Some strong winds, particularly across the south on Saturday and the north on Sunday, and there’ll be some heavy rain around as well.
“It won’t rain all weekend, but particularly across the south later on Saturday, it looks very soggy indeed.
“Then on Sunday, it’ll be a bit brighter. For most there’ll be some sunny spells, but still plenty of blustery showers.”
It could get so cold over the coming weeks that parts of the UK could be hit with snow.
Experts predict that higher areas are likely to see some snowfall towards the latter part of October.
Met Office senior meteorologist Greg Dewhurst told The Sun Online: “We’re likely to see some snowy weather in higher parts as October moves into November.
“Likely areas to be affected are the Scottish mountains as well as higher ground in northern England and northern Wales.
“Low areas are unlikely to see any. It’s quite normal for this time of year.”
On only the first day of the month, the odds of this month going down as the wettest October on record have been slashed to 5/1.
Jessica O’Reilly of Ladbrokes said: “October’s getting off to a miserable start and we’ve already been forced to cut the odds this month is a record breaker.”