Met Office: charge phones as amber thunderstorm warning brings power cut fears

The Met Office is advising people to keep their phones charged in case of power cuts following an amber warning for thunderstorms.

Earlier today a yellow warning was upgraded to amber over fears the weather will bring ‘heavy rainfall, lightning, strong winds, and hail’.

The amber warning covers the West Midlands and parts of south east England and is in place until 7pm on Monday evening.

Grahame Madge, a Met Office meteorologist, told the Telegraph thunderstorms could develop within ‘minutes’.

He said: ‘We are advising people might want to think about how suddenly they can be subjected to flash flooding or a power cut.

‘Are people prepared? Make sure mobile phones are charged and that sort of thing.

‘Because when you get these storms they can change your circumstances quite dramatically within almost a matter of minutes.’

Drivers are battling through floodwater in north London following flash flooding.

Some flooding and excess surface water was caused by thunderstorms bringing the hot and sunny weekend to an abrupt end on Sunday.

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