Britons are being urged to prepare an “emergency” kit with three essential household items as thunderstorms threaten to wreak havoc across the nation this weekend.
The Met Office has issued a slew of thunderstorm warnings for the next two days, forecasting torrential downpours and lightning strikes starting overnight on Friday. The tumultuous weather is expected to spill into Saturday morning, potentially disrupting weekend plans and isolating some communities.
Over 80 regions face high-risk amber and less severe yellow alerts for potential flooding, lightning strikes, and power outages as the storms sweep across vast swathes of the country.
These yellow and amber warnings span an extensive area, nearly 400 miles from the Isle of Wight in the south to Newcastle in the northeast, indicating that several inches of rain could deluge areas within hours.
London is bracing for the worst impact, with the Met Office issuing an amber alert warning of “significant surface water flooding during Saturday morning”, reports The Mirror.
The amber warning issued by the Met Office cautions: “Areas of heavy rain with embedded thunderstorms will move northwards during the early hours of Saturday, with torrential downpours in places. Accumulations of 20 to 40mm (0.7 to 1.5 inches) are possible in one hour, and where heavy downpours persist then as much as 70 to 100mm (2.7 to four inches) could accumulate in just a few hours. Significant impacts are possible if this occurs over more urban areas.
“The more widespread heavy rain should clear to the north during Saturday morning, but additional scattered heavy showers and a few thunderstorms could develop during Saturday afternoon and early evening, this risk covered by the much larger Yellow thunderstorm warning.”
The accompanying yellow thunderstorm warning elaborates: “Thundery rain will reach the south of the warning area later Friday before spreading north to affect much of England through Saturday. Rain will likely be locally torrential, bringing 20to 30mm in less than an hour in many places, with 60 to 90mm (3.5 inches) in less than three hours possible in a few places.
“Whilst rain will clear from the south of the area by early Saturday afternoon, further thunderstorms are likely to develop here.”
With the forecast predicting substantial rainfall, there is an imminent threat of flash flooding and potential power disruptions. The Met Office urges the public to verify their risk level and, if necessary, “consider preparing a flood plan” that includes an “emergency flood kit”.
The agency recommends including three crucial items in your pack: a mobile phone power pack, torch, and batteries, along with “other essential items”.
Regions under the Met Office’s thunderstorm alerts for Saturday include:.
East Midlands
- Derby
- Derbyshire
- Leicester
- Leicestershire
- Lincolnshire
- Northamptonshire
- Nottingham
- Nottinghamshire
- Rutland
East of England
- Bedford
- Cambridgeshire
- Central Bedfordshire
- Essex
- Hertfordshire
- Luton
- Norfolk
- Peterborough
- Southend-on-Sea
- Suffolk
- Thurrock
London & South East England
- Bracknell Forest
- Brighton and Hove
- Buckinghamshire
- East Sussex
- Greater London
- Hampshire
- Isle of Wight
- Kent
- Medway
- Milton Keynes
- Oxfordshire
- Portsmouth
- Reading
- Slough
- Southampton
- Surrey
- West Berkshire
- West Sussex
- Windsor and Maidenhead
- Wokingham