The UK could be battered by a 300-mile storm stretching from Devon to the Norfolk coast, with new weather maps showing intense rainfall slamming southern England in the early hours of Tuesday, August 26. Maps from WX Charts show terrifying colours of red, orange, yellow and deep blue across the country around midnight, suggesting widespread and heavy downpours.
The worst of the weather is expected during the night, with almost the entire south of England drenched in rain. The WX Charts map valid for midnight shows a powerful band of rain sweeping across a wide strip from London and Southampton to south Wales. Bright red zones indicate rainfall rates close to 10mm per hour in some areas, with most of southern England under consistent heavy rain.
By 6am, the storm system starts moving northwards. Areas between Birmingham and Manchester appear to be the worst affected, as orange and yellow colours settle over the region.
Areas just below Manchester are covered in dark blue colours on the map suggesting rainfall of around 1mm per hour, with heavy showers continuing to fall in central parts of England.
Further south, the rain begins to ease slightly. London, Cardiff and much of the southeast appear drier by the early morning, though scattered showers remain across parts of East Anglia and the West Country.
The map valid for 12noon shows a significant weakening of the system. While light rain continues in some places, the intensity drops off sharply, and only a handful of areas remain affected.
The colours fade from red and orange to pale blue, indicating much lighter rainfall of around 0.2 to 1mm per hour.
According to WX Charts data, the storm stretches approximately 300 miles from Plymouth in Devon all the way to the Norfolk coast, blanketing counties including Hampshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, London, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk.
As far as The Met Office’s long-range forecast is concerned, it suggests that a deep area of low pressure linked to Hurricane Erin may be behind this spell of wet and unsettled weather.
The forecast valid between August 23 and September 1, reads: “A deep area of low pressure is likely to develop in the North Atlantic.
“This is linked to Hurricane Erin, which is expected to start to bring a change in weather to the UK, though the timing of this is uncertain.”
From early to mid-week, the Met Office says high pressure may “become increasingly eroded from the west” as low pressure systems move in from the Atlantic, bringing spells of rain.
Temperatures are likely to start off “warm or very warm before trending towards average”.