Heavy rain is set to sweep across London and the south after the coolest summer in almost a decade.
As we said goodbye to the summer, wet weather is on its way, sparking the Met Office to issue a yellow weather warning for rain from tonight until tomorrow morning, with up to 50mm of rainfall expected in the worst affected areas.
The yellow weather warning for heavy showers and possible thunder was issued for London and South East, South West, Wales, and a section of West Midlands.
It means travel on roads and rail could be disrupted if spray and sudden flooding hit, while homes and businesses in flood-prone areas could also be affected.
Heavy showers and thunder are likely from 9pm tonight until midnight tomorrow, with a possibility of thunder.
Where flooding and lightning strikes hit, trains and bus services could be delayed and cancelled, the Met Office warned.
As of this morning, there were no active flood alerts or warnings issued by the Environment Agency.
Is your area affected?
Here are the regions and locations where the Met Office yellow weather warning for heavy rain is in place from this evening.
- Thurrock
- Bracknell Forest
- Brighton and Hove
- Buckinghamshire
- East Sussex
- Greater London
- Hampshire
- Isle of Wight
- Kent
- Medway
- Oxfordshire
- Portsmouth
- Reading
- Slough
- Southampton
- Surrey
- West Berkshire
- West Sussex
- Windsor and Maidenhead
- Wokingham
- Bath and North East Somerset
- Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole
- Bristol
- Cornwall
- Devon
- Dorset
- Gloucestershire
- Isles of Scilly
- North Somerset
- Plymouth
- Somerset
- South Gloucestershire
- Swindon
- Torbay
- Wiltshire
- Blaenau Gwent
- Bridgend
- Caerphilly
- Cardiff
- Carmarthenshire
- Ceredigion
- Merthyr Tydfil
- Monmouthshire
- Neath Port Talbot
- Newport
- Pembrokeshire
- Powys
- Rhondda Cynon Taf
- Swansea
- Torfaen
- Vale of Glamorgan
- Herefordshire
While parts of the UK saw spells of scorching summer weather, the mean average temperature was the lowest since 2015, the Met Office revealed.
The mean temperature this summer was 0.22°C below the meteorological average in the UK.
Species struggling in cooler summer
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Despite short-lived heatwaves and bursts of hot weather, conditions across the three summer months were ‘pretty unsettled,’ Emily Carlisle, a Met Office scientist, said.
This could be good news for species like false widow spiders infamous for their ‘wasp sting’ bite as wet conditions are an ideal breeding ground for the infamous creepy crawler.
It has made headlines after reports of painful and – in some cases – dangerously infected bites linked to false widows.
However, other species like bats, butterflies and barn owls could be in trouble.
Sara Booth-Card, Action for Insects campaigner at The Wildlife Trust, told Metro.co.uk: ‘The past year has seen multiple temperature records broken, resulting in variable and unseasonal weather.
‘This included a very wet winter and spring, followed by a cool summer – again with high rainfall. Wildlife including bats, butterflies, and barn owls can all struggle in these conditions.
‘Less insects cannot be attributed to one year of unseasonal weather alone. Research shows that habitat loss and the use of pesticides have caused huge declines over the past 50 years.
‘This is bad news for both insects and species that eat insects, like bats and birds. We’ve had reports of low bat numbers this year, as well as an increase in hungry bats being taken in by rescue centres.’
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