England braces for rainy bank holiday weekend

Festivalgoers brave wet weather and strong winds as ‘unsettled’ conditions expected to last into start of next week

Heavy rain is expected over the weekend, forecasters have said, with large parts of England braced for flooding on Friday.

The Environment Agency issued a flood warning in the town of Nelson, Lancashire, as well as a series of less-severe flood alerts across the Midlands. Met Office forecasters said parts of the country would see thunderstorms.

They issued a yellow warning on Friday, saying heavy showers and thunderstorms could cause travel disruption. The forecasters predicted “unsettled” weather throughout the weekend and into the start of next week, with “heavy, thundery showers in many areas on Sunday”. But, as of Friday afternoon, the conditions were not expected to be severe enough to warrant renewed weather warnings.

“It’s a rather unsettled bank holiday weekend. Saturday will start for many with a band of rain spreading north-east. That will be replaced by heavy showers with the potential for more thunderstorms, it will also be a windy day, particularly in the south and south-west of England,” the Met Office said.

“Sunday, a mix of sunshine and showers, winds will be generally lighter for most places than Saturday. Monday will continue to be changeable, sunny spells and scattered showers, there will be some dry weather around, and breezy conditions.”

Temperatures are likely to reach 20-22C on Saturday, and 20C on Sunday and Monday.

Much of England and Wales was covered by the warnings issued for Friday. They suggested flooding of a small number of homes and businesses was likely, trains could be delayed and car journeys could take longer.

The thunderstorm warning covered all inland areas in Wales, from the Severn to the Wash in England, including all of the Midlands, up as far north-east as Teesside and across to Lancashire.

The flood warning in Lancashire, which indicated flooding was “expected” was issued in Nelson, on Walverden Water. A further 11 flood alerts, meaning floods are possible, were issued in the Midlands and up into South Yorkshire.

The Met Office said flooding could cause damage to buildings or structures, and that the same could be caused by lightning strikes. They said brief power cuts could occur and disruption to road and rail travel was likely.

The forecaster said thunderstorms would probably bring 10-20mm of rain in a short period in a few places, with the potential for 30-40mm where there are repeated downpours.

Festivalgoers heading to Reading and Leeds, Creamfields and other live music events have also been warned of unseasonably strong winds.

Trains were disrupted at Knebworth towards London because of flood water making the railway potentially unsafe on Friday, National Rail said.

Throughout the summer, continued hot weather across the UK coincided with extremely dry conditions. The Met Office has previously said the UK is on course for its hottest summer on record after five heatwaves, with temperatures of up to 38.1C recorded in London, as the effects of the climate crisis become ever more apparent.

The EA said that after a National Drought Group meeting on Thursday morning, 71.3% of England remains in drought. It said August so far has received only 34% of the expected rainfall.

Filey in North Yorkshire saw the most rainfall with 55mm between 8pm on Thursday and 7am on Friday, the Met Office said.