Summer is coming… and so are heavy thunderstorms
THUNDERSTORMS could add to months of record-breaking rain this summer, the Met Office has said.
Chances of a wet or dry summer are still “fairly balanced” according to the forecaster, but “some spells of unsettled weather can be expected”.
“As is typical for the time of year, these spells are likely to see heavy downpours and thunderstorms for some regions,” the Met Office said.
It was too soon to know whether the prolonged wet weather that had been predominant over the past year would last into the summer, which officially starts this weekend, it added.
But England is set for the first summer without a hosepipe ban in three years, the Government has previously said, following the months-long washout. A yellow warning for storms was in place between 2pm and 7pm yesterday for parts of north-west England, Yorkshire, the East Midlands and East Anglia.
A separate warning covering Northumberland, Cumbria and southern Scotland was in place until midnight.
Parts of Northern Ireland were also covered by a yellow warning between noon and 9pm.
Forecasters warned up to 1.2in of rain could fall in just a few hours in places, while lightning, hail and strong winds could cause damage to buildings. There was also a chance of delays and cancellations to train and bus services and particularly heavy downpours in some areas could see roads cut off.
Stephen Dixon, a Met Office spokesman, said: “The UK is in the midst of some unsettled weather at the moment.
“It will be a little bit hit and miss within warning areas, some lightning strikes and travel disruptions lend an unsettled feel.”
On Wednesday, highs of 21C are expected in the south-east of England.
A further yellow warning for thunderstorms comes into force in Scotland at 10am today and is in place until 7pm.
This is the first summer for three years that England has escaped a hosepipe ban, though there is still time. The Chelsea Flower Show was marked by the sound of rain on canvas. Seasonal strawberries have tended to be watery and insipid – though that’s often the complaint whatever the weather. Slugs laugh at gardeners behind their backs. Miserably flooded fields mean cancelled harvests for many farmers. Once that would have spelt hunger as the cost of bread rose. It remains a fact that all our food comes from our fields or is shipped from fields overseas. Yet the most worrying prospect for some seems to be the rising price of biscuits. Today is National Biscuit Day, heaven help us. But we should be able to manage to do a little more, as the next shower passes, than be our own Marie Antoinettes declaring: “Let us eat biscuits.”