Met Office warns of lightning, hail and 40mm downpours across all four nations this bank holiday Sunday
Dozens of homes in Birmingham and beyond sustained flood damage as a record-breaking summer of five heatwaves gave way to lightning, torrential rain and widespread disruption.A festival-goer is rescued from the mud at Reading, where heavy, thundery showers are forecast to push into the site by Sunday evening.
Yellow thunderstorm warnings have been posted by the Met Office for every part of the UK on bank holiday Sunday, leading meteorologist Kathryn Chalk to urge Britons to keep an umbrella to hand. All four nations fall under the alert, with the exception of south-east England and northern Scotland. Gusts of up to 45mph are expected in some locations, and homes and businesses face the prospect of flooding and brief power outages.
The hardest-hit areas may receive up to 40mm of rain within a matter of hours, with hail and frequent lightning adding to the hazard.
Among those worst affected will be festivalgoers at Reading and Leeds and revellers at Notting Hill Carnival, whose crowds had already endured heavy downpours and muddy conditions on Saturday.
The stormy weather comes despite 71.3% of England being classified as drought-affected only days ago, and follows a spell earlier in the week that left dozens of homes damaged by flooding.
