Flash flood alert for south-east

Heavy downpours and thunderstorms are due to end the UK's short-lived heatwave

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Parts of south-east England are on the alert for flash flooding after forecasts that heavy downpours and thunderstorms are due to end the UK's short-lived heatwave.

Staff from the Environment Agency (EA) are looking out for surface flooding from storms which are likely to affect Essex and Kent.

The briefly violent weather may also reach London, but Met Office warnings were reduced overnight after initially including the home counties, East Anglia and parts of the Midlands.

Most of the country is now expected to have a much quieter end to the balmy three days brought by the Spanish plume effect of warm air funnelling from the Sahara, across the Iberian peninsula and up the western and northern coasts of the UK.

The EA and Met Office still expect up to 40mm of rain to fall within a very short period over the south-east, and flood alerts the lowest warning grade have also been issued for Thames tributary rivers in the London boroughs of Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich and Lewisham. The alerts follow the hottest day of the year on Monday when temperatures at Gravesend monitoring station in Kent hit 32.8C (91F).

A spokesman for the EA said: "Our staff are on 24-hour alert with teams monitoring river levels as the band of rain moves across the country. The public are encouraged to tune in to local media for forecasts for their area and to keep an eye out for signs of surface water flooding."

A Met Office spokesman said the "sheer volume of rainfall falling in such a short space of time" could overwhelm flood defences but the very dry spring would be likely to help absorb rainfall. Parts of eastern and central England are officially in a state of drought, which the rain should partially relieve.

The Met Office said that most parts of the UK would have a dry but fresher ! day, wit h a pattern of sunny and largely warm weather settling in for the rest of the week, interrupted by occasional showers.


guardian.co.uk Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


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