Met Office expands thunderstorm warning as flash floods could hit UK

A yellow thunderstorm warning is in effect for 12 hours, starting at 07:00 BST on Sunday 6 July and ending at 19:00 BST the same day. The Met Office has broadened the alert from an original focus on three regions to now cover parts of the East Midlands, the East of England, London & the South‑East and Yorkshire & the Humber. The map also shows the warning stretching into Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Peterborough, Suffolk, the East Riding of Yorkshire, Kingston upon Hull and the two North Lincolnshire districts.

Millions of people are being asked to brace for flash flooding, lightning strikes, hail and the occasional power cut. The agency’s wording stresses the need for a flood plan, an emergency flood kit and essential items such as torches, spare batteries, a mobile‑phone power pack and other supplies in case electricity is lost.

Media additions

What the Met Office says the storms will bring

In its alert the service warned: “Thunderstorms are expected to occur during Sunday, initially in the west of the region but spreading east through the morning. These will bring heavy rain, lightning and some hail. Within the warning area, 15‑25 mm of rain is expected quite widely, much of this falling within two or three hours at any given place. Where repeated thunderstorms occur, locally higher peaks of 40‑60 mm are possible.”

Travel operators are being told to expect “a good chance driving conditions will be affected by spray, standing water and/or hail, leading to longer journey times by car and bus.” Train services may also see delays, the agency added.

Heatwave backdrop and health alerts

The storm warning arrives after two consecutive weekends of exceptionally hot weather that made June the hottest on record across England. The peak temperature of the year so far was recorded in Faversham, Kent on 01 July, when it rose to just under 36 °C.

Expert commentary

“The headline is a changeable theme to the next couple of days and then the weather will become more settled as we go into next week. It could well reach heat‑wave criteria again across England and Wales towards the end of next week.”

Marco Petagna, senior meteorologist, Met Office, via Yahoo News UK

“By this evening, there is an increased risk of thunderstorms across northern areas, with the potential for some fairly wet weather.”

Dan Suri, chief meteorologist, Met Office, via Wales Online

Petagna also noted that “in the short term, it’s quite a mixed picture. There’s a lot of cloud around, and bits and pieces of showery rain around.” He added that “across the East of England, the weather could turn heavy and thundery and there’s a warning out for thunderstorms between 07:00 to 19:00, because of the unsettled atmosphere.”

Regional impacts beyond the warning area

While the yellow warning targets the east and south‑east, other parts of the country are set to feel the knock‑on effects of the same weather system. The West Midlands is expected to experience “heavy rain, electric storms and hail” on Sunday, according to the same Met Office release cited by Yahoo News.

Further north, the service forecasts “the most intense storms will strike Northern Ireland, Cumbria and western Scotland,” with “thunderstorms and torrential downpours” also forecast for Wales on Thursday.

Scotland and Northern Ireland can expect “a mixture of sunny spells and scattered showers, heavy in places and locally thundery” as the Atlantic front pushes eastwards.

These patterns are driven by a low‑pressure system centred to the north‑west of the UK, bringing a westerly wind that will replace the southerly flow that had fuelled the recent heat. The shift is expected to bring cooler air by the second half of the weekend, but the east and south‑east will stay “searingly hot throughout Saturday,” with afternoon temperatures in the high twenties or low thirties.

Drought concerns and water security