[error] EXPECT TO SEE A SIGNIFICANT, HEAVY, LONG DURATION RAINFALL LIKELY TOTALLING BETWEEN 1-3 INCHES BETWEEN LONDON AND GLASGOW STARTING TONIGHT IN SOUTH, ENDING IN NORTH BY SATURDAY, THIS WILL CAUSE FLOODING FOR MANY [/error]

While for some it has been a beautiful summers day with hazy sun and a high between 22-24C, for others, torrential downpours, thunder, lightning, gusting winds and even hail have been the noteworthy aspect of their day. With cold riding over warm, humid air has supported the development of thunderstorms which have been working out of East Anglia and pushing up the spine of the Pennines and into the Southern Uplands of Scotland. It’s over southern Scotland where we have seen quite the flare up as warmth and humidity feeding in from the near continent, along with the hilly terrain is likely enhancing these storms.

Interestingly, here in Lennoxtown to the north of Glasgow, we have seen a hazy sun all day and high around 70 to 71F (21C) and so it’s hard to imagine others getting hammered.

Unfortunately, we have got more concerning weather currently over France which could cause a lot of problems over the UK during the next 36 hours.

SIGNIFICANT RAINS PUSH INTO SOUTHEAST AND SOUTHERN ENGLAND TONIGHT AND WILL WORK NORTH OVER THE NEXT 36 HOURS. WILL LIKELY CAUSE TRAVEL DISRUPTION AND FLOODING!

A vast plume of heavy, organised and thundery rains are working north over France at the moment and will get picked up by a southeastbound low working out of Ireland, the counterclockwise steering flow around this low will lift these big rains up over the Channel and into the Southeast of England later tonight and into Friday morning. This rain could be torrential for a sustained period of time as the warm, humid atmosphere over the UK will help sustain, if not enhance the rains as they cross the channel tonight and spread across London and the Southeast, this rain as it spreads north, will not weaken but may in fact intensify as it pushes into a warm, moist environment over the Midlands and north up into Southern and central Scotland by Saturday morning.

The low will keep drawing in warmth from off the continent and as this flow crosses the North Sea, this will help increase the humidity over central and northern Britain, holding temps up tonight again, perhaps more so than recent nights. The concern is that as this front and it’s very active rain band works north into this warm, moist environment, we could see significant rain totals from London to Glasgow over the next 36 hours of 1, 2, even 3 inches WIDELY with locally higher amounts of rain. Embedded thunderstorms also must be considered given the instability we have over the UK, these would enhance rainfall rates and totals in localised areas. All this falling onto already saturated ground means flooding is a given following our wettest June and April-June period in recorded history.