Thunderstorms may hit the South West as hot weather breaks

The Met Office issued a severe weather warning on Monday 22 July with thunderstorms anticipated in the South West in the next few days.

The recent prolonged spell of high pressure and heat is likely to give way to cloudier conditions with the risk of isolated thunderstorms or longer spells of thundery rain and some torrential downpours in places.

The Met Office said: "The public should be aware of the risk of localised disruption to travel,  and more generally to summer holiday activities, due to (for example) surface water flooding.

"An area of low pressure is expected to increasingly interact with the plume of hot, humid air resident across parts of southern Britain. Whilst preceding days will have seen relatively isolated thunderstorms, the developing set-up on Tuesday and Wednesday, provides the ingredients for more widespread and energetic storms. Large rainfall totals, falling in short periods (perhaps exceeding 50 mm in 3 hours) and onto hard-baked ground, may lead to flooding locally, with hail and gusty winds an additional possibility.

"As is common in such situations, not everywhere will catch the heaviest of the storms, and some places may well escape altogether. The Alert intentionally covers a broad area at present, to cater for the uncertainties in the thundery focus, as signposted by various available computer model output. As such, further updates to the area are highly likely."