More rain and 60mph winds warning

Apr 27 2012

Much of England and Wales will experience further downpours while strong winds of up to 60mph are set to batter parts of the UK over the weekend.

The wet weather shows no signs of relenting and is likely to continue well into next week as one of the wettest Aprils on record comes to an end.

However the deluge is not expected to be enough to avert a drought across parts of the country and water companies are unlikely to lift their hosepipe bans.

Brendan Jones, forecaster at MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "The wettest areas today will be East Anglia, Wales and southern England, which can expect sharp, heavy downpours this afternoon. There's also likely to be some lightning and hail - the sorts of things we've got quite used to over the past week."

He said the rain was then expected to move northwards to north Wales and the North Midlands later, with the worst affected areas experiencing up to 10mm of rain.

"Tomorrow is not looking too bad but parts of England and Wales are going to get a real soaking on Sunday. Some of the wettest weather will be in southern England with up to 40mm falling. It will then move further north with Scotland and Northern Ireland getting the rain by Sunday night."

Mr Jones said gusts of 55 to 60mph were set to hit coastal areas on Sunday, but it was currently unclear which parts of the country would be worst affected.

"They are especially strong for what is ultimately getting towards late spring," he said. "We would not normally see such strong winds at this time of year. There will potentially be another band of rain on Tuesday. The weather isn't going to get any better in the foreseeable future."

So far this month there has been 175% more rain than would be normal, MeteoGroup forecaster Nick Prebble said.

The Environment Agency said 10 flood warnings were in place in north-east England on Friday while there were 38 flood alerts across the country.