Heavy downpours and flooding bring an end to warmest summer on record

The warmest summer on record is set to end in a total washout, the Met Office forecasts (Picture: PA)

Heavy downpours are set to cause flooding in some parts of the UK as the warmest summer on record ends in a washout.

Some areas have already seen more than half a month’s worth of rain in 11 hours.

Stormy weather will push through western parts of the UK during Saturday, and the rain is expected to be heavy and persistent, unlike the recent short-lived and intense downpours.

The heaviest deluges were on England’s southern coast between Thursday night and Friday morning, as the remnants of Hurricane Erin were subsumed into a low-pressure system.

Heligan Gardens, Cornwall, received 63mm of rain, 56mm were recorded in Mount Batten, Devon, and 49.9mm in Friar Waddon, Dorset, between 10pm on Thursday and 9am on Friday.

Cornwall’s average rainfall for the whole of August is 92.5mm, Devon’s is 94.2mm, and Dorset’s is 72mm.

Fire crews rescued a family from their flooding home in Torpoint, Cornwall, and the town’s fire station warned of deep flood water on the A374 from Wilcove to Antony.

A landslide blocked the A379 in Modbury, Devon, and fire crews in the county were called to 15 incidents overnight on Thursday, the BBC reported.

A Met Office yellow rain warning ended at 12pm on Friday.

The RAC breakdown service said the rain did not cause widespread issues on the roads, but said further downpours are forecast on Saturday (Picture: Alamy)

The RAC breakdown service said the rain did not cause widespread issues on the roads, but said further downpours are forecast on Saturday.

Met Office spokeswoman Nicola Maxey said: ‘You would expect summer rainfall to be these sort of intense, heavy bursts along with dry periods in between.

‘So, it’s not unusual to get really heavy downpours in the summer period, where you get high percentage of the month’s rainfall in a short period of time.

‘They were quite intense showers, and yes, they were quite heavy, but I’m not sure I call them particularly unusual for the summer months.’

One Environment Agency (EA) flood warning was active on Friday because of rising water levels in the rivers Shuttle and Cray in Bexley, south-east London.

‘Flooding of roads and low-lying land is possible, property flooding is not expected,’ it said.

Saturday will bring 10-20mm of rain quite widely and some western higher ground areas locations could have 30-40mm, Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill said.

There is a risk of gales in western areas ‘but even elsewhere it is going to be a pretty blustery day’, he added.

The weather front is moving north-eastwards and eastern areas will become wetter by Saturday evening, he added.

Some areas have already seen more than half a month’s worth of rain in 11 hours (Picture: Amer Ghazzal/Shutterstock)

Mark Garratt, flood duty manager the EA, warned on Friday: ‘Heavy and persistent showers mean minor surface water flooding is probable across parts of the East and South East of England today.

‘Environment Agency teams will be out on the ground and supporting local authorities in responding to surface water flooding.

‘We urge people not to drive through flood water – it is often deeper than it looks and just 30cm of flowing water is enough to float your car.’

He recommended people search ‘check my flood risk’ online, sign up to receive free flood warnings, and check the @EnvAgency account on X, formerly Twitter.

RAC spokesman Rod Dennis said: ‘While yesterday’s rainfall didn’t cause widespread problems on the roads, drivers shouldn’t be fooled as there are further downpours forecast on Saturday.

‘This is likely to lead to some difficult driving conditions for many, as the wet spell coincides with a big weekend for families returning home at the end of the summer holidays.’

The Met Office reported that this summer would ‘almost certainly’ be the UK’s warmest on record as the mean average temperature for the season stood at 16.13C, based on data up to August 28.

If this season is confirmed as setting a new high for average temperature, it will mean all of the UK’s top five warmest summers will have occurred since the year 2000.

The top five are currently 2018 (15.76C), 2006 (15.75C), 2003 (15.74C), 2022 (15.71C) and 1976 (15.70C).

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