South West Braces For Heavy Overnight Rain

Dozens of flood warnings and alerts are in place across much of the UK as torrential rain continues to lash the country, with the South West expected to see up to 100mm in the next 24 hours.

Many regions have received more than half the average rainfall for July in just one day, and the Met Office is warning of continued heavy rain this evening and into tomorrow.

It has issued a red warning, their highest, for parts of Devon and Cornwall for Saturday - meaning people should "take action".

The Environment Agency (EA) is urging those in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset to remain vigilant and prepared for flooding. Northumberland could also see very heavy rain and flooding this evening, the agency added.

The south Pennines and north Midlands, including the areas around Manchester, Sheffield, North Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire also remain at risk of flooding into the weekend.

Going into Friday evening, the EA has 47 flood warnings in place, along with 123 flood alerts. In addition, more than 11,000 properties have received a flood warning.

Scotland is also experiencing problems, with flood alerts in place in nine areas - from the centre to the south of the country.

Craig Woolhouse, the EA's head of flood incident management, said: "When flood warnings are issued, residents in those areas should think about moving valuable possessions to safety.

"We would also ask people to remember to stay away from flood water, and do not walk or drive through it, as it is often fast moving and can contain sewage and other debris."

The Met Office has severe or amber weather warnings in place for northern half of Wales and much of central and northern England.

There are also yellow warnings across a wider area that takes in southern England, southern Wales, southern Scotland and Northern Ireland, with heavy rain expected.

Downpours across large swathes of the Britain on Friday caused travel disruption and forced the cancellation of several events.

In Cayton Bay, North Yorkshire, volunteer crew from Filey RNLI lifeboat station assisted with the evacuation of six people, some with special needs, from a flooded caravan park.

The bad weather has caused havoc to train services, with passengers hit by long delays on a number of major routes due to flooding. Landslips disrupted services in the Garswood area and at Grantham in Lincolnshire.

The Highways Agency said the M50 in Worcestershire was closed westbound between the M5 and junction 2 and eastbound between junctions 2 and 1 due to the weather causing hazardous driving conditions.

On the M1 around junction 27 at Heanor, spray and surface water made driving conditions difficult and reduced visibility, while roads were closed in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.

Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service said it had dealt with five incidents where people had been trapped in their vehicles as a result of localised flooding.

Forecasters had predicted a month's worth of rain could hit the UK in a 24-hour period on Friday. Some towns in the UK saw 36mm of rainfall between 7am and 1pm; the average rainfall for July is 69.9mm.

Tony Waters, deputy chief forecaster at the Met Office, said: "We are expecting spells of very heavy and thundery rain across a wide area of the UK in the next few days, with worst affected spots likely to be in central and northern parts of the country.

"Rainfall totals could be 20-40mm widely across warning areas but some places could see around 100mm of rain through today and into tomorrow.

"Given the saturated ground from the record rainfall in June, this could cause significant disruption - including difficult driving conditions and flooding in some areas."

The wet weather has already caused delays to some of this year's big summer sporting fixtures, including Wimbledon and England Test matches.

The two-day MFest food and music festival in Leeds has been cancelled earlier today due to safety concerns.

Up to 30,000 people were due to attend from Friday to see acts including The Human League and Cher Lloyd.

Sky News weather presenter Nazaneen Ghaffar said: "Friday and Saturday will see very heavy and persistent rain that could cause localised flooding across central parts of the UK and Ireland.

"This is due to an area of low pressure centred over the UK that moved in on Thursday night from the continent.

"This is bringing intense rainfall today for East Anglia into the Midlands and parts of northern England, as well as Wales and southern areas of Ireland this afternoon."

Last month was the wettest June since records began, with double the average rain falling during the month. The exceptional amount of rain caused floods in Wales and parts of England.

It was the second month this year to see record-breaking amounts of rain, with April also the wettest, according to records dating back more than a century to 1910.

So far this summer there has only been one spell of prolonged fine weather during the second half of May.