Wet and windy end to April
Author: Press Office
11:29 (UTC+1) on Sun 29 Apr 2018
As we reach the last day of April, many of us in southeastern areas of England are faced with strong to gale force winds and persistent heavy rainfall.
A Yellow National Severe Weather Warning is in place for the South East of England for wind and rain covering Monday. A low pressure system, that is heading northwards across France, will edge into southeast England on Sunday evening and on Monday. Gale force winds (perhaps severe gales on coasts) and heavy rain will impact large areas roughly east of a line from Dorset to the Humber.
Chief Meteorologist Frank Saunders said “The heavy rain is likely to reach southeast England and parts of East Anglia later today and then spread north and west overnight, reaching much of eastern, central and southern England by Monday morning and then expected to last much of the day.
“Many areas will see between 25 and 40 mm of rainfall with isolated pockets perhaps seeing as much as 50 to 70mm (which is well in excess of the whole month’s average). This could increase the risk of flooding and hazardous driving conditions. The heavy rain will be accompanied by strong to gale force northerly winds – the unusual direction could increase the likelihood of localised impacts from wind too, with some damage to trees for example and likely closure of some bridges. Lastly it will be an unseasonably cold day – perhaps cold enough to produce some wet snow on high ground although this seems unlikely to settle”.
Meanwhile many northern and western areas escape the worst of this weather system with some sunshine by day but fairly widespread frost again tonight.
As we head through the rest of the week many of us will see some sunshine and showers, although there will be rain moving east on Wednesday and continuing in the north on Thursday. Southern areas in particular should see drier spells developing and after initial night frosts, temperatures will return to average for the time of year – perhaps a little above by the weekend.
The Met Office will continue to monitor the situation and issue advice accordingly.
You can find out the current forecast in your area using our forecast pages and by following us on Twitter and Facebook, as well as using our mobile app which is available for iPhone from the App store and for Android from the Google Play store.