More than a month’s worth of rain could fall in parts of England on Monday, with flood warnings issued and an amber weather alert in place for parts of central and southern parts of the country.
The Met Office issued an amber weather alert until 9pm for rain, meaning some flooding and travel disruption was expected, for an area including Milton Keynes, Oxford, Reading, Bath and Gloucester.
A much wider area, covering the majority of England, has been issued a yellow warning for heavy rain until midnight.
Some affected areas could experience 100-120mm of rain and forecasters said there could be further weather warnings in the week ahead.
The Met Office meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey said: “We could see over a month’s worth of rain falling, and with the rain we’ve already seen over the last couple of days this certainly has the potential to bring some disruption and flooding in locations, and here it is very important we do take care over the course of the day.”
The Environment Agency on Monday morning issued 13 flood warnings, meaning flooding was expected, as well as 71 alerts for possible flooding, with most affected areas concentrated in central and southern England.
These included Atherstone in Warwickshire, Leighton Buzzard and Luton in Bedfordshire and parts of London including Wimbledon and South Ruislip.
The Met Office chief meteorologist, Frank Saunders, said that some areas covered by the amber weather alert could be hit worse than others. “It all depends on where, and if, the weather system responsible for the heavy rain stalls and pivots,” he said.
“However, within this warning period – which encompasses two rush-hours – some localities will probably see between 50 and 80mm of rain, while there’s the possibility that a few could experience in excess of 100mm of rain.”
In the worst affected areas, road closures were in places and dozens of homes were without power on Monday morning after a wet and thundery weekend.
Thunder, lightning and hail marked the official end to summer, with the autumn equinox on Sunday afternoon signalling the start of the new season.
Police in Aldridge, near Walsall, evacuated customers from a Wetherspoon’s pub that was struck by lightning on Saturday, while a fundraiser has been launched to help a 79-year-old woman in Stoke-on-Trent whose roof was set alight when it was struck on the same day.
Staffordshire county council’s highways team delivered more than 300 sandbags to help homes threatened by rising river levels over the weekend, while pictures showed a large chunk of road washed away by rainwater near Stone.
As well as the heavy rain, temperatures are likely to drop to below-average levels for the time of year across the country.
Vautrey said: “During the forthcoming week, we see northerly winds starting to push their way in, so the cooling trend is going to continue for all of us.
“Parts of Scotland will certainly see that by already Monday and into Tuesday, with temperatures slipping down into the low teens in places, but that cool and cold air will eventually reach many areas of the UK by the time we head throughout the rest of the week.
“So all of us will start to see temperatures dropping below average for the time of year as we head towards the end of the week.”