The remnants of Hurricane Nigel will sweep across the UK and bring heavy rain and winds later this week, the Met Office has warned.
The tail end of Hurricane Lee, which hit North America at the weekend and saw a man killed by a fallen tree, will hit northern England and Wales today before subsiding and being replaced with Hurricane Nigel at the weekend.
We’ll see ‘unsettled weather’ and increased rain and winds for the rest of the week – and there are yellow weather warnings in place until 6pm on Wednesday with the risk of flooding in some areas.
Grahame Madge, Met Office spokesman, said: ‘On Sunday, we will start to see the influence of ex-tropical Hurricane Nigel, which will be offshore in the mid-Atlantic.
‘These systems have a long reach, it will increase rainfall rates and also winds to bring unsettled weather to the UK.
‘Although we’ve indicated there could be flooding associated with the reasonably high levels of rainfall, that’s not something anticipated to be widespread.
‘It’s something that may be a consequence of a catchment that suddenly gets more inundated or there are blockages in drainage.’
‘It’s fair to say Hurricane Lee has brought more moisture with it, and also higher temperature air.
‘When this air comes across us (the UK) it will deliver more in the way of rainfall than a normal system.’
The yellow warning is not to be compared to the ‘intense amounts’ of rainfall seen over the weekend, when more than 10,000 lightning strikes were recorded across the UK.
Over the weekend Devon and Somerset saw the worst of the fallout from Hurricane Lee, with Paignton zoo forced to close and a number of bus and train cancellations.
Heavy showers and thunderstorms may hit parts of the UK on Thursday and Friday, but the Met Office said they are not expected to be as severe as those predicted on Sunday.