City could see 'a month's worth of rainfall' in just one day

The Met Office has issued four yellow severe weather warnings for rain, saying that areas affected could see flooding and disruption to transport.

The first is in place from 4am today until the end of the day, covering an area from the Humber all the way down to the south coast, and from the East Midlands to Portsmouth.

It is expected that some areas will see up to 60mm of rainfall today – more than the 50mm average for the entire month.

Met Office forecaster Simon Partridge said: ‘There is the potential some spots could see a month's worth of rain in one day.

‘It will be fairly localised with a number of other places seeing nearly half of month's rain – so a very wet day.

‘A number of spots around could see, within a few days really, a month's worth of rain, so a wet, windy, fairly cool week for most.’

Portsmouth may be one of the areas that gets off lightly with 20mm of rain today, as the band of rain progresses north – although wet weather is forecast for the entire week.