UK weather: Urgent 'danger to life' flood warning for TWO INCHES of rain in an hour

Brits have been warned to batten down the hatches as an amber alert for thunder storms has been issued, with flooding likely across several counties.

Eleven areas in the east, south east and London have been warned by the Met Office to expect heavy rain and storms between 11am and 10pm today, with as many as two inches forecast to fall.

After weeks of dry conditions the deluge is expected to cause flooding in several areas, with power cuts also feared.

The Met Office warned: "Heavy showers and thunderstorms are expected to break out today leading to some flooding and disruption.

The yellow warning has increased further north (Met Office)

Several areas are also covered by the amber alert (Met Office)

"Some places will miss these, but where they do occur, 30 to 50 mm of rain could fall in less than an hour and a few places may see in excess of 100 mm in a few hours where storms are slow moving. Lightning and hail will be additional hazards.

"Showers and storms will slowly die out this evening."

Among the areas affected by the amber alert is London, with residents and commuters warned of possible disruption owing to the conditions.

Brits are warned it may cause delays or cancellations to bus and train services caused by deep and fast flowing flood water.

Heavy flooding is feared when the rain falls today (Tom Corban/REX/Shutterstock)

People in rural areas may also be cut off by the deluge of water after weeks of bright sunshine and high temperatures.

A separate yellow thunderstorm warning remains in place for nearly half the country, with forecasters extending it further north to include southeast Wales.

A spokesman added: "The yellow area has been extended northwestwards to cover more of England and moving into southeast Wales, the start time brought forward, and the likelihood of impacts increased."

Although rain is likely to sweep across the UK on Wednesday, there is set to be sunny weather in the north while temperatures are predicted to peak in the south east with 25C highs.

There are fears rural areas could be cut off by the rain while other areas could experience power cuts (John Myers)

It is a similar outlook for Thursday where it will be slightly warmer and could hit 26C.

Met Office forecaster Clare Nasir earliersaid: “A fine start to the day for Scotland, a light breeze and some sunshine, that sunshine extends down to northern counties of England.

"The cloud will break up across Northern Ireland, a good day here to be out and about with some brighter weather and you can see some sunshine just appearing across the north west of Wales.

Two inches of rain are forecast to fall, say experts (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

"But here’s that thundery rain across the bulk of Wales and extending to Lincolnshire and some clusters of thunderstorms developing and moving very slowly across the home counties, central and southern England as well as East Anglia.

"So through the day this is where the lively weather will be.”

Areas affected by the amber alert

East of England

• Essex

• Southend-on-Sea

• Suffolk

• Thurrock

The downpour is expected to have a huge effect over the course of the day (Jonathan Buckmaster)

London & South East England

• Brighton and Hove

• East Sussex

• Greater London

• Kent

• Medway

• Surrey

• West Sussex

People have been warned to expect delays to bus and train services (John Myers)

Areas affected by the yellow alert

East Midlands

• Leicester

• Leicestershire

• Lincolnshire

• Northamptonshire

• Rutland

East of England

• Bedford

• Cambridgeshire

• Central Bedfordshire

• Essex

• Hertfordshire

• Luton

• Norfolk

• Peterborough

• Southend-on-Sea

• Suffolk

• Thurrock

The deluge comes after weeks of bone dry conditions (John Myers)

London & South East England

• Bracknell Forest

• Brighton and Hove

• Buckinghamshire

• East Sussex

• Greater London

• Hampshire

• Isle of Wight

• Kent

• Medway

• Milton Keynes

• Oxfordshire

• Portsmouth

• Reading

• Slough

• Southampton

• Surrey

• West Berkshire

• West Sussex

• Windsor and Maidenhead

• Wokingham

South West England

• Bath and North East Somerset

• Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole

• Bristol

• Cornwall

• Devon

• Dorset

• Gloucestershire

• Isles of Scilly

• North Somerset

• Plymouth

• Somerset

• South Gloucestershire

• Swindon

• Torbay

• Wiltshire

Wales

• Blaenau Gwent

• Bridgend

• Caerphilly

• Cardiff

• Merthyr Tydfil

• Monmouthshire

• Neath Port Talbot

• Newport

• Rhondda Cynon Taf

• Torfaen

• Vale of Glamorgan

West Midlands

• Herefordshire

• Warwickshire

• West Midlands Conurbation

• Worcestershire