Heat, sunshine and blustery winds before hefty downpours and thunderstorms arrive overnight into Wednesday.
Golf- The practice days continue to be hot and sunny today, although with the threat of a hefty downpour or thunderstorm for Royal Birkdale Tuesday night and possibly on Wednesday. As the Championship starts for real, the Round 1 weather is looking much more settled and comfortable but with a wet and blustery start for early Friday morning.
Forecast
Yesterday, Hampshire saw a top temperature of 27.4C (81F) and 15.4 hours of sunshine at Morecambe as the sun beat down on Southport too. Today there will be more warmth and sunshine about although with a fair amount of medium level cloud over southern Britain. Worth looking up to spot Altocumulus Castellanus, the turret/battlement clouds, caused by instability.
These could give the odd light shower by day. They herald more active weather for tonight and tomorrow, but for today there won’t be as much sunshine for the Midlands and Wales and southern plus eastern England. We could peak at 29C today with many parts back into the 20s Celsius.
The northern half of Britain and all of Northern Ireland are bathed in sunshine this morning although there are still pockets of stubborn cloud over northern Scotland particularly Caithness.
The Met Office has issued a Yellow warning for Heavy rain, beginning at teatime Tuesday and continuing through until Wednesday evening.
Although many places will miss the thunderstorms, there is a chance of some localised flooding of homes, businesses and roads. Frequent lightning may be an additional hazard with potential for disruption to power networks.
Netweather's Nick Finnis has also issued his Convective Forecast, a more technical look at the risk of flash Flooding, frequent cloud-to-ground Lightning, Hail
So a real chance in the weather is on the way, especially for those areas that have been seeing heat and sunshine. Scattered heavy showers will creep up from the southwest. Cornwall and Devon could see a shower this afternoon and echoes are already showing on the Channel Islands radar.
There is quite a lot of uncertainty about where these showers will go, hence the wide area of risk. Heavy and thundery showers will move up from the SW later on Tuesday and spill over S. Britain during tonight, up through the Irish Sea, and continue to move northwards. A weather front will push in from the Atlantic bringing more rain and shower activity. Weather Apps will give different risks and timings but the threat of scattered thunderstorms is with us, but actual downpours and storms won't affect everyone. Best way is to "nowcast" off the Netweather Radar, or keep an eye on the Netweather Storm App. Chose Animate and watch how the bright echoes of heavy rain are moving. Chose Lightning on and see the progress of the crosses, each one a lightning strike over time.
Below is the forecast rainfall totals for today and tomorrow, showing SW Britain and Wales and western England getting the heaviest downpours.
Depending on how all of this binds together, Wednesday could be wet and blustery for Scotland and Northern Ireland, if the rain reaches Grampian. To the south there will be sunny spells and even more heat, especially for eastern England. 30 or 31C is possible and it will feel close and humid. Other parts will be very warm including NW England. Later in the day, a cold front will swing in from the Atlantic bringing cooler and fresher conditions. There maybe the odd home grown storm over England in the heat of the after but as this front comes up against the hot and humid air, there could be further hefty, even thundery downpours, transferring to NE England later on Wednesday.
So, Thursday looks fine, bright and will feel fresher, before an Atlantic low arrives from the west bringing blustery showers and a band of rain for early Friday.
