Amber weather warning issued across England as thunder and heavy rain set to batter UK

Yellow warnings cover much of England over the weekend, as the prolonged warm and dry weather finally breaks.

Saturday’s amber warning covers much of the south of England, including London, Kent, Hampshire and Cambridge, lasting from 4am to 11am.

“Some communities are likely to become cut off if roads flood,” the Met Office warned.

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“Where flooding or lightning strikes occur, delays and some cancellations to train and bus services are likely.”

Jason Kelly, Met Office chief meteorologist, said: "More warnings could be issued for the weekend and early next week.

"Keep an eye on the Met Office forecast for updates as the picture develops.

"Within the warm and humid airmass we will potentially see temperatures reaching 30 degrees or more for parts of eastern England by Friday, with very warm and muggy conditions continuing into the weekend in parts of central and southern England."

On Sunday, the heavy showers are expected to continue, moving northwards throughout the day.

But parts of the UK will also experience warm weather and brighter, drier spells on Friday and throughout the weekend.

Alex Burkill, a meteorologist at the Met Office, warned that the high temperatures could become "quite uncomfortable" in some parts of the country.

He said: "In the south and east, there is further chance of staying dry and some decent sunshine on offer.

"So there's a lot of heat around, high humidity as well, quite uncomfortable for some of us.

"As we go into the weekend, with the heat and the humidity, there's a fairly strong chance that we are going to see some heavy, thundery rain, feeding up from the south.

"That is likely to become pretty widespread across much of the country as we go through Saturday and into Sunday."