Yellow weather warnings in place as heavy rain triggers further flooding across UK in wake of Storm Chandra

Low pressure remains the dominant force for the UK’s weather over the next few days, with further rain on the way for some flood-hit areas.

A yellow rain alert has been issued for Devon and Cornwall on Friday, which will affect previously sodden ground following Storm Chandra.

The Met Office issued the alert from 9am on Friday through to 6am on Saturday for an area stretching from Land’s End to Exeter.

In Northern Ireland a separate yellow warning for rain is in place until 6pm today. It is forecast to bring “spells of heavy rain leading to some transport disruption and flooding in places”.

As it moves northeast overnight, this front is likely to bring some short-lived snowfall to high ground in the north of Wales, northern England and Scotland, though this is likely to fall as rain to lower levels.

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The RNLI is warning people to be vigilant near the coast in Devon and Cornwall because of the potential of 15ft waves surging up exposed beaches and topping over sea fronts and harbour walls.

Steve Instance, from the charity, said: “Current forecasts for Friday are predicting wave heights between 10ft to 15ft, which isn’t unusual for this time of year, however, what makes this particularly worrying is the long lull, or swell period between the waves.

“Surf forecasts are predicting a 17-second swell period. What this looks like is a gap between sets of very large, very powerful waves of up to 15 minutes.

“This could mean, particularly close to high tide in the middle of the day, people walking on beaches or along sea fronts will be faced with a sudden surging set of waves racing 200 metres to 300 metres up the beach, or topping over sea or harbour walls.

“There is a risk this could catch walkers out and in the worst case sweep them off their feet into the sea.”

Sunday will be the drier day of the weekend for many, albeit with further showers drifting in from North Sea coasts, as well as in western parts too. It’ll be largely cloudy, though with some brighter intervals at times.

Met Office Deputy Chief Forecaster Stephen Kocher explained the reasons behind the current unsettled outlook: “The temperature contrast in North America is helping to invigorate the jet stream, which is a driver for much of the UK’s weather.

"With the jet stream strengthened, this helps to develop and strengthen low pressure systems and push them towards our shores, resulting in the weather we’ve seen over recent days. This is likely to bring further unsettled weather into next week.”

Storm Chandra is the latest storm to be named by the western Europe storm naming group list shared between the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands.