Blustery Britain: Storm Evert to bring more strong wind and heavy rain

30 July 2021, 18:28 | Updated: 30 July 2021, 18:39

By Nick Hardinges

@NHardinges

Yellow weather and flood warnings have been issued across the UK as Storm Evert looks set to further batter Britain's shores this weekend.

Thunderstorms and blustery showers will move eastwards across the country from Friday bringing unseasonable weather to coastlines in the South East and East Anglia.

The Met Office has issued storm warnings for large parts of England - from Nottingham to Norwich, and as far north as Hull.

Unsettled spells were expected across the nation and Wales on Friday, with strong winds set to hit south-east coasts and "torrential thundery downpours" in the east, the weather service said.

Read more: Storm Evert - weather 'will get worse before it gets better'

Read more: Evert to bring 'unseasonably strong winds and heavy rain' across the south

It added: "There'll be further heavy downpours around on Saturday.

"The focus for the heaviest of these will be across central, eastern and southern England where there could be some thunderstorms.

"Another day where the weather will bring some locally tricky travelling conditions."

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Storm Evert, which hit the UK's shores on Thursday evening, produced gusts of wind up to nearly 70mph across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

The highest speed recorded so far was 69mph in St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly, the Met Office said.

RNLI volunteer crews from St Mary's and Sennen Cove spent Thursday night rescuing people from yachts around the islands.

Falmouth Coastguard Operations Centre reported a total of 22 incidents on Thursday night.

Pete Hicks, coxswain of St Mary's RNLI lifeboat, said: "It was an incredibly busy night.

"We were afloat from about 11pm until around 3am this morning, it was a very busy night for everyone involved.

"I went aboard Sennen Cove RNLI's all-weather lifeboat to assist the crew with local knowledge of the area, and with a huge team effort, we were able to successfully rescue everybody in difficulty.

"The conditions were horrendous, at one point we had over 50 knots of wind with squally showers."

The Met Office's Oli Claydon said: "The amber warning that was associated with the storm has now expired. That was for the area covering Cornwall.

"We had two yellow weather warnings in place today. There are two separate areas for wind - the area covering south-west and southern parts of Wales, which has now expired.

"Then there's another area to the south-west which expires at 6pm on Friday evening.

"That reflects how the storm centre is moving eastwards across the country, so as we get to evening time, the low centre will have cleared eastwards and the wind speeds will start to ease down.

"There is also a thunderstorm warning in force up until 10pm on Friday evening for parts of central and eastern England."

The Met Office added that the heavy showers and thunderstorms could lead to the flooding of homes and businesses, power cuts and transport disruptions.

Flood alerts for Eastern Yar, Isle of Wight, and the Somerset coast at Porlock Weir have also been issued by the Environment Agency.

Mark Morgan-Hillam, 48, his wife Leanne, 43, and their children went camping just above Polzeath, Cornwall, on Thursday evening.

The deputy headteacher, from Appley Bridge, Wigan, said: "The lack of warning was an issue.

"It was only at 9 or 10pm at night that we noticed the storm warning had changed to amber and I think that caught a lot of people out on our site who went to bed thinking it would be windy, but not blow their tent over."