The UK is set for three days of heavy rain, with the Met Office issuing weather warnings after a prolonged heatwave.
With an extreme heat warning coming to an end at midnight tonight, new warnings for thunderstorms across the country are now in place.
There are fears that after such an intense dry spell, the downpours will lead to flash flooding and do little to ease drought conditions – despite the scorching weather being replaced by thunderstorms.
But it could reduce the threat of wildfires, which have put huge pressure on fire services around the country in recent weeks.
Temperatures hit 34.1°C in Charlwood, Surrey, earlier today, according to the Met Office, who brought in an amber warning for thunderstorms over part of Northern Ireland earlier this evening.
That expired at 10pm, but a Yellow warning will be in place for virtually the entire UK tomorrow.
By Tuesday and Wednesday, only more southern parts of the country will be included.
The forecaster has warned of thunder, lightning and power cuts as showers move in.
Dan Stroud, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said the drastic change in weather is due to an alteration in air pressure.
He explained: ‘We’ve had a number of days now where we’ve had clear, strong, clear skies and strong sunshine which has heated up the ground.
‘We’ve had high pressure dominating, now we’re having low pressure dominate, so the air is becoming more unstable.
‘As we’ve had some very high ground temperatures, it doesn’t actually take too much for the air to become even more unstable and for thundery showers to develop quickly.’
The change comes after an official drought was declared in eight areas of England on Friday by the National Drought Group (NDG).
Three water companies – Welsh Water, Southern Water, and South East Water – have also imposed hosepipe bans, while Yorkshire Water has announced a ban will start on August 26 and Thames Water is planning one in the coming weeks.
But Mr Stroud said that despite the likelihood of intense showers over the next few days, it probably won’t ease the drought.
‘It will help a little but to be honest really, it’s almost the wrong sort of rain,’ he said.
‘What we’re likely to see is some heavy, intense downpours.
‘With the ground baked so dry, it’s very difficult for the ground to actually absorb the water very quickly… so what tends to happen in these circumstances is the water runs off and we can potentially get some surface run-off issues, so some flash floods.’
The hot weather led to several wildfires erupting across England, with blazes breaking out in Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Essex and Devon.
It comes as a search is also under way for a man in the River Thames in west London after he was reported getting into difficulty in the water.
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The Metropolitan Police said a ‘multi-agency response’ was in operation after they received reports of the man in the water at Hampton Court at 4.12pm.
Meanwhile, severe weather has already hit Scotland.
Shoppers were evacuated from a Tesco supermarket in Inverness when water poured in through the ceiling.
Videos on social media showed tiles on the ceiling falling to the floor and water pouring in, covering most of the store’s floor on Sunday.
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