UK weather forecast: Heavy showers to bring hail and thunder before Storm Hannah hits
Many places will manage to stay dry, but anywhere could see thundery showers
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Your support makes all the difference.Bands of rain are moving across the UK bringing a mix of sun and heavy showers with hail and thunder – before Storm Hannah hits over the weekend.
The Met Office said that anywhere could see showers, as two bands of rain, one in Scotland and one moving across the Midlands, make their way north on Thursday.
“The showers are scattered so many places will manage to stay dry, but nowhere is really safe,” forecaster Simon Partridge said.
The rain will be accompanied by thunderstorms, strong winds and hail across England and Wales, bringing cooler temperatures almost everywhere. South-east England and northern Scotland will enjoy occasional warm sunshine.
More heavy thundery showers are forecast on Friday, especially in the east, with a band of cloud and rain moving eastward.
The Southwest and the Bristol Channel are also likely to see heavy winds on Friday night and Saturday as an area of low pressure passes through from Ireland, bringing more low temperatures, further spells of heavy showers and making Saturday wet and windy for most, apart from Scotland.
Met Eireann, the Irish meteorological service, has named the weather system Storm Hannah. A Met Office spokesman said the UK-based agency would probably not have gone as far as naming the system, which has come from the Atlantic, but will be issuing its own warnings
On Wednesday, Met Eireann issued a Status Yellow advisory for Cork and Kerry, warning there would be "potential for stormy conditions for the southwest later on Friday and early Saturday".
The warning is due to start at 6pm on Friday and expire at 6am on Saturday
The wind will only calm down on Sunday when London marathon runners will race in cloudy but drier conditions.
The unsettled weather comes after all four UK nations recorded their hottest ever Easter Monday.
The spring sunshine saw highs of 25C at Heathrow and Northolt, in London, as well as Wisley, in Surrey, beating the previous English record of 24C in the Solent in 2011.
But those temperatures will not be reached for quite some time, according to the Met Office, with temperatures settling in the mid-teens well into May.
“There is no strong signal for those temperatures to return,” Mr Partridge told The Independent. “Certainly not for the next five to seven days.”
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