We have had a staggering week of intensely hot weather across the country! While the heat will slightly drop off in the coming days, the increase in humidity is set to culminate in a major thunderstorm. This storm will be hitting parts of Sussex, most heavily the West.
The prospect of this change in weather has caused the Met Office to give its first weather warning as a result of a thunderstorm. This comes after introducing a new advisory on thunderstorms last month. The Met Office has been active for 164 years, with this a landmark moment in its history.
The storm could bring a wave of torrential rain, hail and lightning. Wales and the south of England, including Sussex, will be the main recipients of this extreme weather, which comes as a result of the bout of extreme heat. In fact, it could be so bad as to cause flooding for businesses. This worst-case scenario is, however, perceived as a relatively unlikely circumstance.
With temperatures reaching heights across the country of 29.5c so far and potentially set to hit 30c, this huge level of heat and humidity is unsurprisingly the factor which is set to bring this weather on.
The Met Office introduced the new thunderstorm warning measures in response to concerns about preparing for them, especially since similar measures exist for other forms of weather. Speaking last month about their new guidelines, the Met Office stated that: “we are introducing thunderstorm warnings to help communicate the potential impacts from this sort of weather, particularly through the summer months.”