UK weather: Met Office warns thunder and lightning to batter parts of UK as mercury drops

Thunderstorms are likely to rattle across parts of the UK today as heavy rain is forecast, the Met Office says.

Up to 32mm of rain will fall each hour in some isolate spots across both Northeast England and Northwest England by lunchtime, the weather service believes. It will also rain heavily across south Wales and the Midlands later this afternoon.

In these areas, showers will be thundery at times, forecasters understand. Alex Deakin, meteorologist with the service, said: "As we go through the day, we will see more showers developing particularly, over Wales, right across Northern England and the Midlands and in this zone, we could even see the odd thunderstorm.

"One or two scattered showers course Southwest England (are forecast). Not as many showers for Scotland and Northern Ireland, overall a much drier day here, particularly on the west coast of Scotland."

Southeast England and East Anglia will also dodge the drizzle today, but temperatures across the nation will struggle to exceed 23C, forecast for parts of Greater London and Essex. This is marginally cooler than Thursday's high of 24C, recorded in Gringley on the Hill, Nottinghamshire.

The Met Office also warns of thundery showers today, it says on its website. The forecast reads: "Saturday will be a day of sunny spells and showers. The showers mainly in the north and west, these turning heavy and possibly thundery later. Pleasantly warm in the sunshine.

"Dry with sunny spells and light winds on Sunday. Cloudy with some rain in the northwest Monday and Tuesday, but remaining dry, sunny and increasingly warm elsewhere."

Sunday's picture is much more pleasant, Mr Deakin added. He said: "It's going to be a fine day by and large, any early morning mist and fog should clear away and then something we haven't seen too much of through the summer - a cracking summer's day with lots of sunshine and temperatures getting a little bit above average."

It is likely the mercury could reach 25C on Sunday in the capital, and 24C as north as Leeds. It is an early indication that temperatures could slowly rise next week, during which forecasters reckon it will be hotter than parts of the Costa del Sol in Spain.