Halloween weather: heavy rain, thunderstorms and flooding across UK | UK News

If you were hoping for some autumn sunshine you’ll be disappointed because parts of the UK are going to be battered by heavy rain and thunderstorms.

Locals in Hastings woke up to a surprise this morning because a shopping centre has been evacuated due to flooding in the town centre.

East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said they were assisting with the situation at Priory Meadow Shopping Centre, where social media footage showed deep floodwater had come inside through the entrance on Station Road.

‘We are assisting in dealing with flooding at the Priory Meadow Shopping centre, Hastings, which has been evacuated,’ the service said in a statement.

Posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, the service added: ‘If you have cars in Hastings town centre you are advised to move them due to flooding.’

Elsewhere, areas in London and the south of England, the Highlands and north east of Scotland and Northern Ireland will be battered and sprayed over the next few days.

Some regions could see 70mph gusts or up to four inches of rain, leading to possible flooding, travel delays and power cuts.

And this all comes after Storm Babet wreaked havoc across the nation and killed people.

Met Office forecaster Dan Stroud said: ‘On Saturday we’ve got frequent showers across the south and west which will move across Wales and into the south east during the morning, before a more general area of cloud and rain moves up, bringing heavy rain and strong winds.

‘That will move northern eastwards during the course of Saturday and into Sunday, behind it showers which could be locally heavy and thundery and particularly squally.

‘We do have a yellow rain warning covering London and the south east until the end of Sunday, talking about fairly heavy rain, 15 to 30mm, some spots could see highs of 50 to 70mm with some strong, gusty winds, there could be some localised impacts.

‘The band of cloud and rain will continue moving northwards during Sunday, especially focused in eastern Scotland, which is already rather sensitive following the high rainfall from Storm Babet, so more unwelcome rain for that patch of the world and we have a yellow rain warning in place there today and tomorrow, talking about 50 to 80mm of rain accompanied by strong, gusty winds of 50 to 70mph.

‘On it’s own the rainfall totals are not that high but given the fact we’ve had all that rain from Storm Babet it doesn’t take much for there to be localised impacts because the ground is already saturated.’

In Scotland some rail services have been disrupted or cancelled.

The latest Scottish Flood Forecast said ‘significant flooding impacts’ are likely in the north east today due to torrential downpours.

The Environment Agency has 39 flood warnings in place, stretching from north east to south west England, meaning flooding should be expected.

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