A TORNADO warning was in place for Britain tonight as heavy rain and gales were forecast to last a WEEK.
Torrential downpours pounded parts of the UK today – after the Met Office issued a slew of weather warnings for thunderstorms and rain.
The highest rainfall was recorded at St Catherine's Point on the Isle of Wight, where 23mm fell this morning as those in London and the South East were told to prepare for flooding and travel chaos.
That warning ends at 7pm, but forecasters warned of further deluges in store.
RAIN AHEAD
Emma Smith of the Met Office told The Sun Online: "There's a chance as we head towards this evening that we could see between 40-60mm in two or three hours.
"In the north west we could see 30-40mm of rain by 10am tomorrow."
Today's stormy weather heralds the start of an "unsettled" week of wind and rain.
It prompted Torro, the UK's Tornado and Storm Research Organisation, to issue a tornado warning this afternoon.
Torro wrote on Facebook that "some low-level convergence/wind shift lines has allowed a couple of funnel cloud/potential tornado reports to come in already", with "one or two more weak tornadoes" possible this afternoon.
But Ms Smith added: "The effects of a small tornado wouldn't be dramatically different to that of a thunderstorm.
"The impact won't be that different to that of thunderstorms, you'd have a swirling vortex and you could see garden furniture getting blown over, but you could get that from a storm."
DISRUPTION
While large parts of the country enjoyed a settled day, a yellow weather warning was in place for thunderstorms across London and the South East today after a weekend of stormy conditions.
Following today's downpours, temperatures will then struggle to climb out of the teens for the rest of the week as low pressure brings cool, wet weather, according to forecasters.
Tomorrow would be "a day of sunshine and showers", Ms Smith said.
"Especially in northern England and Scotland there's a chance of a rumble of thunder and a few scattered showers anywhere.
"By the afternoon and evening showers will mainly be lingering in eastern Scotland and northern England."
Temperatures could climb to 22C, she added, with wind speeds of up to 35mph.
She added: "Wednesday will be wet and windy. Showers are more likely on Thursday, moving west to east, with the west improving through the day and sunnier, heavier showers in the east.
"There'll be a brief respite on Thursday/Friday morning, but on Friday there's another wet and windy day ahead, with heavy outbreaks likely."
The weekend would be "more settled", but still unstable: "There'll be sunshine and showers, blustery, risk of thunder."
Ms Smith added: "The jet stream is sitting right across us right now, funnelling low pressure systems across the country with unstable air, that's why we're having a rotten August.
"I wouldn't recommend going out without a brolly."
Over the weekend, travellers across the UK were hit by delays and disruption following heavy rain and strong winds.
Ferry passengers heading into Dover faced delays of five hours as tug boats battled the weather to guide them into port.
Elsewhere, flooded tracks forced train operators to cancel services between Cumbria and Scotland.
Flooding between Penrith and Lockerbie forced operators to suspend services on Saturday afternoon.
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