Heavy rain set to continue across UK

Heavy rain is set to drench much of the UK over the next few days with the possibility for flooding and travel delays in the hardest-hit locations.

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for rain across parts of south Wales lasting through 23:00 BST on Wednesday. A total of 30-40mm is forecast to fall widely, with up to 70mm in some locations.

It comes as a slow-moving weather front is forecast to stall across parts of Wales and northern England, bringing persistent outbreaks of rain. The rain will become increasingly heavy through the weekend as a new area of low pressure develops.

There may be some areas of localised flooding and tricky driving conditions especially as the rain turns heavier. Over the hills some areas could see as much as 100-150mm of rain.

Northern Ireland is close to this front so the weather could be quite wet in the far southeast , otherwise it probably won't be as wet as it has been over the last week or two.

Wet and windy weather in Scotland will clear to more showery conditions. It will turn colder here, perhaps even cold enough for some wintriness over the very tops of the Scottish mountains by the weekend.

In south east England, the Midlands and East Anglia it will become much warmer over the next few days with temperatures set to soar up to 26C in some areas on Friday. Outbreaks of rain and cooler air will arrive over the weekend.

Already parts of the UK have received almost double their average September rainfall thanks to persistent south-westerly winds which have been responsible for bringing in a succession of areas of low pressure from the Atlantic.

It is these areas of the country, most exposed to these winds, which have seen the largest amounts of rain. Cardiff has seen more rainfall in September than the whole of summer.

But it is not just areas of Wales that has had a very wet start to the month, Northern Ireland, northwest and southern England have also been drenched.

High pressure is expected to return to the UK next week and will bring a much more settled spell of weather with some sunshine.

Temperatures will tend to be a little below average with a few pockets of rural frost. Some early morning mist and fog patches are possible where winds fall light.