The Met Office has issued thunderstorm warnings for 18 UK areas that could see "frequent lightning, gusty winds, torrential rain" and even hail. The new thunderstorm warnings come after the Met Office issued rare red extreme heat alerts for dozens of areas, with scorching temperature highs of 40C possible.

The new weather warnings are in effect for London and the South East, South West England, and East of England. They began at 5.21pm on Monday (June 22) and will be in place until 9pm this evening. The Met Office said: "An area of thunderstorms moving east across the area will bring a spell of frequent lightning, gusty winds, torrential rain, and a few places, hail. The storms will be moving quickly reducing the potential for widespread large amounts of rain, but there is a few places could see 20-25 mm of rainfall in a short period in the most active storms, which could bring some brief flooding.

The majority of impacts are likely to come from other hazards however, such as lightning striking buildings and causing power cuts, difficult driving conditions in heavy rain, and some localised damage to vulnerable structures by strong wind gusts or hail.

In the warnings, the Met Office has told impacted areas to expect some possible damage to some bbuildings and structure from lightning strikes or hail.

Some flooding of homes and business is possible, while some short-term loss of power and other services is also likely.

There is a "good chance" driving conditions will be affected by spray, standing water and/or hail, leading to longer journey times by car and bus, while delays to train services are possible.

London & South East England

Bath and North East Somerset