Flood warnings issued with more heavy rain to come
· BBC WeatherSimon King
Lead Weather Presenter
@SimonOKing
Lou Newton
BBC News
Flood warnings have been issued as wet weather that blighted parts of the UK over the weekend continues with even heavier rain on Monday.
The Met Office has issued an amber warning for rain from 05:00 BST until 21:00 on Monday across parts of central England, where up to a month's worth of rain could fall in a day.
Yellow rain warnings are also in place more widely across much of the rest of England and large parts of Wales, with thundery downpours expected in the southeast.
As of 05:00, the Environment Agency (EA) has issued flood alerts , externalacross 69 areas where flooding is possible, and 13 warnings are in place where flooding is likely.
Places where flooding is expected include areas of Leighton Buzzard and Luton in Bedfordshire, Atherstone in Warwickshire and parts of London.
It will stay wet for much of Monday with a significant band of rain stretching from south-west England, through the Midlands and into eastern England.
Conditions on the roads could be difficult and rural communities have been warned they could be temporarily cut off by flooding.
Some affected areas could see 100 to 120mm (4-5 inches) of rain.
The area covered by the amber warning stretches from Herefordshire and Gloucestershire up towards East Anglia and the Humber, encompassing Birmingham, Nottingham and Sheffield.
Met Office meteorologist Jonthan Vautrey said a month's worth of rain could fall in the area on Monday.
"With the rain we've already seen over the last couple of days this certainly has the potential to bring some disruption and flooding," he added.
The warnings come after bad weather hit many parts of England and Wales over the weekend.
On Sunday night, before the amber warning took effect, Bedfordshire Police said the weather was causing "multiple issues" in the county.
"All emergency services and council teams are working as quickly as possible to help those affected but our priority will be the vulnerable," the force said. "Please stay clear of flooded roads and affected areas."
On Saturday, a house in Wrexham was struck by lightning and caught fire.
Up to 13,000 lightning strikes recorded throughout Saturday and into the early hours of Sunday across the country.
The National Grid reported power outages across parts of south-west and central England on Sunday.
Storms were particularly frequent throughout Cornwall, the Midlands and north-east Wales.
Colder temperatures ahead
The downpours forecast for Monday will clear on Tuesday, when the weather will become fairly settled with a few sunny spells and maybe the odd shower.
An area of low pressure will sweep in by midweek and more widespread wet and blustery weather will return from Wednesday.
On Friday, it will get colder as Arctic air is set to spread across the UK.
Temperatures will drop to about 8-12C, several degrees below the average for this time of year.