The Met Office says that gales of up to 50mph are likely to hit the country. Devon and Cornwall will take the brunt before the storm moves east and north. Wales and Northern Ireland are also expected to be hit hard and up to 2.75in of rain could fall.
The storms are forecast to strike around noon today. Shortly before this, residents of Boscastle will have gathered for Sunday morning worship at St Symphorian’s church for the first time since storms caused a flash flood which tore the heart out of the village last Monday.
Boscastle, on the north coast of Cornwall, was struck after a downpour in which seven inches of rain fell in nine hours.
The rivers Valency and Jordan, which meet near Boscastle harbour, burst their banks and sent a wall of water through the village, sweeping 50 vehicles out of a car park and leaving many at the bottom of the harbour. The damage was estimated at £50m. Although 108 people had to be rescued, the worst injury was a broken thumb.
Today’s bad weather is expected to last until Tuesday. Forecasters said that some sunshine may emerge in the middle of the week but the general outlook remained unsettled.
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Floods are not the only effect of this summer’s run of bad weather. The rain has meant that the harvest in Britain is the latest for 10 years, with only 21% of wheat brought in so far, the National Farmers’ Union said yesterday.
Some crops damaged by the bad weather have been abandoned while others are being left to rot because machinery cannot harvest them from the wet ground. The oilseed rape harvest has largely failed and the crop of peas will be about 20% short of expectations.