After the hottest June since records began, forecasters have warned to keep an umbrella and raincoat handy this week.
The Met Office said 20-30mm of rain could fall over a two-to-six-hour period on Tuesday as a “heavy band of rain” passed over the Wimbledon tennis tournament at about 5pm.
The tournament in south-west London, which began on Monday, has already been affected by the torrential downpours with the Princess of Wales among those taking cover with play suspended at around midday on Tuesday.
A yellow weather warning has been issued for rain and wind across parts of eastern England from 9pm on Tuesday till 6am on Wednesday.
Showers are set to ease elsewhere on Tuesday evening with clearer skies developing farther north and west. There could also be scattered showers throughout Wednesday afternoon, albeit with warmer temperatures with highs of 22C.
Ellie Wilson, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said Wimbledon spectators should “pack a raincoat and umbrella”. She said: “Be prepared for wet weather that may cause disruption to some matches, particularly some outdoor matches late this afternoon into this evening.”
However, those attending Wimbledon later this week can expect more seasonal weather. Wilson added: “On Wednesday, there’ll be some early sunshine through the morning, and some scattered through the day, and there could be some scattered showers through the afternoon.
“At the moment, it is meant to be quite light and quite scattered, so there could just be one or two showers around.
“It should be a much drier day than [on Tuesday] with a bit more in the way of sunshine, and feeling a lot warmer as well, with highs around 22C.”
Wilson said Thursday was expected to be generally dry with temperatures in the low 20s but with the possibility of showers. She added: “Friday is looking pretty similar, perhaps a bit more in the way of sunshine, generally quite dry, feeling quite a lot warmer as well.
“We could see temperatures reaching into the high 20s, perhaps even reaching 30C.”
It comes after the Met Office declared the UK had the hottest June on record with the average monthly temperature of 15.8C (60.4F), surpassing the previous highest average June temperature, recorded in 1940 and 1976, by 0.9C.
Records were broken in 72 of the 97 areas in the UK from where temperature data is collected.
