Weather warnings have been issued as south east London and north Kent is today set to be lashed by torrential downpours and thunderstorms.

The Met Office has issued a yellow flood warning for south east England with “persistent and heavy rainfall” and “intense, slow-moving thundery downpours” highly likely.

Forecasters have warned the public to be aware of flooding risks, disruption to travel and potentially strong winds.

Parts of the UK have had more than a fortnight’s rainfall in the past 24 hours.

The yellow warning for rain is in place across the south of England until 10pm this evening.

Temperatures will reach a maximum of 18C today.

The weather has been caused by an area of low pressure moving through the south of England, a Met Office spokesman said.

"It is already bringing heavy showers to the south coast from Portsmouth westwards," he said.

"It is heavy rain that will become thundery in nature through the course of the day.

"We could see another 20mm of rain, so for a lot of areas that is a third of a month's rain. There is 40mm to 60mm possible in some places."

The washout across the south is set to continue on Tuesday and Wednesday before the weather improves into the bank holiday weekend.