At least two weeks’ worth of rain is set to fall within the next 24 hours as flooding continues to wreak chaos on Christmas travel plans.
A severe weather warning for more heavy rain is in place across southern England from 12.01am on Saturday until noon on Sunday.
The Met Office said up to 30mm of rainfall could cause yet more disruptions for drivers trying to get home in time for next week’s festivities.
In total 101 flood warnings – where flooding is expected – have been issued for England, alongside 256 flood alerts, which warn flooding is possible.
Meteorologist Marco Petagna said ‘persistent rain’ is expected to continue through to the evening in the south east and south west, threatening more concerns for travellers.
He warned: ‘It’s not going to take much [rain] to cause more problems.’
Marco urged drivers to ‘keep tune of the forecast because the timings of rainfall could change over the next few days’ as the Met Office may need to issue further warnings.
Met Office meteorologist Alex Deakin added the rain was coming from a ‘fairly angry weather system’ which will also bring some ‘very strong winds’.
The RAC had estimated around 31 million leisure trips by car would be taken in the days leading to Christmas, with warnings of bumper-to-bumper traffic, and the worst of it expected on the M1, M25, M5 and M6.
It comes after adverse weather on Friday caused the M23 to be closed between junctions 10 and 11, in West Sussex, for around eight hours after a watercourse burst its banks.
Several rail lines were blocked, while bus and road journey times in the region were expected to be longer amid the flooded roads.
Sussex Police described driving conditions in the region as ‘miserable’, and said there was ‘a lot of standing water on the roads’.
Devon and Cornwall Police said flooding across the force area made ‘a number of roads impassable’ and it urged motorists to take extra care and avoid driving into standing water.
Highways England has urged motorists to adapt their driving for wet weather by slowing down, keeping well back from the vehicle in front and easing off the accelerator if steering becomes unresponsive.
John Halsall, managing director of Network Rail’s southern region, said the combination of one of the wettest autumns since records began with a month’s worth of rainfall in the past five days has put the rail network ‘under enormous pressure’.
Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express services were affected after rail lines were flooded.
The picture is a little brighter for the rest of England, however, with bright spells and scatters of showers expected on Saturday and Sunday, with a touch of frost overnight in the north.
