TWO yellow weather warnings for thunderstorms and heavy rain showers have been issued across the South West for Friday and Saturday, September 20 and 21. 

The Met Office has warned of thunderstorms with lightning strikes likely to cause "some damage to a few buildings and structures", as well as poor driving conditions, possible power cuts, and delays to train services.

The warning is in place from 12pm on Friday until 8pm, with another warning issued by the forecaster for 1am on Saturday until 11.59pm.

A Met Office spokesperson said: "While many places will remain dry, thunderstorms and heavy showers could cause some disruption on Friday in a few places."

The large South West area covered by the yellow weather warnings includes Bath and North East Somerset, Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole, Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, North Somerset, Plymouth, Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, Torbay, and Wiltshire.

Met Office meteorologist Dan Stroud said: "We are being spoiled by almost summer’s last hurrah, but there’s a bit of a change coming down the line as we move our way through towards Friday, and especially the weekend.”

Currently, the UK is experiencing a period of high pressure which will move north and east throughout the week, allowing “thundery showers” to develop in southern England from Friday, Mr Stroud added.

A “gentle decline” in temperature is expected over the weekend for the UK, with highs of 24C forecast for East Anglia on Saturday followed by low 20s in the area on Sunday, he said.

Heavy downpours are expected across much of central and southern England and parts of Wales over the weekend, with the Met Office advising that weather warnings may be issued over the coming days.

So far this month, the UK has seen an average 49.5mm of rainfall – which is typical for this time of year, Mr Stroud said.

“Successive bands of rain” and “normal conditions for autumn” are expected next week, he added.