LONDON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Thunderstorms in parts of Britain Friday mark the end to the heatwave and herald a more changeable weekend, with a wet and windy Sunday for many the Met Office said in its latest forecast Friday afternoon.
Thursday saw the highest temperature recorded in Britain since July, 2015 as the temperature reached 35.1 degrees Celsius at Wisley, Surrey, with another hot day in the east and southeast of England Friday.
Will Lang, Chief Meteorologist at the Met Office, said: "The heatwave conditions are coming to an end but it's another hot day in the east and southeast of England today (Friday) with temperature expected to reach 36 or 37 degrees Celsius in places. If conditions all come together here's a 50 percent chance that we will break the July record temperature and a 20 percent chance of a new all-time UK record high."
The current all-time record in Britain, recorded at 38.5 degrees Celsius at Faversham on Aug. 10 of 2003.
Lang said the hot weather is ending in a bang with thunderstorms already having broken out in eastern areas. There will be further intense thunderstorms Friday afternoon and evening across eastern parts of England and northeast Scotland into Saturday, before the fresher conditions finally make their way east across the UK for the weekend.
Lang added: "Intense thunderstorms will break out this afternoon and evening (Friday) across eastern and northern areas.
"Whilst many places will remain dry, the thunderstorms could lead to torrential downpours in places with a much as 30 mm of rainfall in an hour and 60 mm in 3 hours. Large hail and strong, gusty winds are also likely and combined could lead to difficult driving conditions as a result of spray and sudden flooding."
The Met Office has already issued a weather warning for the impacts of wind and rain in southwest England and south Wales. Rain will be most persistent over hills and parts of the Brecon Beacons and Dartmoor seeing as much as 60-80 mm of rain.
The windier weather will make conditions around coasts, particularly in the southwest of England, rougher than seen so far this summer.
