A SEVERE weather warning for heavy rain and thundery showers across Cornwall this evening have been issued by the Met Office.

Thundery showers are expected to push north across southern parts of the UK through Tuesday evening, perhaps turning more widespread towards midnight.

Although many places won't see these showers, there is a chance of localised flooding of homes, businesses and susceptible roads. Frequent lightning may be an additional hazard with potential disruption to power networks. Similarly, but very locally, hail may cause impacts.

The chief forecaster's assessment for Southwest England says it looks like it will be first to see scattered thunderstorms, the threat then expanding northeastwards through the course of the evening.

There is relatively low confidence in the areas more at risk of intense downpours. Some places will miss them altogether but where they do occur, there is the potential for locally 20 to 30 mm of rain within an hour. This may result in surface water flooding, particularly should these amounts fall across urban areas.