A weather warning for rain is in force across parts of southern England after heavy downpours sparked flash floods and travel disruption in the region last night.
The Met Office has issued a yellow alert, which is in place until 3pm, covering parts of London, Portsmouth, Brighton and Canterbury.
Forecasters said between 20-30mm of rain is expected “fairly widely” across the region, with up to 40mm in the worst affected areas.
The Met Office said persistent, sometimes heavy rain could impact roads on Thursday.
Spray and flooding on roads could lengthen journey times and cause disruption to train and bus services. “Flooding of a few homes and businesses is possible,” the Met added.
Some train services were cancelled on Thursday morning. Southern Rail said it had pulled its Belmont service due to flooding. “Belmont will not have a train service due to flooding,” the operator said.
“You’ll need to use London Buses to complete your journey and you can use your ticket at no extra cost. “Please mention the reference ‘PrePay 140’ to the bus driver if asked.”
London Fire Brigade urged motorists and pedestrians to be cautious while out on the roads on Thursday morning.
“Don’t drive through floodwater, avoid trying to walk through it and don’t let children or pets play in it,” it said.
MeteoGroup said there will be variable amounts of cloud and a threat of showers across England and Wales during the evening and overnight, a few could be heavy and thundery on Thursday.
Scotland and Northern Ireland will be mainly dry with clear spells. Mostly light winds which will be brisk in the far north and far south.
The weather service said drier and brighter conditions are expected tomorrow with long spells of sunshine and just some patchy fair-weather cloud cover around.
There may be a few isolated showers developing and these are likely to be in the north and west.
A dry evening with clear spells. Gentle north-westerly winds may be locally brisk.
Saturday will be overcast and unsettled with thick cloud cover and heavy rain which will track south-eastwards but will turn increasingly light and patchy later.
A car navigates a flooded road in London
Rain will be slow to clear across eastern areas on Sunday. Then mainly dry with sunny spells, variable cloud and a threat of showers.
Heavy downpours caused travel disruption in the captial last night
