UK weather: tornado warning issued as Met Office places yellow rain and wind warnings across at-risk areas

Large regions of the UK have been put on alert for tornados after heavy rain and high winds picked up overnight.

The Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO) said that there was a chance of "isolated brief tornadoes" in South Wales, some areas of the Midlands, East Anglia, the South East and the Channel Islands. In the update, TORRO said: "A cold front will cross the area overnight and on Thursday, with one or more waves developing along it, in response to an upper short-wave trough.

"Several areas of precipitation should accompany this, with some embedded convection possible. This may organise into one or more lines, and perhaps some cellular activity too. The lines may include misocyclones, and a low-topped supercell or two is possible in any discrete convection."

TORRO added that the highest chance of "gusts and isolated tornados" are over central-southern England, the south-east Midlands, East Anglia, and south-east England. The risk will be highest from Thursday late-morning into the afternoon.

It comes as rain and wind hit southern parts of the country yesterday and overnight. As winds picked up, travel was disrupted, with the Severn Bridge linking Wales and England closed to traffic for several hours.

The Met Office issued yellow weather warnings for rain in south-west England and South Wales until 2pm, and until 5pm in central-southern England and the east coast. Further south, a yellow warning for wind is in place, covering areas such as Norwich, London, Portsmouth and Brighton until 6pm.