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8 hours ago
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Amber warnings have been issued by the Met Office as Storm Claudia is forecast to bring heavy and persistent rain to parts of the United Kingdom.
Through Friday, rain will spread across large parts of England and Wales with a larger yellow severe weather warning also issued.
There will be some flooding and difficult travelling conditions with a strong easterly wind also developing through the day.
The warnings come after recent rain and and flooding has already affected many areas such as south Wales last week.
Storm Claudia - named by the Spanish Meteorological Agency (AEMET) - has already brought heavy rain and strong winds to Spain and Portugal.
But rain associated with this storm will spread quickly north across England and Wales during Friday where it will stall and become persistent for most of the day.
Met Office Amber warnings have been issued for parts of east Wales from 12:00 to 23:59 GMT where up to 150mm of rain - nearly 6 inches - is possible over high ground.
An additional amber warning will also come in to effect for the same time across parts of east Wales, the Midlands and towards eastern England.
Widely 50-75mm (2-2.9in) of rain is expected throughout Friday with some places seeing up to 80mm (3in).
Difficult driving conditions and transport disruption is likely and some communities could be cut off from flooding.
A larger Met Office yellow severe weather warning has been issued elsewhere across England and Wales that will come into force from 06:00 GMT Friday, lasting through until Saturday at 06:00 GMT.
Around 30-50mm (1.2-2.9in) of rain is expected quite widely which may also bring some localised flooding and transport disruption.
Strong south-easterly winds will accompany the rain.
Additional yellow warnings for the wind have been issued for the far north-west of Wales and the Pennines.
Gusts up to 50-70mph (80-113km/h) could bring some minor damage and disruption.
While a typical named storm in the UK might sweep in from the North Atlantic bringing strong and damaging winds, Storm Claudia is more notable for the rainfall.
Named by AEMET earlier this week for the impacts it has brought to Spain, the storm is moving up the western side of Portugal and France and approaching the UK from the south-west.
And while it will turn quite windy with gusts up to 70mph (113km/h) in north-west Wales and the Pennines, the winds are not the most notable feature of this storm.
Once a meteorological agency takes the decision to name a storm, there is agreement that all nations use the same name to allow consistency and clearer communication of the impacts.
Claudia will not replace Bram in the list of the UK's named storms. So we can still expect the next weather event deemed serious enough to be named by either the Met office, Met Eirean in Ireland or KNMI in the Netherlands to be Bram.
Rain has featured a lot so far this November with some areas seeing over their November average in the first thirteen days.
Shap and Carlisle in Cumbria for example have recorded more than their November rainfall already; 226mm and 95mm compared to the averages of 205mm and 85mm respectively.
Other sites on higher ground such as Honister in the Lake District has recorded over 500mm of rain.
Bannau Brycheiniog - known as the Brecon Beacons - in south Wales, has also been particularly wet with many Natural Resources Wales rainfall stations recording over 200mm of rain so far.
The heavy rainfall in south Wales has also led to some significant flooding.
A business owner who had to close his shop in Carmarthen due to the floods described it as "the worst in living memory".
