Lightning and thunder during an overnight thunderstorm in Minster on Sea, Kent (Picture: Alamy)

Large parts of the country will see thunder, lightning, heavy rain and possibly flooding today.

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for thunderstorms which covers almost the entirety of England and Wales.

The alert is in place from 12pm to midnight while another one issued for Northern Ireland lasts until 9pm.

As much as 80mm of rain could fall within three to six hours in the worst-affected regions.

There is also the potential for frequent lightning, strong winds and hail – which could cause flooding, travel issues and power cuts.

Some will have heard thunder last night already, while others can expect the same in a few hours.

Storms are predicted to form just above London before moving towards the Midlands, then east England, east Wales and into the southern areas of northern England.

A yellow weather warning covers most of England and Wales until midnight (Picture: Metro.co.uk)

Drivers making their way through flood water in the Lower Wick area of Worcester on June 10 (Picture: PA)

Meteorologists predict that most of England will experience isolated rainfall at some point today.

The Met Office’s Grahame Madge told the MailOnline yesterday: ‘Some of the storms have the potential to be quite intense, with high rainfall rates.

‘Some locations may well miss them all together but all we can do now is indicate that there is a risk across both countries.’

Forecaster Marco Petagna said yesterday: ‘The average rainfall for the UK in June is 77mm and for England it is just 65mm.

‘But it is possible that 60mm could fall in six hours, which is not far from a month’s worth of rain. And we could even see 30mm in one hour, which is the equivalent to a couple of weeks.’

Temperatures are still expected to stay warm despite the rain (Picture: PA)

However, Brits who have been lapping up the long-awaited sunshine over the past few days do not need to panic as temperatures will stay around the mid-20s despite the wet weather.

Heavy rain and thunder will continue into tonight for northern parts of the country but things will start to dry up elsewhere.

Those in the east might want to enjoy today’s break from the heat as they can expect a warm and humid night.

By tomorrow, the rain in the north will have slowed down with any leftover clouds in the south clearing up.

While the week will start sunny and humid, there will still be some rain and possibly even thunder at times.

The rest of week will see ‘a mix of very warm sunshine and scattered showers’ in the northwest and drier, warmer and often humid days in the south east.

Temperatures are expected to stay around the mid-20s despite the wet weather