Roads and railways face disruption due to heavy rainfall (Picture: Grant Falvey/LNP)

The Met Office has issued a yellow alert for thunderstorms expected to cause flooding on Thursday.

Heavy downpours broke out across most of northern England, the Midlands and the South East in the morning, with hail and strong winds rattling windows in East Anglia and London.

Forecasters warned of power cuts, train cancellations and road closures later in the morning as the sheer volume of rainfall threatens to overwhelm infrastructure in some areas.

Drivers were told to watch out for ‘spray and sudden flooding’, with a ‘small chance’ of flash flooding taking home and business owners by surprise.

The Met’s alert covers most inland areas between the capital and Newcastle except for the West Midlands.

The heaviest storms were centred around Cambridgeshire and South and West Yorkshire on Monday morning, with rainfall hitting 30mm per hour in King’s Lynn, Boston, Sheffield and Wakefield.

The alert is set to remain in place until at least 1pm, by which time the weather formations will fan outwards across England.

Intense rainfall is expect to continue in the afternoon over most of northern England and Suffolk.

Forecasters warned of dangerous wet conditions on roads on Monday (Picture: LNP)

Much of central and southern England was blanketed in mist and rain this morning (Picture: Shutterstock)

Wet and windy weather is likely to ‘dominate’ the rest of the week, the Met added, although temperatures will stay ‘quite high’.

Meteorologist Alex Deakin said a ‘large area of low pressure’ from the Atlantic means ‘bands of showery rain over the next five days, with the isobars often squeezing together, bringing spells of gusty winds’.

He continued: ‘It’s going to be warmer than average by day and particularly warmer than average across the south at night.

‘Between these weather fronts, there will, at times, be spells of sunshine and when the sun is out it’s going to feel quite mild.’

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Forecasters warned of power cuts, train cancellations and road closures as heavy rain of up to 30mm an hour broke out over much of England.