Thunder and lightning wake the south as floods bring misery in the south west and there's more rain to come throughout Christmas Day

Forget a white Christmas - much of the UK faces the prospect of more heavy rain again today, with some parts of the country even waking up to thunder and lightning this morning.

In an unseasonal start to Christmas Day, parts of London saw thunderstorms this morning, with showery rain spreading across the country.

More flood misery could be on the way for parts of the south West of England with a flood warning in place and up to 20mm of rain forecasted.

The Met Office has forecast today to continue in a similar vein to yesterday which saw the great Christmas getaway disrupted by heavy rain across much of Britain.

The south of the country, in particular the south west will endure the worst of the weather, but showers will be widespread.

And it looks like there will be no sign of any respite, with more rain on the way for Boxing Day and Thursday, and a nasty looking weather front bring more showers and gale force winds on Friday.

Flooding disrupted the Christmas getaway yesterday as heavy rain hit parts of Britain.

Operator First Great Western advised customers traveling to or from Devon and Cornwall to postpone their journeys.

Hundreds of homes and businesses have been swamped with floodwaters, from the southern-most parts of Cornwall to the Highlands of Scotland as winter rains fall across a land that is saturated to bursting point.

The Environment Agency says Devon will remain at 'medium' risk of flooding on Christmas Day and a further 61 areas remain at 'low' risk.

In one of the worst affected areas – at Cowley Bridge near Exeter, Devon – there were fears that more rain could breach flood defences and damage a signal works.

Network Rail said one of three plastic dams set up to protect the railway is itself now under water.

Engineer Steve Hawkins said yesterday if the water destroyed sensitive electronic equipment it could take up to three weeks to repair.

This morning three men were killed in a two-car crash near an area which has been deluged with heavy rainfall.

Emergency services were called to the scene on the A68 about 1.5 miles (2.4km) south of Pathhead, Midlothian, at around 7.30am today.
One of the cars was carrying five people and ended up on its roof, Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue said.