An extreme weather warning has been issued by the Met Office.

The storm warning will be in place across the entire weekend, as Cumbria continues to record unusually high temperatures.

A number of dramatic thunderstorms have been witnessed across the county and other parts of the North West this week.

Earlier this week, the Met Office issued a six-day thunderstorm weather warning for the whole of the UK.

It said the warnings would continue across much of the UK until Monday, August 17, with a risk of impacts from heavy rain, flash flooding, lightning and hail.

The current hot weather creates ideal conditions for thunderstorms - which often occur when layers of warm, moist air rises swiftly to cooler regions of the atmosphere, where they condense.

On Wednesday, Chief Meteorologist Paul Gundersen, said: “Today (August 12) warnings cover much of England, away from the east coast, Wales and parts of Scotland.

"The storms will be isolated but where they happen there will be frequent lightning, gusty winds and intense, heavy downpours with 30 to 40mm of rain possible in less than an hour and, in isolated spots, a small chance of 60 mm falling.

“With the continuing hot weather large swathes of the UK continue to be at risk from thunderstorms and potentially the impacts from heavy rain, into the early part of next week.”

Neil Davies, Flood Duty Manager at the Environment Agency, said: “Isolated thunderstorms could bring sudden surface water and river flooding to parts of England today, which may lead to flooded properties and severe travel disruption in some areas. Further surface water and river flooding is also a possibility from Thursday to Sunday.

“Environment Agency teams are working hard alongside local authorities to reduce the risk of flooding and keep communities safe, clearing grills and weed screens in areas which may be affected by heavy showers, and are ready to respond and support where needed.

"We urge people to check their flood risk, sign up for free flood warnings and keep up to date with the latest situation at Gov.uk, call Floodline on 0345 988 1188 or follow @EnvAgency on Twitter for the latest flood updates.”