Storm Babet: Sussex braces itself for heavy rainfall amid multiple weather warnings; rare red alert issued elsewhere in UK

The rare red warning has been issued by the Met Office for Thursday and Friday (October 19-20). This affects Angus and Aberdeenshire in Scotland. The rest of Scotland is covered by an amber warning.

It comes after Storm Babet was named by the Met Office and is forecast to bring ‘impactful heavy rain’ to the UK from Wednesday. Strong winds will ‘accompany the storm’.

The Met Office said ‘exceptional rainfall’ is expected to cause ‘severe flooding and disruption’, bringing ‘danger to life from fast flowing or deep floodwater’.

Despite there being no warnings in place for Sussex on Thursday, thundery showers are expected. From 6am to 8pm on Friday, a yellow rain alert has been issued.

This warning affects the East of England and London & South East England – including the whole of Sussex.

“There is a chance that a period of heavy rainfall, on top of recent rain, could bring some disruption on Friday,” a Met Office spokesperson said.

"There is a small chance that homes and businesses could be flooded, causing damage to some buildings.

“Spray and flooding is likely to lead to difficult driving conditions and there is a small chance of some road closures.

“Where flooding occurs, there is a slight chance of delays to or cancellations of public transport services.”

As of Wednesday morning, the Met Office predicts that an area of low pressure will arrive rom the south and bring a six to 12 hour period of heavy rain to parts of southeast England.

"Confidence is currently very low for precise details, but there is a chance of 30-50mm widely across this area and a small chance of as much as 75 mm in a few places, these most likely over parts of Sussex, Kent and Essex,” a spokesperson added.

"On top of preceding rain, this is thought to be sufficient to cause disruption.

"Strong easterly winds may affect eastern coastal areas too, with some large waves and dangerous coastal conditions developing in places.”

Southern Rail has warned that the heavy rainfall over the next few days is likely to cause trains ‘across the whole network’ to be delayed.

A spokesperson said: “This storm is expected to make contact with a large part of our network, especially the routes in more exposed coastal locations. Gusts could be even stronger in these areas

“Please take necessary precautions and check your journey before you travel.”