The struggle to stay dry during Britain's drought

Heavy rain has prompted warnings of possible flash flooding across England and Wales.

Earlier today, the Environment Agency issued eight flood warnings for south west England after some areas saw up to 50mm of rain (two inches) overnight and this morning.

This has now been revised to three.

The Environment Agency also warned that further heavy rain forecast for the end of the week could lead to localised flooding.

ITV News' Rupert Evelyn reports on how the rainfall has affected different parts of the UK.

Forecasters at Meteogroup said the weather looked set to remain unsettled for at least the next week, with heavy showers and some more persistent rain.

And while the rain may be welcome for gardeners and farmers in drought-affected areas, the downpours are not enough to alleviate the drought fears.

Richard Aylard, from Thames Water, one of seven companies which have brought in hosepipe bans in response to the drought, said "a couple of wet weeks" was not enough to reverse record dry conditions seen in the region in the past two years.

He said:

In Southsea, Hampshire, high winds caused scaffolding that has been erected while decorators painted the Royal Beach Hotel to collapse crushing cars parked on the road.

One of the cars belonged to local resident Malcolm Clarke who described what happened to ITV Meridian. He said it was unfortunate as he had just got his van up to scratch ready for its MOT.

The latest Met Office forecast for the UK:

This Evening and Tonight:

Rain should push into northern UK overnight, stalling over northeastern UK to reinforce persistent rain and hill snow here. More showery further south, with showers merging in places to longer spells of rain. Windy in both northern and southeastern UK.

Thursday

Persistent rain continuing in northeastern UK, coupled with hill snow and strong winds. Showery elsewhere, these becoming heavy and slow-moving over Wales and northern England, perhaps giving localised surface flooding.