The UK will be lashed with heavy rain and strong winds over the next 10 days, with temperatures expected to turn cooler.

Recent gales and heavy downpours have triggered weather warnings and the Environment Agency has issued more than 30 flood alerts for areas in Wales, the Midlands and the South West.

Gareth Harvey, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: “We are expecting heavy rains and gales over the next 10 days or so. The weather pattern is very mobile and it is likely to stay unsettled.

“Tomorrow and Thursday see some drier weather but the rain is likely to be relentless, and as there has been quite a lot of rain in recent weeks we might start to see some localised flooding.

“There is also a suggestion that it might turn a little colder and drier towards the end of the month.”

Tredegar in south Wales saw the heaviest rainfall yesterday, with 40mm, or 1.6in, falling in the 12 hours to 7pm, Mr Harvey said.

The Met Office has issued a number of severe weather warnings for the central, Tayside and Fife area, south-west Scotland, Lothian, Strathclyde and borders and south-west England as well as Wales.

It said the risk of river and surface water flooding was low for south west England an south Wales today, and very low tomorrow.

Dan Williams of the Met Office said: “It looks unsettled into the weekend and indeed into the start of next week as well.

“It looks as though we will see periods of rain and perhaps some drier brighter spells.”