THE newly named Storm Christoph is set to bring high winds and heavy rain to the UK.

A severe, amber, weather alert for rain has been issued by the Met Office for parts of northern, central and eastern England tomorrow.

This misses Sussex, with the entire county instead placed under a 36-hour yellow weather warning for rain throughout Wednesday and the first half of Thursday by the weather service.

Chief Meteorologist Dan Suri, said: "Following a cold spell where the main hazard was snow, our focus now turns to notably heavy rain moving across the UK this week.

"Some locations could see more than 100mm of rain falling through the course just a couple of days with up to 200mm possible over higher ground.

"These amounts of rainfall along with snow melt present a real threat of flooding and people should keep a close eye on flood warnings from the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales.

"As the system moves away into the North Sea, on Wednesday night and Thursday morning there will be strong winds along the east coast for a time. 

"Meanwhile, colder air coming southwards into the weather system brings the risk of further snow on the back edge of this system.

"Temperatures will gradually fall across the UK through the end of the week and into the weekend bringing a return to widespread overnight frosts.”

As part of the yellow weather warning for rain issued across Sussex on Wednesday and Thursday, the Met Office has told residents to expect "spells of heavy rain" which "may lead to travel disruption and flooding in places".

As a result: 

  • Flooding of a few homes and businesses is likely
  • Bus and train services will probably be affected with journey times taking longer
  • Spray and flooding on roads will probably make journey times longer
  • Some interruption to power supplies and other services is likely

The Argus: Strong waves battering Hove seafrontStrong waves battering Hove seafront

The Met Office forecast for Brighton and Hove predicts the greatest chance of heavy rain in the city will be between 10pm tomorrow and 3pm on Wednesday.

There will also be high winds over the next three days, with wind gusts reaching a predicted peak of 46mph between midnight and 3am on Wednesday morning.