Wet weather warnings have been issued for parts of the UK as heavy rain could bring flooding and travel disruption over the next few days.

The Met Office says a yellow warning for rain is in place for southwest Scotland until 10am on Tuesday, while an alert for southeast Scotland and northeast England comes into force at 9am and lasts until 8am on Wednesday.

A separate warning is also in effect until 7am for the entirety of Northern Ireland.

The Met Office says affected areas could see disruption to bus and train services, while power cuts and flooding of homes and businesses are also likely.

According to the Environment Agency, 42 flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected, are active in England, along with 157 lesser flood alerts.

Met Office meteorologist Annie Shuttleworth said: “After a pretty nice start to the week, things will turn much more unsettled across the UK for Tuesday.

“Rain pushes up into northeastern areas throughout (Tuesday) morning and then it will linger across northeastern parts of England as well as southeastern Scotland. There’s been a lot of rainfall here recently, so the ground is well saturated.

“Behind that, plenty of showers are developing. These will push into parts of the Midlands by the middle part of the day and without much of a breeze they could be quite long-lasting showers. They bring a risk of hail and thunder as well.

“So a bit of an unsettled, unpleasant day for many, particularly if you get caught in those showers.”