A SECOND yellow weather warning for rain has been issued by the Met Office in two days.

The warning, for areas including Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Bristol, is valid from 9pm tonight until 6pm on Wednesday.

It says: "Outbreaks of rain, persistent and heavy at times, are expected to spread east across southern England overnight and Wednesday morning.

"Many parts of the warning area have already seen large rainfall accumulations over the past few days and therefore this further rain may cause come minor local surface water flooding.

"Lightning may be an additional hazard.

"The public should be aware that some local disruption to transport looks likely."

The chief forecaster says: "A frontal wave is expected to move in from the south west later today, bringing some heavy rain to southern England.

"Whilst there remains some uncertainty in the exact location of the heaviest rainfall, accumulations of 20-40mm could be possible quite widely within the warning area, whilst 50-60mm is possible in one or two places.

"Rain is expected to become increasingly confined to the south east through Wednesday."

However the Met Office said this afternoon that there were early signs that much of the UK will see an improvement in weather over the bank holiday weekend and this will last through much of next week.

Whilst rain and showers are likely across much of the country on Saturday and at first on Sunday, there are signs of an improvement from the west as we go through Sunday and Monday.

The change in the weather is being driven by the jet stream which is slowly moving south east whilst weakening significantly with more drier, sunnier weather forecast by Bank Holiday Monday, especially in the west.

There are then signs the high pressure will continue to dominate the UK's weather through much of next week, bringing a few days of sunshine for much of the country.