People have been urged to prepare for flooding as the weather takes a nasty downturn at the start of this week.

Parts of the UK could be drenched by a month’s rain in the space of a day as the country is hit by heavy downpours.

Flood alerts have been issued for south east England due to erratic weather which is expected to include rain, wind, sunshine, sleet and possibly even snow. 

The Met Office has issued a yellow alert for rain in the region from Sunday evening until Monday night, warning that flooding could force road closures and train cancellations. 

The warning adds: “There is a small chance that homes and businesses could be flooded, causing damage to some buildings.”

Met Office spokesman John West said: “We are going to see some quite heavy rain. In some areas we could see 40 to 50 millimetres but in some very isolated spots we could see up to 70 millimetres.”

He added that some south eastern areas could be soaked by “close to a month’s worth of rain” within the 27 hours the yellow warning is in place.

Many homes and businesses now have FloodSax Sandless sandbags so they are prepared for flooding.

FloodSax are transformed from being as light as a pillowcase to being more effective than traditional sandbags in just three minutes.

Around 2.5 million have now been sold worldwide.