Our Rayleigh forecast page details local weather conditions for today, tonight, and tomorrow from our team of forecasters at Essex Weather. Access to rainfall radar and lightning maps are shown towards the bottom of the page.
An extended long-range weather forecast covering the next 7, 10, and 30-day period is available on our month ahead forecast page.
Short Range Forecast
Medium Range Forecast
Daily Weather Outlook
Severe Weather Warnings
Flood Warnings and Alerts
Flood Warnings and Alerts
The link below shows all current flood alerts, flood warnings and severe flood warnings issued for Essex by the Environment Agency.
Weather and Health
Pollen Forecast
A five-day national and regional pollen forecast is available from the Met Office with expertise from the University of Worcester.
Pollution Forecast
A five-day national and local pollution forecast is available from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.
Heat-Health Alert
The Heat-Health Alert service operates from 1st June to 15th September each year, in association with UK Health Security Agency.
Radar and Lightning Maps
Rainfall Radar
The link below shows animated rainfall radar images at 5-minute intervals of Rayleigh and the rest of Essex over the past 90 minutes.
Different colours indicate how heavy precipitation is that is falling to the ground. For example, areas of yellow and orange show heavy rainfall (or snowfall in winter). Thunderstorms are often indicated by red or pink colours.
Lightning Maps
The link below enables weather observers to track thunderstorms in and around southeast England and the near Continent.
The lightning data is shown on a map in real-time, but depending on server load (especially during severe weather outbreaks), there may be a delay between 3 and 10 seconds before each new strike appears.
Weather In Rayleigh
Our forecasters update the written short-range and medium-range weather forecasts throughout the day. They include the latest output from the Met Office UKV and ECMWF numerical weather prediction models. These kilometre-scale forecasting models produce significantly improved weather forecasts and pinpoint features such as thunderstorms, fog, and snow.
A graphical weather outlook for the next four days is presented for Rayleigh and is based upon the latest run of the ECMWF computer model. Updated twice daily, this forecast provides a view of expected daily weather conditions for the Rayleigh area, including predicted minimum and maximum temperatures.
Rayleigh Weather History
On 5th September 1958, the weather was so wet in Essex that newspapers reported that "streets were turned into rivers". As dawn broke, the roads in and out of Rayleigh were littered with abandoned cars and buses and people were advised not to travel due to the terrible weather conditions. Ten years later, the weather was responsible for yet more flooding. People reported seeing a stationary raft in the water in Rayleigh, but it turned out to be the roof of a pumping station almost entirely submerged in 14 feet of flood water caused by the wet weather. The summer of 1985 was one of the wettest on record for Rayleigh. The weather brought rainfall of 9.7 inches, which was the wettest since 1958.
Important: Whilst we provide a comprehensive daily weather forecast service for Essex, we urge visitors to check the Met Office website today for any severe weather warnings and the Environment Agency website for any flood warnings that may affect Rayleigh and the surrounding areas.
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Our forecasts may NOT be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed in whole or part except for personal use.