Epsom Downs officials have put together a contingency plan after the Met Office issued a Yellow weather warning for the Surrey area during Saturday
Epsom have a contingency plan in place to delay The Derby – if forecast thunder and lightning hit Epsom this afternoon. The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning on Friday for thunderstorms across parts of central and southern England and Wales.
And Jim Allen, overseeing his first Derby as Epsom’s general manager, will put the time of the feature race back if the worst of the forecast materialises. ITV’s Derby broadcast is due off air at 4.15pm – 45 minutes after the Derby’s scheduled ‘off’ time – and Allen said: “We obviously have delayment and abandonment procedures that we will put into place, should we need them.
“Let’s say we have a lightning storm at the time of the Derby – we’ve got 45 minutes between that and the next race, and we’re still live on ITV. If we had a storm, I’m sure we could find time to fit the race in, live on air.
“We’re so high up here that it often blows through quite quickly – I can’t imagine that we will have a lightning storm for 45 minutes.”
The Met Office Yellow National Severe Weather Warning came into effect on Friday morning and predicted more persistent rain and showers to arrive into the southwest, spreading eastwards overnight and becoming windy in the southwest by dawn.
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Saturday looks to be a very showery day, with frequent heavy showers, some thundery with gusty winds and hail.
Met Office Chief Meteorologist Dan Suri said: “Frequent heavy showers and thunderstorms are expected for much of Saturday, before they fade from the west during the mid-to-late afternoon. “It’s possible that 10-15mm of rain could fall in less than an hour, while some places could see 30-40mm of rain over several hours from successive showers and thunderstorms. Frequent lightning, hail, and strong, gusty winds are also possible.
“A yellow warning for thunderstorms has been issued and covers parts of central and southern England and Wales. While brisk winds ensure that most places in the warning area will be hit by showers, not all places will see thunderstorms. In this case it’s difficult to predict where exactly thunderstorms will hit because they are small and fast changing.
“One analogy we use to picture the complexity of this forecasting challenge is comparing it to boiling a pan of water and having to guess exactly where and when the bubbles will appear. We know some will, but only in certain places, and that is why thunderstorms are so hard to predict.”