A SEVERE weather warning has been issued for heavy, thundery rain in Oxfordshire on Thursday.

About 15mm to 30mm of rain is likely to fall between 6am and noon on Thursday, but up to 50mm could fall and some areas could suffer torrential downpours.

The alert was issued by the Met Office today, warning people that local travel could be disrupted due to surface water flooding.

There could also be lightning storms, it added. The warning runs until 11.50pm on Thursday night.

A spokesman for The Met Office said: "An area of low pressure is expected to develop just to the northwest of Spain in the next 12 to 24 hours.

"This system is then expected to push north across Biscay and into the south of the UK early on Thursday.

"Locally heavy and thundery rain is likely to develop as the system pushes across parts of England and Wales."