Lidl closed and office evacuated after two weeks' of rain falls in one hour

A Lidl store has been forced to close and an office has been evacuated in Perth amid flooding and heavy rain.

The supermarket was closed while teams carried out remedial works following heavy rainfall.

The Aviva office in Perth was also evacuated; however, the company said there is no impact to customer service.

STV meteorologist Sean Batty said that two weeks’ worth of rain fell in the city in just one hour between 3pm and 4pm.

Ollie Hawkes

It comes after the Met Office issued a weather warning for thunderstorms which came into effect at 11am on Monday and is in force until 9pm.

Forecasters warned some areas could see downpours of up to 80mm – around two weeks’ worth of rain in a matter of hours.

Lightning strikes are also likely as well as hail and gusty winds.

Ollie Hawkes

The yellow alert affects much of the mainland, with some parts of the Highlands, Western Isles and the north east spared.

A second yellow warning for heavy rain came into force at 3pm on Monday. It covers the north west mainland and the Inner Hebrides.

“It looks like around 30mm is possible in a few hours from some intense thundery downpours across central southern and eastern Scotland today – although many areas should escape the day largely dry,” said Sean.

“However, where these do occur it could amount to the equivalent to over a week’s worth of rain in just a few hours.

“A separate area of rain in the north of the country could bring more, but over a longer period of time.

“This will be a more persistent band of rain which could bring as much as 60-80mm throughout today.

“The focus looks to be somewhere around the Aird, Lochalsh and Lochaber area where I expect the rain will pivot this afternoon, and therefore last longer.

“If 80mm of rain were to fall in these areas today, that would work out to at about two weeks’ worth of rain.”

A spokesperson for Lidl said: “For your background, following heavy rainfall, our store is temporarily closed whilst our teams work hard to carry out remedial works.

“We hope to get the store re-opened as soon as possible and apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused.

An Aviva spokesperson said: “We can confirm that our Perth office has been evacuated this afternoon. Our main priority is the safety and welfare of our employees.

“There is no impact on customer service. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.”

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