Heavy rainstorms that have battered Britain throughout this week are forecast to give way to milder, drier weather on Wednesday. It comes after torrential rain hit large parts of northern England on Tuesday afternoon, while the south saw flash flooding the previous night. However, any lingering showers – predicted for Tuesday night in the east of England – are set to subside for dry weather, including some sunshine, by Wednesday. But it is forecast that while most of the UK will avoid repeats of the heavy rainfall that affected transport on Monday and Tuesday, Scotland and Northern Ireland could still be hit by storms ahead of the weekend. Large parts of north-east England were hit by storms on Tuesday, with Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service saying it had received a “high number” of 999 calls relating to floods. The Tyne and Wear Metro advised commuters to “put off travel” until later on Tuesday because of flooding on its network, while Durham county council said it had received a number of emergency callouts to flooded properties. On Tuesday evening, the Met Office warned that gales were possible along the North Sea coast. “Elsewhere, it will become largely dry with clear spells developing,” they added. In London, several tube lines experienced delays throughout Tuesday due to the overnight deluge of rain in the capital, where about 26mm of rainfall was recorded in just one hour. The Environment Agency issued 41 flood alerts for areas where flooding was possible, and three flood warnings across England. Parts of London, Birmingham and Cumbria were covered by the warnings. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency issued four flood alerts and Natural Resources Wales had one in place along the country’s northern coast.