Torrential rain is causing disruption, with up to a month's rain expected to fall in parts of the UK within a day.

The number of flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected, is steadily rising in England, and more than 120 flood alerts are in place in the UK.

A caravan park in North Yorkshire is being evacuated amid flooding, and sporting fixtures are being affected.

Meanwhile, Prince Charles has visited flood-hit Hebden Bridge, in West Yorkshire, which is seeing more rain.

The Environment Agency has issued 124 flood alerts, which warn people to be prepared for possible flooding.

The town of Darwen in Lancashire, which was evacuated last month when rivers burst their banks - is among 35 places in the North East, the North West, the Midlands and the Anglian region of England, that are subject to a flood warning.

At Cayton Bay caravan park in North Yorkshire, Filey lifeboat crew rescued four disabled people and two carers from their caravan.

In other developments: Meanwhile, traffic outside Silverstone was gridlocked as the first practice session for the British Grand Prix took place.

Some visitors were stranded in their cars on the A43 because they could not get into car parks which had been converted into campsites because of flooding.

And festival-goers heading for T in the Park festival, in Balado, Kinross-shire, meanwhile, were warned to come prepared for heavy rain.

The Met Office has issued an amber warning of severe weather urging people to "be prepared", while the Environment Agency warns flooding could be the worst of the year so far with transport links and homes likely to be "severely affected".

The BBC Weather Centre said the North West was among parts of northern England, as well as northern and central Wales, the Midlands and East Anglia, to have the most rainfall.

Between 20mm and 40mm of rain is expected to fall in central and northern areas of England, while the worst-hit places could see 60mm of rain, the average monthly fall for July.

'Think ahead'

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has issued six flood alerts.

There is no flood warning system in Northern Ireland although the Met Office has issued a yellow warning - urging people to be aware - for its south-eastern tip.

The Environment Agency's Pete Fox told the BBC that five million homes in the UK are deemed to be at risk of flooding.

He said that, as the rain lands, the agency is using its monitoring stations and river gauging stations to predict more specifically where the weather would be worst.

"We don't want people to worry right now but we want people to take a look at our website to work out if they are at risk of flooding," he added.

The Environment Agency has opened incident rooms and has teams out checking on flood defences and clearing any blockages to reduce risks as much as possible.

The latest flood warnings follow the UK's wettest June since records began in 1910, according to provisional Met Office figures.

BBC Weather's Chris Fawkes said that, for the past three months, the UK had found itself underneath an accelerating part of the 6-mile high Jet Stream - a fast wind blowing around the planet.

An accelerating Jet Stream causes air to rise upwards through the atmosphere and creates low pressure centres and a greater likelihood of rain, he said.

Over the weekend, further heavy rain is forecast for parts of northern England and central and southern Scotland which will again introduce the risk of localised flooding.

And BBC weatherman Darren Bett said there was "no sign of warm dry weather for a month".