Steel yourselves: Storm Angus set to batter London tonight with 55mph winds and could affect commuters on Monday morning

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The first storm of Autumn 2016 is poised to batter London, the South and South East of England tonight and could cause disruption to commuters into Monday morning. 

Storm Angus will be whipping up a, err, storm, overnight when gales with storm-force winds developing over the English Channel will be swept overland from Dorset to Suffolk. 

London will be just outside of the Amber wind warning area issued by the Met Office, but is covered by a yellow rainfall and wind warning. Gusts of wind up to 45mph or 55mph are forecast to hit the capital from about midnight through to 9am tomorrow morning, the Met Office told City PM 

Those who live on the Northern Line will be able to dive for cover when the worst of the wind hits, as the Night Tube has been added to the capital's primary North-South line this weekend. 

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"Coming with the wind is a huge amount of rainfall that could produce between 20mm and 30mm of rain in a fairly short space of time," said Met Office forecaster Simon Partridge. 

"It's not a particularly huge amount of rainfall but when it's coming a time when there are still a lot of leaves on the trees, that could be blown off by the wind, the rainfall combined with leaf-fall could lead to some surface-level flooding."

Although the worst of the rain will probably have cleared London by about 6am or 7am tomorrow morning, standing water will still be present. 

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Car commuters – start steeling yourselves now

Despite a dry, if a little blustery, afternoon being forecast for tomorrow, Monday morning commuters face "a second band of heavy rain coming from the south on Sunday night" that will rain hard over London and the M4 corridor.

There will also be some more "strong winds", particularly overnight. We'll keep our fingers crossed the wind doesn't put leaves on any train tracks and the exposed, overground parts of the tube network, as these can cause delays while they're being cleared.

"The main issue will be with surface spray on the transport network, so people who drive to work could have a longer commute on Monday morning, with increased spray and reduced visibility," Partridge said. 

Those in more exposed coastal areas could also be disrupted by Storm Angus, as winds of up to 80mph have been forecast for other parts of the South East, where the Met Office has said it is likely to disrupt transport and power supplies and do some damage to buildings.