Gales and torrential rain is set to hit the county as the remnants of tropical storm Bertha make landfall in the early hours.

The Met Office confirmed Sussex will be in for a stormy night this evening as the storm blows its way in across the channel just after midnight.

A spokesman for the Met Office said: “We are going to see heavy rains and gale force winds and there is still doubt as to whether to could be a little be worse. It is estimated the county could see up to 50ml of rain and gusts of up 50mph.

“The winds are fairly brisk at the moment from the south west so we are expected rain to come into the Brighton area just after midnight and turn heavy in the early hours of the morning.

“There is a small risk of thunder and lightning. The winds are going to be quite a feature and we have strong southerly winds we expect to increase up to gale strength early tomorrow – with 50mph gusts from the south west.

“We could see an inch of rain and there is a small risk we could see two inches of rain – that could be enough to see some flooding.”

The rain is expected to die down tomorrow afternoon with there just being a small risk of showers.