MAYHEM AFTER MOTHER OF ALL THUNDERSTORMS
62,000 lightning bolts hit, cutting power and grounding 200 f lights
‘This is utterly insane’
AFTER days of hot and oppressive weather, Mother Nature put on the son et lumiere of the decade yesterday – and there could be more to come.
Pets cowered and families were shaken from their slumber as skies across Britain crackled and lit up with 62,000 lightning bolts – 20 times more than an average thunderstorm.
They contained 15million kWh of energy – enough to boil water for 600million cups of tea. BBC Weather presenter Tomasz Schafernaker called it the ‘mother of all thunderstorms’ as he watched it over London.
Among the most spectacular bolts was one that struck the capital’s Shard skyscraper, the country’s tallest building.
But typically, with such an unusual weather event came chaos.
Flights were grounded and thousands of homes left without power as the storms swept the Midlands, southern England and Wales late on Saturday and early yesterday.
Warnings are in place for more storms and torrential rain today.
More than 200 passenger jets were delayed at Stansted after lightning damaged the airport’s central fuelling system in the early hours – meaning planes were unable to refuel.
Dozens of departures and arrivals were cancelled and furious passengers complained of being kept in the dark by airport chiefs.
Stansted said it fixed the damage at just before 8.30am, but there were knock-on delays and flight cancellations throughout the day. Storms brought more than an inch of rain to parts of Wales and central England in just an hour.
In the Midlands, 13,000 homes were left without power. Western Power Distribution said electrictwoity had been restored to these homes yesterday morning.
The London Fire Brigade said it had taken more than 500 weather-related calls.
In Warwickshire, fire service bosses said five properties were struck by lightning in the early hours of yesterday.
And in Dawlish, Devon, a telephone box burst into flames after a BT pole was hit on Saturday evening.
Firefighters were called to a house in Stanway, Essex, in the early hours after a lightning strike set its roof ablaze.
Crews worked until 4.30am to extinguish the fire. Most of the storey house was also affected by fire damage. Luckily no one was in the property at the time of the lightning strike and it is believed the home owners are on holiday.
Seventeen flood alerts were issued for parts of the Thames Valley, while West Midlands and Bedfordshire fire services warned motorists of the risks of driving on flood-hit roads. Some 62,598 lightning bolts hit Britain in a 24-hour period – an average lightning storm has around 3,000 strikes, according to Met Office data. Presenter Mr Schafernaker gave a running commentary as he watched the storm.
He said: ‘Oh boy! This [is] utterly insane. I’ve never seen a storm with such frequent lightning in my life I don’t think. Mostly sheet lightning and not too loud but flashes are spectacular.’ Parts of Wales and central and southern England could see further thunderstorms today, with the Met Office warning of the possibility of power cuts and delays to trains and buses.
It issued a yellow rain warning lasting until 6am today amid concerns that storms could also cause flooding, damage buildings and make driving conditions dangerous. But parts of the South are expected to bask in the hottest day of the year, with temperatures predicted to rise above 29C (84F).
During the May Day bank holiday earlier this month it reached 83.7F (28.7C) in Northolt, northwest London. The hottest day ever recorded in May came in 2012, when the Scottish Highlands reached 87.6F (30.9C).
The hottest day of this year so far was April 19, when it was 84.4F (29.1C) in London’s St James’s Park.