Storms and f looding alerts – it must be June

JUNE arrived overnight with dramatic electric storms and flash flooding across the country.

Forecasters warned that a month’s rainfall was likely in two to three hours early today, with the potential to cause travel chaos and damage to property.

A combination of torrential rain, lightning and large hailstones led to the Met Office issuing an amber weather warning for London, the South-East, South-West, the West Midlands and Wales.

West Sussex was among the first areas to be hit last night with fire crews pumping out water from businesses and homes in Haywards Heath and Billingshurst.

In Bristol, roads in the Bishopsworth area were under a foot of water and in Berkshire there were fears the River Lambourn could burst its banks and flood nearby homes. Ryanair was forced to cancel flights in and out of Stansted because of the weather conditions, with passengers left stranded in Berlin and Budapest.

Thunderstorms are expected to move further north today, with heavy rain and flooding possible in the North West and Wales. Last night the Met Office said one to one-and-a-half inches of rain could fall in an hour, and two-and-a-half to three inches in two to three hours. England’s average monthly May rainfall is just over two inches.

There was also a possibility of ‘frequent lightning and large hail’, the Met Office said. ‘Flooding of homes and businesses is likely and could happen quickly, with damage to some buildings from floodwater, lightning strikes, hail or strong winds.’ It warned of ‘sudden flooding probably leading to difficult driving conditions and some road closures and some communities likely to become cut off’.

‘Power cuts are likely to occur and other services ... could be lost,’ it added. The Environment Agency urged people to check their flood risk, particularly if driving or going away over half-term.

The storms follow atrocious weather at the weekend which saw a man in his 80s dying after his car was submerged in Walsall.