Daily Mirror

Mother of all thundersto­rms..

INSANE WEATHER: HEAT SOARS AS LIGHTNING CONTINUES 73,000 lightning bolts over two days Floods feared as the storms continue Today is hottest of the year so far

- BY LUCY THORNTON AND AMY CLARE MARTIN lucy.thornton@mirror.co.uk

THE “mother of all thundersto­rms” lit up the sky over the weekend in a spectacula­r display that caused havoc across the country.

And today’s Bank Holiday is tipped to be the hottest day of the year so far at up to 30C in the South as torrential downpours threaten floods elsewhere.

Flights were grounded and hundreds of homes were left without power as electrical storms raged with up to 73,000 lightning bolts over two days.

BBC meteorolog­ist Tomasz Schafernak­er, tweeted as the drama unfolded: “Mother of all thundersto­rms now over London.

“Oh boy! This utterly insane. I’ve never seen a storm with such frequent lightning in my life.”

A house lost its roof after being struck by lightning in Stanway, Essex

early yesterday. A blaze tore through the roof but firefighte­rs were able to save the rest of the house, where fortunatel­y no one was hurt as the owners were believed to have been on holiday.

Neighbour Amanda Williams described hearing a “massive bang like an explosion”, adding: “The fire took hold very quickly.” London

Fire Brigade said it got over 500 calls linked to the storm.

Five properties were struck by Warwickshi­re lightning in in the early hours yesterday, the fire service there said. Devon,

In Dawlish, a telephone box burst into flames after a BT pole was hit on Saturday evening. Nearly 1,000 properties

Oh boy! I’ve never seen a storm with such frequent lightning TOMASZ SCHAFERNAK­ER BBC METEOROLOG­IST

were left without power across Midlands, the with the majority of outages down to lightning, Western Power Distributi­on said.

Over 200 planes were delayed and dozens more cancelled at Stansted Airport

in Essex yesterday after lightning strikes wiped out its refuelling system.

Passenger Chiara Elisei tweeted: “Stuck on a plane with no fuel and no idea of when and if we will be departing. Ridiculous. A country in freefall.”

Labour MP John Mann said “nothing” was leaving the airport and there were “empty skies”. Stansted said in a statement: “A number of flights have regrettabl­y been cancelled due to an airport fuelling system failure, caused by a lightning strike.

“All affected customers have been contacted. We apologise to all customers affected by these disruption­s, which are entirely beyond our control.”

More of the same is due until Friday as sweltering heat brings more dramatic storms, raising the risk of power cuts, damage to buildings, train delays and road closures. Nicola Maxey of the Met Office said: “It is one of the most dramatic weather phenomena we see in the UK.” Met Office meteorolog­ist Becky Mitchell said temperatur­es could reach 30C in places that avoid heavy rain today, particular­ly the South East. There were 17 flood alerts lasting until 6am today for parts of the Thames Valley. West Midlands and Bedfordshi­re fire services warned motorists of the risks of driving on flood-hit roads.

A yellow warning for heavy rain and flooding was issues across Wales and most of England.

Britain’s tallest building, the 1,016ft Shard in central London, looked dwarfed by a massive bolt of lightning on Saturday night,.

Similar displays could be seen across the country including on Cornwall the coast at Newquay.

 ??  ?? Tallest building is dwarfed by huge bolt Blinding flash as storm streaks in City lights are no contest for lightning Roof burnt off after lightning struck it Electrical storm over Cornish coast DM1ST
Tallest building is dwarfed by huge bolt Blinding flash as storm streaks in City lights are no contest for lightning Roof burnt off after lightning struck it Electrical storm over Cornish coast DM1ST
 ??  ?? SUNNY Bretton, West Yorks yesterday
SUNNY Bretton, West Yorks yesterday
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? STANSTED The storm delayed hundreds of flights
STANSTED The storm delayed hundreds of flights

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