Severe thunderstorms hit the UK by Sarah Wilmshurst
The recent spell of very warm and humid air across large parts of the British Isles has led to the development of severe thunderstorms and heavy rain with flooding reported in many places.
The first onslaught of storms broke out on Monday evening across Wales, and western and central parts of England. One of the worst affected areas was the West Midlands, where the fire service received over 400 calls about flooding and lightning damage. In Birmingham, several cars were set alight after lightning struck a car showroom. Torrential rain flash flooded large parts of Shropshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire. In Smethwick, over 30mm (1.2 inches) of rain fell in one hour with similar rainfall totals falling across the West Midlands.
Yesterday evening, further thunderstorms broke out, this time across the Northeast of England and Northern Ireland. In Ballypatrick, Co. Antrim, 46.4mm (nearly 2 inches) of rain fell in 24 hours and in Boulmer, Northumberland, 52mm (just over 2 inches) of rain fell, with 38mm (1.5 inches) of it falling in just two hours this morning. This area of rain also caused flooding in Ayrshire, Scotland, during this morning.
The recent storms have been attributed to a series of cold fronts associated with a low pressure system located to the west of Ireland. As cold fronts pushed eastwards across the very warm and humid British Isles, heavy thunderstorms developed along the leading edge of the fronts.
Low pressure has now taken charge of the UK’s weather, pushing the heat and humidity back towards continental Europe. This has introduced cooler and fresher air from the Atlantic.
Forecasters do not expect anything else like this over the next few days, with just a few scattered showers and plenty of sunshine in between.
