Flood warnings as torrential rain and thunderstorms lash UK

Some places have more than 2in of rain in three hours – while much of the country still in drought

Fans arrive for the Reading festival in wet weather (Geoffrey Swaine/Shutterstock)

Households and businesses are mopping up after thunderstorms and torrential downpours lashed the UK.

With rain and storms lasting for several hours, some parts of the South East received more than an inch of rain in an hour.

A resident of Brighton on the south coast reported: “Fast-moving curtains of rain, sheet lightning, and constant low, rumbling, thumping, apocalyptic thunder – almost without pause – which has set off all the car alarms.”

Nine flood alerts were in place across the southeast, together with a yellow thunderstorm warning for London and the southeast, the east of England and the East Midlands, meaning train delays and potential loss of power were likely.

In Horsham, West Sussex, two people were rescued from a car that was stranded in deep water.

Andrewsfield in Essex reported 1.43 inches of rain in an hour, rising to 2.2 inches in three hours.

After this summer’s intense heatwave, large parts of England are still officially in drought, and millions of households are under hosepipe bans.

Parks and roads were flooded on Thursday morning, and police warned drivers of spray blinding drivers’ views of the road ahead.

Annie Shuttleworth, a Met Office meteorologist, said overnight rain in Andrewsfield was close to the average rainfall for August for southern England.

The Thameslink rail company said flooding at Earlswood in Surrey meant trains were not stopping there and services were disrupted.

In east London, Dagenham Heathway station was closed by flooding, and a waterlogged railway at Northfleet, Kent, also disrupted services.

A number of households reported suffering power cuts. But the Energy Networks Association (ENA) said no operators had flagged outages caused by the thunderstorms.

The bank holiday is expected to be largely dry with warm sunny spells, but showers in the North and wet in the North West.

Weekend temperatures could climb to 30C or into the mid-20s in the southeast, the Met Office said.

Spokesman Grahame Madge said while the downpours would mean this month will “catch up a bit” with rainfall totals, he added: “It’s certainly going to be a dry August for the whole of the UK.”

Scientists say climate change is making weather extremes more likely, increasing heatwaves, droughts and heavy rain.