Another summer soaking with thundery downpours

Spectacular lightning on Sunday evening at Biggleswade in Bedfordshire. Credit: Nigel Nurse

The summer soaking continues in the Anglia region with a mix of thunderstorms and torrential downpours.

The Met Office has issued yellow weather warnings for three days running as heavy showers cross many parts of the Eastern Counties.

More than a month's worth of rain fell in places over the weekend.

Hitchin in Hertfordshire reported 48 mm of rain (nearly 2 inches) in thunderstorms during Sunday afternoon and evening.

The sunshine and showers generate a double rainbow at Luton in Bedfordshire. Credit: Henry Moody

The Met Office has issued another yellow weather warning for more heavy rain on Monday.

Holiday makers were evacuated from flooded lodges at the Woburn Center Parcs holiday village in Bedfordshire on Sunday night.

Two homes in Milton Keynes, at Pinkworthy, Furzton and Broxbourne Close, Gifford Park, were damaged in lightning strikes.

Fire fighters used pumps to prevent flooding in Stort Road, Bishop's Stortford and crews were called to numerous property floods in Letchworth.

Writtle in Essex recorded 22 mm (nearly an inch) of rain in an hour at 9pm on Sunday while Woburn in Bedfordshire had 19 mm of rain in the hour to 7pm.

To put that in context, an average week in June usually produces 13 mm of rain.

Rainfall totals in the Anglia region from 10am to 10pm on Sunday 12 June 2016

  • 26 mm at Writtle in Essex

  • 24 mm at Woburn in Bedfordshire

  • 13 mm in Northampton

  • 12 mm at Santon Downham in Suffolk

  • 8 mm at Shoeburyness, Essex