Storms follow hottest day for years

23 July 2013 Last updated at 06:33 ET Continue reading the main story

Violent storms have marked the end of a three-week heatwave with thunder and lightning hitting the UK overnight.

Train services out of Manchester's main railway station have suffered major disruption after lightning hit the signalling system.

A woman in Stroke-on-Trent was "struck on the head" when a lightning strike caused a ceiling to collapse.

The change in weather comes after the hottest temperatures in seven years - which peaked on Monday at 33.5C.

The temperature - recorded in London - marked the hottest day since July 2006.

Flash floods

Network Rail said trains out of Manchester Piccadilly would be delayed by at least 60 minutes, with no details about when they would be back to normal.

Passengers have been told that all services have been suspended out of Piccadilly.

Tram services have also been hit in Manchester after a lightning strike affected signalling for the city's Metrolink service.

A lightning strike at Stechford, near Birmingham, has affected train services in and out of Coventry, Birmingham International and Birmingham New Street.

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Chris Laing's Time-lapse footage shows thunderstorms in London on Monday night

Train services through East Anglia were severely disrupted by a lightning strike at Manningtree in Essex.

Storms hit England and Wales overnight and will last intermittently throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, coupled with torrential rain and the risk of flash floods.

Caught fire

A woman from Birches Head in Stroke-on-Trent was taken to hospital after being hurt when a lightning strike caused the ceiling in her home to collapse on top of her.

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said crews believed a "woman had been struck on the head by a roof tile". Details of her condition have not been released.

A number of properties in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, were also damaged by lightning, with firefighters called just before 06:00 BST. A car in the town also caught fire.

Denise Walton, who lives on Stuart Street, where a house was struck, said: "I heard an almighty bang and a flash, the whole street seemed to light up.

"Then I looked through the window and I could see smoke coming into the sky, I didn't know where it was coming from.

"Within 10 minutes the fire brigade was here and then all hell let loose. It was frightening. Shocking, actually."

In Wiltshire firefighters tackled a blaze in the roof of a house on Stonehenge Road in Durrington at about 18:30 on Monday.

Wiltshire Fire and Rescue said they received "many" lightning-related calls overnight.

'Be aware'

About 50 firefighters and eight fire engines attended a fire at a farm on Elsthorpe Road, Stainfield, in Lincolnshire.

In Kent a house in Lympne caught fire at 02:00 after a lightning strike and a property in Gillingham was struck about 04:30. No-one was hurt in either incident.

Fire crews also had to pump water out of a house in Sandgate when it became flooded because of heavy rainfall.

A church was struck by lightning in Greater Manchester which sent stonework crashing through the church roof and into the school playground next door.

Reverend Andy Lindop, from St Andrew's Church in Ramsbottom, said the strike at 07:00 dislodged one of four pinnacles on the church tower.

"We're just extremely grateful that it's happened at a time when the there was no-one in the vicinity and the school has finished for the summer," he said.

London, Essex and Cambridgeshire have also been affected. In Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, 21mm of rain fell in less than an hour, the BBC Weather Centre said.

The Met Office has issued a yellow warning - "be aware" - for rain for parts of England, Wales and Scotland.

The Environment Agency issued one flood warning, meaning "flooding is expected, immediate action required", and another flood alert, meaning "flooding is possible, be prepared", for areas between Gore Point and Hurlstone Point in Somerset.

Greater Manchester Fire Service had to rescue drivers from two cars after they got stuck driving through water on Crossley Road, Burnage.

Overnight, Stansted Airport in Essex suffered a power cut causing passenger information services and screens to fail.

A spokesman for the airport said flights were arriving and departing on schedule and a normal service was expected to continue.

He added: "Passengers are advised to come to the airport earlier than planned in case the situation changes."

'Surface water flooding'

A power cut affected about 6,500 properties in Alderton in Tewkesbury and Marle Hill in Stroud in Gloucestershire. Western Power said the supply was restored at 08:20.

About 800 homes in Bedminster, Bristol were left without power from 04:26-04:42 and another 800 homes in Emersons Green, Bath and Taunton had intermittent problems overnight.

In Essex power has been restored to 3,000 homes after a lightning storm caused a fault during the night.

UK Power Networks engineers are working to restore supplies to 238 customers in the Charlotte Avenue area of Wickford who remain without electricity.

A spokesperson said: "We appreciate how difficult it can be to lose power and want to assure customers we are doing all we can to restore normal supplies."

Yellow warning

The Met Office's Yellow warning predicts "thunderstorms or longer spells of thundery rain during the course of Tuesday, with some torrential downpours in places".

It also warns of a risk of localised disruption to travel and surface water flooding.

In Wales, Natural Resources Wales said heavy rain was likely to cause roads to flood and drains, ditches and small streams to overflow.

BBC Wales weather presenter Behnaz Akhgar added: "The worst of it is in England now. We had some thunderstorms overnight and lightning strikes over parts of south east Wales.

"The only place we could continue to have lightning strikes is north east Wales in the Wrexham area."

A further yellow warning of rain has been issued for Wednesday, affecting eastern parts of England and parts of Scotland, in particular the north-east of the country.

Philip Avery, from the BBC Weather Centre, warned that further storms could affect England during Tuesday.

"They [the storms] lie in an arc from Antrim to Scotland, over the Midlands and East Anglia and will push through Scotland during the day," he said.

"Following behind from the Midlands to East Anglia there could be isolated storms. There's an extensive yellow warning because of the intensity.

"We will stay on the muggy side and that could be the case again tonight and we don't see any significant freshening of the atmosphere over next few days."

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