Half of all UK lightning strikes recorded this year happened in just four days

Widespread thunderstorms followed weeks of high temperatures

A lightning storm is pictured above houses in Essex.

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The UK was hit by more lightning strikes in four days than in all of last year, the Met Office has said.

As part of the thunderstorms which buffeted the UK after the heatwave, 26,718 lightning strikes were recorded across the UK between Sunday and Wednesday.

By comparison, only 22,721 were detected over the last year, according to the national weather agency.

The torrential downpours seen earlier this week caused flash floods in places such as Cornwall and London, as the ground, dried up after months of scorching temperatures, was unable to effectively absorb the rainfall.

One of the affected areas was London’s Victoria Station, which was forced to close early on Wednesday due to flooding.

Elsewhere, High Beech in Essex saw 66.4mm of rain in just three hours on the same day - the highest total during the recent wet spell.

Such rainfall will do little to replenish the country’s water stores, which have dwindled as a result of unseasonably high temperatures and low precipitation. From the end of the month, 29.4 million customers will be affected by hosepipe bans, introduced to deal with the shortages.

Following days of yellow and amber thunderstorm warnings, the Met Office has said that “more typical” summer weather is on the way this weekend.

Craig Snell, a forecaster at the Met Office, said temperatures would peak in the mid-20s in southeast England, far lower than in recent days.

“It is going to be a changeable week and we can expect some more rain in places, chiefly in the north but with temperatures nearer to where they should be rather than in the 30Cs that we had last week,” he said.