UK weather: Sun to return for bank holiday after country hit by 20,000 lightning strikes in 'mother of all thunderstorms'

Met office warns of potential flooding to homes and businesses, damage to buildings from floodwater, power cuts strong winds and even hail

More heavy rain and thunder is forecast for the UK after the country was hit by lightning between 15,000 and 20,000 times as the “mother of all thunderstorms” struck southern England overnight.

The London Fire Brigade said it was forced to take more than 500 weather-related calls as thunderstorms brought the UK’s glorious bank holiday sunshine to a sudden halt.

In Warwickshire, the fire service said five properties were hit by lightning in the early hours of Sunday. A telephone box burst into flames after a BT pole was hit on Saturday evening in Dawlish, Devon.

More thunderstorms are forecast for southern England, the Midlands and Northern Ireland on Sunday evening. Showers are also predicted for northern England and southern and western areas of Scotland.

A Met Office warning of heavy thunderstorms is in place until 6am on Monday - covering much of England and all of Wales.

They warned of potential flooding to homes and businesses, damage to buildings from floodwater, strong winds, power cuts and even hail.

But the storms are expected to have subsided in time for bank holiday Monday, which will begin with a cloudy start followed by sunny spells and temperatures rising. While a scattering of heavy showers or thunderstorms are likely to develop in Wales and central and southern England, many places will stay dry.

There are set to be more sunny spells on Tuesday although heavy showers will affect the far south and some outbreaks of thunder are possible.

Western Power Distribution said the storm had left nearly 1,000 properties without power across the Midlands - with the bulk of outages due to lightning.

A cluster of 17 flood alerts has been issued for parts of the Thames Valley and West Midlands and Bedfordshire fire services have warned motorists of the risks of driving on flood-hit roads.

Met Office meteorologist Charlie Powell said information indicated there were "somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 strikes across the UK during the overnight period".

"Temperatures overnight did not fall much below 15 or 16 degrees, for the end of May that's a pretty hot and humid night so everything was primed,” he said.

"We had some storms coming in from northern France and some building up in the Channel and they sort of spread out and have been working their way in. It looks like there just one huge area of thundery showers that worked across London just before midnight."

The LFB said it had taken 505 weather-related calls overnight but the majority were triggered by flooding and no fires were reported to have been started by lightning strikes.

Torrential rain at Kew Gardens, in south-west London, saw more than half an inch of rainfall in an hour.

Across London and southern England, night skies were dominated with cartoon-like flashes of lightning and booming thunder.

BBC weatherman Tomasz Schafernaker tweeted: "Mother of all thunderstorms now over London. Oh boy! This UTTERLY INSANE. I've never seen a storm with such frequent lightning in my life I don't think. Mostly sheet lightning and not too loud but flashes are spectacular."

James Brewin caught the moment Big Ben and Westminster were illuminated by a flash of lightning – dubbing it "London in daylight at midnight for a split second".

Photographer and journalist Andrew Lanxon Hoyle shared an image of the Suleymaniye Mosque in Dalston, east London, lit up by an intense fork of lightning. "The lightning storm over London right now is utterly INTENSE,” he tweeted.

Additional reporting by Press Association