For some parts of central and eastern England that have not seen appreciable rainfall for several weeks, there was a change of fortunes on Thursday as heavy rain and thunderstorms developed. Over a wide area across the east Midlands, East Anglia and south-east England, 20-30mm of rain was recorded during Thursday morning, which is between a third and a half of what we would normally expect in the month of August.
Across parts of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and London, as much as 60-80mm of rain fell, and in some cases more than 50mm fell in the space of an hour. This brought some localised flooding, partly owing to the very dry ground conditions that allowed water to run off very quickly. There were also thousands of lightning strikes across the region, particularly during the early morning.
