UK weather: ‘Apocalyptic’ lightning and hail as sudden storm hits

Any lingering heavy, possibly thundery, showers should ease during the evening

Hail falls during a thunder and lighting storm as a police officer stands guard outside 10 Downing Street in London (AP)

London has been inundated with reports of freak “apolcalyptic” downpours, hail, thunder and lightening today as heavy showers battered central and southern England.

Forecasters this morning warned Britons that, despite a dry start to Tuesday in northern areas, showers would soon ramp up across the whole of the UK.

The storm descended on the capital just before 1pm today.

Social media was flooded with videos and images of the sudden change in weather. One Independent journalist weighed in on the action, reporting scenes of “booming thunder, hail, torrential rain” illumated by sudden flashes of lightening.

According to the latest radar sequence from the Met Office, showers have broken out widely across the UK. The heaviest showers as of this afternoon fell in central and southern England.

In London, forecasters have said that any lingering heavy, possibly thundery, showers should ease during the evening, leaving a dry night with largely clear skies.

More broadly, the heavy showers in the east should fade over the course of Tuesday afternoon and evening, bringing, clear spells to central and eastern parts of England.

Come Wednesday, cloud and rain will first hit areas further west before moving eastwards and breaking up into showers. Met officials are expecting some eastern areas to remain dry.

By the middle of this week, forecasters have urged Brits to expect a spell of changeable and unseasonably windy weather with showers, longer spells of rain, and a risk of coastal gales in the north.

Strong winds are also expected to bring some particularly challenging conditions across the Scottish mountain regions.

The unseasonably wet weather comes just a week after the UK recorded its hottest day of 2022 to date as temperatures reached 27.5C at Heathrow.

In its monthly update in March, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a US federal agency, also reported that in January and February, the global surface temperature was the sixth highest on record.

They said this means that it is virtually certain (above 99 per cent) that 2022 will rank in the top-10 hottest years.