Goodbye sunshine – hello lightning

The Met Office has issued yellow weather warnings of possible thunderstorms for Lincolnshire from 10am this morning, August 15 through to midnight on Tuesday. It follows days of dry and hot weather with the mercury topping 30C in the county over the weekend.

There is a waring of “hit-and-miss thunderstorms” likely to develop through Monday. The Met Office says this could produce some torrential downpours for some spots, and possible disruption including spray and sudden flooding could lead to difficult driving conditions and some road closures.

“There is a small chance that homes and businesses could be flooded quickly, with damage to some buildings from floodwater, lightning strikes, hail or strong winds,” the warning continues. “Where flooding or lightning strikes occur, there is a chance of delays and some cancellations to train and bus services.

“There is a slight chance that power cuts could occur and other services to some homes and businesses could be lost.” Looking ahead to Tuesday, the warning states: “While some places stay dry, others are likely to see thunderstorms during Tuesday with torrential rain bringing some disruption.”

Temperatures are forecast to reach 30C in the county on Monday before falling to around the 20C mark for the rest of the week. Light rain is also forecast on Wednesday. Dan Stroud, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said the drastic change in weather is due to an alteration in the air pressure.

He told the PA news agency: “We’ve had a number of days now where we’ve had clear, strong, clear skies and strong sunshine which has heated up the ground.

“We’ve had high pressure dominating, now we’re having low pressure dominate, so the air is becoming more unstable. As we’ve had some very high ground temperatures, it doesn’t actually take too much for the air to become even more unstable and for thundery showers to develop quickly.”

Drought has been declared in eight areas including, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, and the East Midlands. Three water companies – Welsh Water, Southern Water, and South East Water – have all imposed hosepipe bans, while Yorkshire Water has announced a ban will start on August 26 and Thames Water is planning one in the coming weeks.

Anglian Water says it has no current plans to introduce a hosepipe ban in Lincolnshire.