It began with thundery showers on the Sussex coast, which moved inland during the evening, skirting south London, and heading on to Essex.

'Visually, it was one of the most impressive light displays we have seen for some many a year.

In Chelmsford, Essex, the storm was so fierce it caused house and car alarms to go off. Fire crews were called to patch up the roof of a house in Ipswich, Suffolk, after it was struck by lightning leaving a 6ft by 4ft hole.

Meanwhile other areas of Britain and Ireland suffered flooding as the rain lashed down. The wettest weather was in Scotland, where just over two inches of rain fell at Edinburgh Airport in 24 hours.

The unsettled summer weather continued that weekend. MeteoGroup's Matt Dobson said: 'Saturday will be wet and windy in most places, and she was right as the rain came and came and just did not want to give up.

This striking picture shows a spectacular bolt of lightning piercing the night sky above the capital.

The image shows the electrical storm above a church steeple in Kennington South London in the early hours of the morning of the 6th August 2008.

Minutes later the city was hit by downpours and lingering flashes of lightning that continued into the early hours.

The amazing lightning display was caused by rising air currents and mixing with heavy rain and thunder.

Yet the city was blessed that no one got hurt in the lightning strikes that hit the ground.

The next two weeks say the weather forecasters are to be just as grim and

no let up whatsoever. This time they were right as the humidity was to be even higher than usual.

 

A Beautiful Fork Lightning Storm in Luddington MI USA.

You can see very clesrly the three main forks striking the ground in this case water. If you look closely you can see three smaller forks which are a pre fork for the main forks in the picture.

The natural beauty of the lightning just goes to show how mother nature really works.

The study of this storm must of been electric as i have seen several while in the USA some years ago.