Met Office warns of thunderstorms for York and North Yorkshire today

The Met Office has brought forward its yellow weather warning for today after thunderstorms started earlier than expected.

Up to 70mm of rain could fall in an hour in some places, with flash flooding and lightning strikes posing a threat.

Northern Powergrid reported there were no power outages in the county this morning.

The power pole, known in the industry as a transmission tower, and its transformer were near Selby Road in Escrick when lightning struck in the early evening.

At this time a large mass of thunderstorms passed north-east from north of Doncaster over Selby.

The cloud area was so large that you could see the edges from York.

This is what it looked like from East York in a photo by Joanna Krzeczowska.

Last night’s thunderstorm as seen from East York (Image: Joanna Krzeczowska)

The thunderstorm mass did not reach the city, but passed over Market Weighton and Driffield before moving towards the North Sea.

By the time it reached Market Weighton the cloud area was so large that some of it produced rain in Malton.

After the storm passed, Acomb firefighters were alerted by a member of the public that the pole had been hit. The electrical equipment was damaged, but the fire was extinguished before crews arrived. Northern Power engineers were aware of the incident.

A yellow thunderstorm weather warning for all of North Yorkshire and York was due to come into force at 2pm. But now the Met Office has brought it forward to 12.40pm and it is now in force. It runs until midnight tonight.

They are caused by the gradual easing of the heat wave that has gripped the entire country for several days.

The Met Office provisionally declared yesterday the hottest day of the year so far after Heathrow reported a temperature of 32.7C. Later, Kew Gardens in London reported a temperature reading of 33.2°C. Experts will now check the recording devices used to ensure they were correctly calibrated and operational at the time before confirming the recording. The hottest day of the year so far was Thursday when a temperature of 32.6°C was recorded in Wisley in Surrey.