THE Met Office at midday today announced an amber warning for severe thunderstorms in Surrey and the rest of the south-east overnight tonight (Friday) and through tomorrow (Saturday).
The worst of the storms could be west of Reigate and Dorking and could lead to surface water flooding, heavy hail and much thunder and lightning.
TheMet Office said in its forecast, issued at 11.40am: "The very warm and humid airmass across the UK will become increasingly unstable on Friday night and through Saturday. This will lead to the development of areas of intense thunderstorms, these moving northwards across the UK and affecting different areas at various times through the day.
"In this situation, large amounts of energy are available in the atmosphere and this, coupled with high moisture content, can lead to torrential downpours along with frequent lightning activity, large hail and locally strong gusts.
"As is usually the case with thunderstorms, broad areas can be identified as at risk some time in advance but detail will remain very uncertain until very close to the event. Some areas will miss the worst of the storms whilst nearby spots experience severe downpours with some localised flooding, so the public are advised stay in touch with the latest forecasts and warnings through Saturday."
Early today (Friday), many people in Surrey were kept awake by frequent lightning in the night sky.
There was little rain in Reigate but near Guildford, heavy downpours and overhead thunder were reported.
The heat, too, led to people being unable to sleep.
Throughout the night, the temperature was as high as 17C (63F) in East Surrey and nearer 20C (68F) towards Heathrow Airport.
The winds got up, too, and there were reports of Saharan dust covering cars in Reigate.
Today, the Met Office was expecting even higher temperatures than yesterday with the chance of 32C (90F) being reached in the south-east.
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