READERS have sent in their incredible images of Tuesday night’s lightning storm in parts of the county.

Thunder and lightning erupted in places but in Rushwick and other areas, it remained dry but humid.

It is predicted by meteorologists that thunderstorms were likely again today (Wednesday) and Sunday, as well as the beginning of next week.

Rain is still predicted for every day this week.

The two vital ingredients for a thunderstorm are instability in the atmosphere and moisture, Grahame Madge at the Met Office said.

Thunderstorms take place when there is more humid air in the system, which is the case at the moment during the ongoing heatwave.

They tend to develop later in the afternoon after the progressive heating during the early part of the day, Mr Madge added.

It is estimated that a lightning strike hits somewhere on the Earth’s surface approximately 44 times every second, a total of nearly 1.4 billion lightning strikes every year.

Thunder is the sound produced by the rapid heating of air by a lightning strike, and lightning is a huge electrical discharge that flows between clouds, from a cloud to air, or from a cloud to the ground, according to the Met Office descriptions.

Within a thunderstorm there is huge capacity to suddenly release lots of moisture “incredibly intensively”, Mr Madge said, describing the phenomenon as “one of the most dramatic and most intense” weather events that we get in the UK.