Lightning, hail and heavy rain strike during mostly hot and sunny weekend

In Sheffield, hailstones the size of butter beans came down in a torrential shower on Saturday afternoon, while the heavy rainfall caused flooding in Hillsborough.

A farmhouse in North Yorkshire was damaged when it was struck by lightning during a storm on Saturday evening. Firefighters were called to the property in Glaisdale just after 7pm where they found the gable end of the house had been struck.

Elsewhere in Yorkshire, however, the hot weather and long dry spell contributed to a number of grass fires which followed warnings from National Park officials and authorities about the dangers.

Almost 30 firefighters spent nearly five hours tackling gorse fires at a quarry in North Yorkshire in the early hours of Saturday. Crews were called to Bradleys quarry at Great Ayton at 2.23am, where they found 600 square metres of gorse on fire in 13 separate locations.

In West Yorkshire around 20 firefighters were called to a moorland fire near Long Lee Lane in Keighley just before 10.30pm on Friday, April 22. Crews spent around two hours tackling it.