Havoc at Isle of Wight as rain batters UK

Meanwhile, North Yorkshire was counting the cost of flood damage yet again after heavy downpours took their toll the previous night.

Firefighters responded to more than 25 flooding calls in Harrogate, Knaresborough, Boroughbridge, Bedale and Leeming Bar on Thursday night and Lightning blasted holes in the roof of a house in Osgodby, Selby, in a freak storm.

Police in West Yorkshire were yesterday investigating if the weather conditions were to blame for a crash on the A1 near Wetherby on Thursday night, in which two officers were hurt.

No other vehicles were involved and it is believed there was a large amount of surface water on the motorway at the time.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “The weather at the time was pretty awful so obviously that will play a major factor in the investigation.”

The heavy rainfall has wreaked havoc on the Isle of Wight where more than 50,000 festival-goers are due to spend this weekend.

Car parks at the Seaclose Park site in Newport quickly became waterlogged and churned up with mud as cars began to arrive on Thursday, and as they became inaccessible, long queues built up stretching back to the ports.

Crossings were suspended and around 600 people were stranded on ferries on the Solent on Thursday night as there was no room for passengers with cars to disembark.

The Big Top stage had to be evacuated at one stage because of heavy wind and rain, although it reopened for headliners Primal Scream.

Met Office weather warnings were still in place last night for much of the country, with further heavy rain expected to hit northern England, Northern Ireland, north Wales and southwest Scotland, and the chance of gusts of up to 50mph.