 Flash flooding hit parts of the west and Wales overnight |
Cooler, calmer weather is on its way after storms and flash flooding caused disruption overnight in some parts of England and Wales, forecasters say. Thousands in western and central England were left without power.
Oxfordshire was the worst affected, with 40mm of rain falling in one hour in Brize Norton on Thursday morning.
The BBC's Rob McElwee said the worst of the storms would be over by lunchtime with weather from the Atlantic spelling an end to the recent humidity.
 |  The breeze is bringing the weather in from the Atlantic now so there'll be a drop in humidity |
"In the west, there has been torrential rain from Gloucestershire westward but it ends it ends before you get to Cornwall and Devon and much of Wales is dry," he said.
"The breeze is bringing the weather in from the Atlantic now so there'll be a drop in humidity."
Some rain is expected at Wimbledon, which could disrupt the women's semi-finals.
In Oxfordshire, 3,500 properties in the Alvescot, Woodstock, Wootton and Witney were without electricity on Thursday morning after power cables were brought down overnight.
Mr McElwee said the disruptive weather in Oxfordshire would continue throughout Thursday morning.
 Rain disrupted play at Wimbledon on Wednesday |
In Wiltshire, there were also power cuts with police and fire crews helping stranded motorists.
A suspected lightning strike on a power station in Wroughton left hundreds of homes in the dark.
And in Worcestershire, homes were flooded and roads closed.
In Lymm, Cheshire, the roof of a school was brought down with torrential rain but no-one was inside.
Health warnings
North Wales also suffered with a series of power failures while the A5 between Corwen and Llangollen was closed because of severe flooding.
In mid-Wales, four properties in Newtown were struck by lightning while fire crews in Llandrindod Wells were called in to pump out floodwater from a building at the town's hospital.
The stormy weather followed days of sunshine in some parts of the UK.
At the start of the week temperatures reached over 31C (88F) in the south east of England.
The government health warnings over the heat wave are still in place until Friday.
Over the past few days, NHS Direct has received about 2,500 additional calls per day, from people asking for advice on coping with the heat and reporting heat-related problems.
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