If you were shaken awake as the heavens roared in the early hours of this morning, you weren’t alone.

After a day of baking sunshine North Herts was rocked by torrential rain and a sleep-disturbing thunderstorm at around 2am.

In Letchworth Scott Brown grabbed his camera and captured lightning streaking across the sky for posterity.

He said of the spectacular storm: “Dogs barked, cats ran, and babies cried. I just enjoyed.”

According to the Met Office, a hot and increasingly humid airmass spread northwards from the continent yesterday evening which made isolated thunderstorms likely. In a Friday night forecast experts warned: “With large amounts of energy again available in this atmosphere storms could be severe, with torrential downpours, hail and squally gusts of wind. 30 mm of rain is possible in less than an hour, with as much as 50mm possible in three hours very locally.

“Large uncertainty remains regarding areas most at risk from storms, and many areas will miss these altogether, staying largely dry. However, where they do develop, disruption is possible.”

They classified the risk with a yellow weather warning which remains in force until noon today, highlighting the risks of torrential downpours, localised surface water flooding, with hail, frequent lightning and squally winds.

Did anyone else capture images of the mighty storm and its effects? Email your striking shots to news@thecomet.net