THE unseasonal warm weather reached a crashing crescendo last night as ear-splitting cracks of thunder and dramatic flashes of lightning lit up the skies above Surrey and Hampshire.

A huge thunderstorm passed immediately over East Hampshire and south-west Surrey in the early hours of Friday morning, as revealed by the live lightning strike-tracking website lightningmaps.org.

Ensuing power cuts left many people in the dark while torrential downpours caused flash flooding in some areas. Rail services were also severely disrupted.

A spokesman for South West Trains said: "Following bad weather conditions during the night, several incidents are disrupting trains on the South West Trains network.

"Alton to Waterloo services may incur some delays, and may have to run fast between Woking and Waterloo in order to avoid causing congestion and further problems."

Send your pictures of last night’s storm and stories to [email protected].