Wild weather continues to grip Europe with parts of Spain, France and Switzerland being lashed by freak summer storms and flash floods at the same time as Britain bakes in a 30C heatwave.
Madrid was plunged into chaos yesterday as blue skies gave way to hail, torrential rain and high winds, with temperatures dropping from around 33C (91 degrees Fahrenheit) to 19C (66 degrees Fahrenheit) within minutes.
Huge trees were brought crashing down and locals and holidaymakers had to take refuge in bars and shop entrances following the dramatic weather change, while floodwater rushed into underground stations and covered the roads.
Meanwhile in Grenoble, torrents of water swept through the streets and poured into people’s homes as torrential rain and hail dumped on France’s Rhone-Alpes region. Over the border in Swtizerland, a town on Lake Geneva was completely flooded.
At the same time, much of western Europe is facing soaring temperatures above 30C – including the UK, with a heat health alert being issued across most of England.
Yesterday, the hottest temperature recorded was in Herstmonceux, near Eastbourne, in East Sussex where temperatures provisionally hit 29.4C – the hottest weather recorded in the UK so far this year.
That made it hotter than Torremolinos on the Spain’s Costa Blanca where temperatures reached 29C (84.92 F) or Kos in Greece with the same temperature.
France’s Met Office said yesterday that the hottest temperature of the year has been recorded in Paris – 30.3C – the first time in 2024 the 30C mark has been met in the French capital.
It said that maximums are as much as 6C above the seasonal norm in the north of the country.
Spain has also seen hot temperatures across the country, but last night a weather system moved in which saw a huge storm unleashed on the country’s capital.
Some underground stations in the Spanish capital were affected by flooding with tube trains delayed.
Stairs leading into Canal Station on the Madrid Metro’s line seven were transformed into a river with astonished onlookers taking videos of the scene.
There were no immediate reports of any injuries, although shocking footage shows trees, motorbikes and other objects taken down by the high winds.
One shocked Madrid resident took to social media to say of the hailstones that fell: ‘They hurt my head.’
Another said: ‘The storm in Madrid seemed like the end of the world. It’s the fiercest storm I’ve ever seen here.’
One Madrid resident, posting a video showing a pavement transformed into a river where a tree was on the ground alongside a fallen restaurant menu display, wrote on X: ‘How horrible! My three friends and I almost died.’
Another, Francisco Sanchez, described what happened as ‘completely unexpected’ and ‘the end of the world’.
Spanish weather agency Aemet had warned the stable weather of the past few days could give way to storms with hail across large parts of the country, but the wild weather still came as a shock to many.
Shocking videos have also been shared of flooding in the southeast of France, where the heavens opened with hail and torrential rain yesterday evening.
Residents in the Rhone-Alpes region were forced indoors as floodwater rushed through the streets, with footage taken from a window showing the dangerous torrent in one village.
Denis Metral from L’Albenc shared the video on social media, and said that the water had entered his garage and was 40cm high.
A local weather site wrote on X (translated): ‘Difficult situation at the start of the evening in L’Albenc (between Tullins and Vinay) during the stationary storm which affected the sector.
‘Estimates indicate cumulative precipitation of between 60 and 90 mm in these sectors.’
Cars have also been filmed driving through deep floodwater in the region, and over the border in Swtizerland, which was also battered by brutal storms.
The mountainous district of Vaud was inundated by heavy rain which forecasters called ‘exceptional’ and ‘unexpected’.
Around one month’s rain is believed to have fallen in just an hour and caused major flooding in the town of Morges, on the banks of Lake Geneva, The Local reports, with one news site labelling it the ‘flood of a century’.
Meanwhile floods have also affected large parts of northern Italy, with aerial photos showing miles of fields submerged in the Emilia-Romagna region.
Homes have also been flooded near the swollen Panaro river in Modena.
The Italian Civil Protection issued a storm warning on June 24 for Sardinia, Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Tuscany and Marche.
It comes after major flooding on a mountain in the Alps swept away a bridge and a chalet, local media reports.
The village of Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans was abandoned last week after the floodwaters smashed into it, with at least 100 locals evacuated by helicopter.
Dramatic aerial footage of the scene from today shows waves continuing to wash through the hamlet, with a TV crew observing a home gutted by the force of the current.
A fortnight ago large swathes of eastern Spain and the Balearic Islands were buffeted by torrential rain.
The freak weather led to the suspension of normal operations at Palma Airport in Majorca, with planes diverted to Menorca, Ibiza and Barcelona.
One of the airport’s duty free shops had to close after rain came through the ceiling.
In San Antonio in Ibiza the gutters overflowed in some parts of the town, leaving holidaymakers having to step over human waste.
The provinces of Murcia and Alicante were also badly affected, with cars swept down streets during flash floods.