Morning Thunderstorm + Rainfall Totals

This morning saw a fair few showers developing across the island with one area in particular becoming very heavy indeed, producing a few cloud to ground lightning strikes and also a fair amount of flooding over a very small area. Newport saw the worst effects of the downpour and also places just a mile or two to the east and northeast with multiple reports of flood damage and vehicles breaking down on flooded roads. The highest rainfall totals were just north of Downend, although we believe that a small area between Briddlesford and Downend saw around 50mm or slightly higher due to some extremely strong radar returns from the area. These rainfall totals don't sound like huge amounts compared with what we saw falling just a few days ago, but you must remember that this is over a space of 30-45 minutes, whereas the 40mm odd that has fallen over recent days happened over the course of a day or two, meaning that the water had time to drain away. If we see anything over 10mm falling in the space of half an hour it would likely lead to flash (sudden) flooding, so the 30-40mm of rain that fell around the Newport area inevitably caused flash flooding as all that water seeks out the lowest point, all rushing down the drains and into the rivers and streams.