Today was hot and stifling. All afternoon I could feel the heat building up; it thundered slightly every hour. As 4pm approached I saw dark clouds building in the West; they were virtually boiling up.
About five past, there was a few glimmers of reflected lightning, a roll of thunder and light rain began to fall. At ten past I heard a tremendous slashing on the window, got up and looked out.
To call it a deluge was understatement. Huge raindrops, mixed with large hailstones were thundering down in a solid wall. Water was deluging from the gutters. It was the heaviest rainfall I've ever seen.
'There were some notable hailstorms in Suffolk and Essex on the 26th. The "Dunmow hailstorm" was particularly damaging; the sky was reported as turning green, hailstones up to 65 mm fell, and nearly 32 mm of rain fell in half an hour midafternoon.' [...]
