Month of rain in three hours

A MONTH of rain fell in Haute-Garonne in three hours last night, flooding basements and underground car parks.

National forecaster Météo France reported that 55mm of rain fell - equivalent to the average rainfall for the whole of June - and it has predicted more storms throughout the week..

The west of Toulouse was particularly badly hit. Emergency services were called out 130 times, as rain and hail caused basements and underground car parks to flood - and even cut off roads.

This video, posted to Youtube, reveals the scale of the flooding in Tournefeuille.

Meanwhile, motorists were surprised at the scale of the storm in Colomiers, as this Youtube video reveals.

Meanwhile, the Tarn town of Castres was also affected by yesterday’s storms.

Twenty-four hours earlier, 6,000 lightning strikes and up to 70mm of rainfall were recorded in Dordogne and Gironde departments as storms swept in.

Emergency services had to deal with numerous fires, floods and fallen trees across Lot-et-Garonne, Gironde, Dordogne and Charente.

The latest wave of storms in France will add to the €900m bill faced by insurance companies, as more households make claims.

The latest storms hit France as experts in America reported that this May was the hottest since 1880 across the whole of the planet.

Average temperatures have been rising consistently for decades, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

The last time the average temperature in May was below the 20th-century average was 1976. And monthly average temperatures have exceeded the 20th-century mean every month since February 1985.

Photo: JFBO31 /Youtube screengrab