LARGE HAILSTONES AND thunderstorms swept across London and the south east of England earlier this evening.

Londoners were left running for cover as the city experienced loud thunder and heavy rain.

Tea Francis, who lives 20 kilometres outside the city, had his sleep disturbed by a “loud thunder clap”.

“I was trying to get a quick nap in when I heard a pretty loud thunder clap & heavy rain starting to come down”, the 38-year-old jeweller said.

“Then it got ridiculously heavy and loud so I got up to have a look. By the time I stopped filming it and came downstairs, it had stopped, but the hailstones which were maybe the size of chickpeas were in small drifts up against the wall of the house.

“Amazing for a shower lasting maybe a minute and a half tops. I’ve seen weather like it before a handful of times over the years but not usually this late in the year and this stands out as being one of the more extreme cases purely because of how much hail was on the ground.”

Well, that escalated quickly. pic.twitter.com/zOBMJh0Ltg

— 🕷scienTEAfic🕷 (@tea_francis) May 24, 2022

However, conditions in Ireland will soon be a bit warmer and dryer. 

Met Éireann has forecast that rain will continue in the east in isolated pockets and clouds will increase with patchy rain near western coasts through the evening.

Moderate winds are expected before sun and scattered showers following from the west tomorrow.

The temperature is predicted to rise towards the weekend, with temperatures of 13 to 19 degrees on Thursday and Friday, and on Saturday 14 to 20 degrees in the south.

Contains reporting from Jamie Mc Carron