Flooding in Dingwall after month's rain falls in a few hours Published duration 11 July 2019

media caption Flooding in Dingwall after month's rain falls in a few hours

Parts of Dingwall in the Highlands were flooded after more than a month's worth of rain fell in just a few hours on Wednesday evening.

The town, along with other parts of northern and eastern Scotland, were affected by thundery downpours.

They are mostly for northern and eastern areas of Scotland, including Caithness and Sutherland, Easter Ross, Moray, Aberdeenshire, Tayside and Edinburgh and Lothians.

Lightning strike

BBC Scotland weather presenter Kirsteen Macdonald said the most rainfall recorded in 24 hours on Wednesday was 46mm at Cassley in Sutherland.

She said Dingwall had a total of almost 47mm over 36-hour period.

A lightning strike is suspected to have caused a power supply fault affecting about 300 properties in the Tomatin area south of Inverness.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) has warned of possible disruption to electricity supplies throughout the day on Thursday because of the expected bad weather.

The energy company said lightning had been recorded around Tomatin and Grantown-on-Spey.

image copyright Shona Henderson/BBC Naidheachdan image caption Firefighters tackling flooding in Dingwall on Wednesday

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) said Dingwall in Easter Ross was among the places worst affected by the rain.

Vincent Fitzsimons told BBC radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: "Over a month's worth of rain fell between teatime and nightfall, flooding the high street, while places nearby saw next to nothing."

He urged the public to heed Met Office and Sepa warnings and to follow advice from the emergency services if they encountered flooding.

SSEN said its network was "standing up" to weather conditions being experienced in the north of Scotland.

Its engineers hope to have power restored to affected properties in Tomatin by about 16:00.

A spokeswoman said: "We'd like to apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank our customers for their patience as our engineers work to restore power as quickly as possible.

"Our network is currently holding up well to the conditions, and we are well prepared and resourced to respond quickly to any damage as the weather front passes through the country today."

image copyright Andrew Smith image caption Clearing up in Dingwall following Wednesday's flooding