UK lightning and storm pictures

It was a lightning show Thor would've been proud of with 50,000 lightning strikes across the UK in the last 24 hours.

The thunderstorms took place mainly in northern Wales, north-west England and south Scotland.

The storm brought heavy rain, with flash flooding experienced in the Welsh town of Aberystwyth and the English city of Lancaster.

The lightning lit up the night sky into the early hours of the morning with many people reporting seeing spectacular light-shows with very little thunder.

Speaking to Newsround, BBC Weather forecaster Owain Wyn-Evans said:

'It's always very strange seeing a spectacular lightning show but not hearing any thunder? What's that all about?!

"Well, you can't have lightning without thunder. But you can sometimes see lightning without hearing the thunder. That's because you're too far away from the source of the lightning. Light travels faster than sound of course, so you'll often see lightning before hearing thunder in any instance.

"If there are clouds in between you and the lightning too - you'll often see lots of flashing or glowing lights. That's because the lightning 'bolts' are illuminating clouds from the other side."

Check out these spectacular lightning photos!

Take a look at some of the pictures of the storm below and let us know if you saw any lightning in the comments.