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Hundreds of Heathrow and Gatwick flights delayed up to 11 hours as heatwave turns to thunderstorms

Passengers wait in the check in area of Gatwick Airport as flights are cancelled or delayed, in Horley, south of London on July 19, 2024. The British government said Friday that it had activated its civil contingencies committee to handle the response to a global IT outage that hit UK transport and health services. Airports including London Luton, Belfast and Edinburgh warned of longer waiting times for passengers because of the glitch, which was apparently caused by an update to an antivirus programme. (Photo by BENJAMIN CREMEL / AFP) (Photo by BENJAMIN CREMEL/AFP via Getty Images)
The UK’s heatwave has turned into stormy weather delaying nearly 800 flights to and from the airport (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)

Thunderstorms have delayed flights from Heathrow and Gatwick for up to 11 hours.

The UK’s heatwave has turned into stormy weather delaying nearly 800 flights to and from the airports.

Dozens more have been cancelled, and air traffic control said issues were expected to continue for the rest of the day.

According to FlightAware, 377 flights arriving at or departing from Heathrow have been delayed while another 399 have been impacted in and out of Gatwick.

Arrival boards show a British Airways flight from Santiago, Chile, arriving at 9pm when it was meant to arrive at 10am.

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The delays come as storms to the south of the UK are set to worsen, with flights needing to avoid the ‘road area of hot, unstable air’, Eurocontrol said.

Lightning spectacular lights up Welsh skies as 29,000 strikes hit UK overnight A breathtaking photograph captured from the porch of a Pembrokeshire farmhouse has revealed the sheer power of the overnight thunderstorms that exploded across Wales. Photographer Andy Holcroft snapped the dramatic image from The Bug Farm near St Davids in Pembrokeshire, showing dozens of lightning bolts tearing through the night sky beneath towering storm clouds. The spectacular display came as around 29,000 lightning strikes lit up the sky overnight across the UK, according to the Met Office. After days of sweltering temperatures and multiple amber and red weather warnings across Wales, the early hours of Friday morning brought a dramatic change as thunderstorms rolled across large parts of the country. Andy said the storm created an unforgettable scene as forked lightning repeatedly illuminated the horizon, turning night into day for brief moments as thunder rumbled across the Pembrokeshire countryside. The Met Office had issued a yellow thunderstorm warning from 6pm on Thursday until 10am on Friday, covering large parts of Wales. Many residents reported being woken by loud cracks of thunder while others took to social media to share photographs and videos of lightning displays captured from their homes. The image from The Bug Farm perfectly captures the intensity of the storm, with multiple lightning strikes visible across a wide stretch of sky as heavy rain falls in the distance. A Met Office spokesperson warned that while not every area would experience storms, those that did could face sudden gusts of between 50 and 60mph, frequent lightning, hail and torrential downpours capable of dumping up to 20mm of rain within an hour. Forecasters say the storms will bring some relief from the recent heatwave conditions, with temperatures expected to dip slightly over the coming days. However, conditions are still expected to remain warm and humid across much of Wales. The start of July is also expected to bring further unsettled weather, with meteorologists predicting additional thundery outbreaks, periods of heavy rain and scattered showers. For many across Wales, however, the overnight storm will be remembered for its incredible lightning displays ??? none more dramatic than the stunning scene captured by Andy Holcroft from the porch of The Bug Farm in Pembrokeshire. WALES NEWS SERVICE
Last night’s thunderstorms have affected today’s flights (Picture: Andy Holcroft /The Bug Farm/WALES NEWS SERVICE)

A home was damaged in Crawley after a lightning strike, while the roof of a property in Streatham, South London, was destroyed in a blaze sparked by an overnight bolt.

The amber weather warning for extreme heat has been delayed again, with 33C temperatures set to continue to linger over London, the South East and East Anglia until 9pm tomorrow.

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