ALMOST as much rain in Derby fell in a couple of hours on Saturday as there would normally be for the whole of July.
A downpour around lunchtime for about one hour, followed by a torrential storm just after 4pm, resulted in 53mm – almost two inches – of rain falling. The average rainfall for the whole of July is 59mm.
The second downpour led to flash floods across the area resulting in Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service, which was between two strike action periods from 11am to 1pm and 11pm to 1am, receiving just over 70 calls in under an hour.
Worst affected areas were Spondon, Oakwood, West Hallam, Ilkeston and Chaddesden, with many roads blocked by swirling water and cars getting stuck trying to pass through it.
In places, including Bishops Drive, Oakwood, the fast-flowing water led the road surface to crack and collapse. It was repaired by mid-morning yesterday.
A vast lake of water developed near to the junction with Appledore Drive and made the road impassable for over an hour.
Heavy rain and leaking caused the fire alarm at Sainsbury's, Wyvern Centre, to go off and led to the store being evacuated even though it was not flooded.
A number of houses in Kimberley Drive, Borrowash, Loscoe Road, Heanor and Nottingham Road, Spondon, had to be pumped out after flood water entered.
A Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman said: "Although we had 72 calls, we attended 14 of these and gave advice to the others.
"Some people needed their homes pumping out but for others the flood water soon died away.
"People don't always realise that in the case of flash floods, there isn't anywhere for us to pump the water to because the drains are already too full and that is why they have flooded in the first place trying to cope with the rainwater.
"So it is a case of waiting for the level to drop and quite often people's homes don't need pumping out at all."
The fire service also received a call to attend Nottingham Road in Ilkeston, where a power cable had shorted under the road and cracked the surface.
Elsewhere, rising floodwater during the evening led to three foals and three horses becoming trapped in "waist deep water".
Firefighters from Ilkeston and Matlock attended the incident at 10.30pm on Saturday night.
The horses were in the water just off the Nutbrook trail, Kirk Hallam, Ilkeston and were safely removed from the water after midnight.
At Moor End in Spondon, John Bennett said he had never seen such bad flooding.
He said: "You wouldn't think we lived on a hill with how much water there was.
"But I think it might have had something to do with blocked drains."
Amateur weatherman Philip Singleton, of Chaddesden, said he was disappointed to have missed the storm because he was away in London.
He said: "When I arrived back late on Saturday night, I was surprised to find so much rain had fallen from 9am on Saturday.
"It appears it fell mainly on the eastern side of the city, where far more rainfall was recorded.
"It is not an unprecedented situation to have so much rain in a day and is almost inevitable following heatwave temperatures. Derby experienced its hottest day so far this year on Friday at 28C."
But Mr Singleton thinks the thunderstorms of the weekend are unlikely to return, at least in the early part of this week.
He said: "The temperatures are still likely to be mid-to-upper 20s but the air is more settled certainly for the next few days. Looking further ahead it is hard to see what will happen then."
One school casualty of the downpour is Redhill Primary in Ockbrook, which is closed today following flooding.
