Flash floods impact Wick streets after thunderstorms today – inches of water temporarily closes supermarket
The Cooperative supermarket in Wick was forced to close this afternoon due to inches of water flooding into its store and roads around the town were impacted by flash floods from thunderstorms.
David Mackinnon was in the foyer of the Coop at Angle Park in Wick with a friend and trying evade the torrential downpours at 2.15pm today when he witnessed "a river running off the road" and heading towards the shop.
"The water was almost all way in the Coop and I have never seen it that bad before," said Mr Mackinnon.
"It was just running off the car park and straight into the Coop but the staff were trying their best to clear it. Due to how bad it was there no chance of stopping the water at all though."
Mr Mackinnon witnessed staff sweeping water out of the shop's foyer and he estimated there to be "around five inches or higher" that had entered the store. "It was like a river running off the road and straight into the Coop and I was told they were going to have it closed for today as everything inside was wet through." A Coop staff member said at around 4.30pm that the store was currently closed but would hopefully be open within "a couple of hours".
Meanwhile, at 12.45pm today a heavy thunderstorm deposited a deluge of rainwater onto the A99 road leading into Wick close to the Tesco supermarket. Lucy Wilson from Watten was driving into the town when she captured video footage of the surge of water impacting the road.
"The skies grew dark and then they opened to torrential rain and loud rumbles of thunder," she said. "Within a few minutes the water was building up in the Tesco car park and on the road below was like a river. The wipers couldn’t keep up. Then there was hardly any rain on the way back to Watten. Very localised heavy showers."
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Met Office warning of thunderstorms along east Caithness
The Met Office had warned of thunderstorms affecting eastern parts of Caithness in a bulletin issued this morning. It stated: "Heavy showers and thunderstorms are expected to develop from late morning.
"While many places will miss these, where they do occur some of these will be heavy, perhaps giving 10-20mm of rain in around one hour and up to 30mm in 2-3 hours in a few places. Hail and lightning are also likely to cause some hazardous conditions. Most of the showers and thunderstorms will die out by late afternoon or early evening."
Wick weather watcher Keith Banks said that between noon and 1pm today the thundery outbreaks dumped a copious amount of rain on Wick. "A truly eyebrow raising 23mm has fallen on the the burgh and it was still lashing down at 2.35pm. What a stunning change there has been from drought to deluge."