Scotland is recovering this morning after intense thunder and lightning caused damage to homes and brought public transport to a halt.

More than 41,000 lightning strikes lit up skies across the country in just 24 hours yesterday as warm air continued to move in from the continent, with many Scots saying they had ‘never seen anything like it’.

High winds, hailstones like ‘10mm gravel’ and flash-flooding also caused chaos on the roads and railways just as schools were preparing to break for summer.

The intensity of the storm was so severe, one family in Dalkeith, Midlothian, was forced to flee their burning home when the roof caught fire amid the storm.

At Dornoch Caravan and Camping Park in Ross-shire, campers were forced to abandon their tents and move indoors as the site was hit by ‘strobe lighting’ lasting almost an hour, with the Highlands one of the worst affected areas.

Site owner Darren Redfern, 47, said: ‘I have never seen the like of it before. Anyone in a tent, didn’t sleep in a tent that night. I even thought there might have been some broken windscreens and windows it was that big and that forceful a storm. 

'The hail was like 10ml gravel. And it wasn’t the odd flash of lightning, the whole sky was rumbling the whole time lighting up and up; it was like strobe lighting. 

'It went on for about 45 minutes, the hail lasted about 20 minutes and somewhere in the middle of all that we got 40mph winds. It was mad.’

Scot Rail passengers heading from Helensburgh to Edinburgh Waverly also had to be evacuated when a lightning strike caused an electrical fault onboard, with the severe weather warning only due to end at 3am this morning. The only area not included in the warning was Shetland.

The alert warned of the possibility of homes and businesses flooding quickly ‘with damage to some buildings from floodwater, lightning strikes, hail or strong winds’

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service confirmed they sent four appliances and a specialist resource to the blaze in Midlothian just before 3.30am yesterday in the town’s Pheasant Grove.

A spokesman confirmed there were no casualties and crews left the scene at 8am after ensuring the area was made safe.

Occupant Stuart Drummond said he was ‘glad to be alive’ after waking to an ‘almighty crack’ before realising that the ‘whole house had become enveloped in smoke’.

He told the BBC: ‘I didn’t know where the smoke was coming from, so I opened the back door and looked up and there were flames coming through the roof.

‘At that point neighbours appeared and ordered us out of the house for our own safety so we got out with our pyjamas on, grabbed a jacket and that was it.’

The lighting was so intense that many Scots took to social media to post images of the scenes in their area which they likened to a scene from ‘Back to the Future’ as the electricity cracked in the sky.

‘Beautiful’, ‘breathtaking’ and ‘amazing’ were just some of the words used to describe the light show which many said they had only ever seen in tropical parts of the world.

One woman said: ‘We sat and watched it for a few hours. It was amazing’, another simply said: ‘It was a privilege to watch’.

Dalmore Farm, Alness, was quick to reassure its supporters that ‘after a very stormy night’ all its animals ‘were happy and healthy’, adding ‘most people have only witnessed a storm like that abroad somewhere tropical’.

Scotland usually sees around 2.5 inches of rain fall over the month, but yesterday heavy downpours caused treacherous driving conditions across the country, with more than two inches falling in just 24 hours at Achnagart, Ross-shire.

Motorists were also advised to drive with caution on the Dornoch Bridge due to high winds.

ScotRail’s Edinburgh Waverly service had to be terminated at Livingston around 8.20am after the lighting strike caused an electrical fault onboard. The train was later taken to the depot for inspection.

Phil Campbell, ScotRail Customer Operations Director, apologised to customers for the disruption.

He added: ‘Anyone who was delayed by 30 minutes or more is entitled to claim compensation through the Delay Repay Guarantee on the ScotRail website or app.’

Air traffic services at Edinburgh Airport was also yesterday ‘still managing the impacts from earlier disruption due to severe thunderstorms in the local and surrounding airspace.

A spokesman said: ‘This situation has improved from the worst of the weather this morning but it likely this will have knock-on impacts throughout the day and passengers are advised to contact their airline for the latest travel information.’

Temperatures continued to peak just below 30C yesterday with Eskdalemuir, Dumfriesshire, recording a top temperature of 29.2C.

Met Office meteorologist Aidan McGivern said it would continue to feel ‘warm and humid’ today with temperatures likely to remain in the low to mid 20s.

But he said it would be a cloudy start to the weekend with widespread showers into the afternoon.

He said the rain would peter out tomorrow {sun} but looking ahead to next week, he said: ‘It’s is going to be changeable, a bit on the cool side with spells of rain and showers at times and also often breezy. 

'But it looks like it is not going to be desperately unsettled. There will also be some drier weather away from the rain as well.’