Homes in Wales have been hit by flash floods and lightning, even as much of the United Kingdom enjoys a sultry weekend.

Thunderstorms that forced some Welsh residents from their homes were moving towards the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland today.

Scotland, too, was bracing for heavy rain and possibly hailstorms, which were also forecast to touch parts of the west of England.

In north Wales, a three-year-old boy slept through a lightning strike that blew a hole in his bedroom wall.

Elis Roberts’s parents found him fast asleep in his room, which was covered in masonry, plaster and dust.

The lightning blew all the light bulbs and electrical equipment in the house and other homes in the Flintshire road as storms hit.

“We have been so very lucky," his mother, Pat Mulreay, told BBC Wales. “It could have been a lot worse.”

Emergency services pumped floodwater from houses and other buildings in Cardiff, Swansea and Chepstow, after sudden downpours late on Friday night and on Saturday morning.

Hailstones 2cm in diameter were reported in Chepstow.

And there was no warm, dry office for some of the town’s police to return to: one of the police stations was knee-deep in water.

This week, a committee of MPs had warned that Britain could be at risk of a repeat of last summer’s flood disaster because the money being spent on improving defences was “inadequate”.

South Wales Fire and Rescue Service said they were called to eight houses in Chepstow early Saturday morning, and four in the Llanishen area of Cardiff, to pump water away.

Mid Wales Fire and Rescue Service received 44 calls from people in Swansea when the storms hit, but said the water subsided almost as fast as it had risen.

Firefighters pumped out water from the Dylan Thomas Theatre in Swansea and houses in Clos Maes Yr Ysgol, Pontarddulais, and Lan Street, Morriston.

Inspector Sian Flynn of Gwent Police said: “There was exceptional weather in the area, with very heavy rain for a short period.”

Yet parts of England were preparing for their warmest day of the year thus far: the South East and East Anglia are forecast highs of 27C (81F) this afternoon.

Brendan Jones, forecaster with MeteoGroup UK, said those temperatures were nine or 10 degrees higher than average for this time of year.

He said that warm air coming from the Mediterranean was the cause of the good weather, but that it has been at the expense of the western areas of the country that were sitting beneath the weather front.

Mr Jones said early indications were that this summer would not be a repeat of last year’s washout.

“All we can say is that it can only get better from last year,” he said. “There will be flash floods, but we get them every year.”