Picture and video special: Dramatic storms hit Brighton and Hove

Brighton and Hove was treated to a spectacular light show last night as forked lightning lit up the skies above the city.

One lightning strike sparked a fire at a house in Portslade, forcing residents to flee into the storm – click here for more.

But while firefighters were busy dealing with that, others woken by the thunder were taking pictures and videos of the dramatic forks and bolts.

This picture by Alex Lawrence shows the bandstand lit up by the lightning:

#brighton #storm #lightning #sussex going to try get back to sleep now… pic.twitter.com/0Y9e3e9xgc

— Alex Lawrence (@The_Whitewall) July 18, 2014

Kris James shot this in Newhaven:

my shot i took of the storm taken from newhaven. Kris James pic.twitter.com/J4Vx8ardhN

— KrisJamesPhotography (@krisjamesphoto) July 18, 2014

Ryan G took this picture of the storm and sent it to us on Twitter:

#Brighton #photography caught the brighton storm @BHcitynews amazing! pic.twitter.com/Zr8RoZkY6j

— Ryan G (@RyanArtist73) July 18, 2014

Daniel Byrne captured these stunning forks off Shoreham Beach

Taken on shoreham beach @xMaccabix pic.twitter.com/scBiNRpOkd

— Daniel Byrne (@DanByrne87) July 18, 2014

Foomandoonian uploaded this video of the lightning strikes over the city:

Tony Simmonds took this photo in central Hove:

The electrical storm started at around 2am, with heavy rain following soon afterwards.

The Met Office recorded more than 3,000 strikes over the British Isles in the early hours of the morning.

Had a sleepless night? Over 3000 lightning flashes have been recorded across the UK & IRE in the last 2hrs alone. MT pic.twitter.com/6ZMPxBkeS0

— BBC Weather (@bbcweather) July 18, 2014

Dominic Johnson posted this short video of the lightning over the pier to YouTube:

Here’s 6loss’s first proper lightning picture:

Finally got my first proper lightning shot last night… pic.twitter.com/B5l0oRSoJZ

— Scribe (@6loss) July 18, 2014

Paul Salvage tweeted this picture:

Brighton Thunder Storm 18/07/14 pic.twitter.com/dZaGjE69v1

— Paul [Rasp] Salvage (@PaulRaspSalvage) July 18, 2014

Arrmand Adams tweeted this picture of the lightning over Whitehawk:

What a great Thunderstorm we had last night at the top of #Whitehawk picture proves it was awesome pic.twitter.com/lZmm6zCc7Q

— Arrmand Adams (@Arrmand1964) July 18, 2014

Alex May posted this picture of the lightning over the Marina: