Almost half a month’s rainfall has fallen in Hadleigh this afternoon, according to amateur meteorologists.

Much of Suffolk and north Essex was hit by heavy downpours – with flash flooding in many places.

In Ipswich, Holywells Road has been flooded, with motorists struggling to use the road.

Police officers are on scene to navigate vehicles and Suffolk Highways has been alerted.

Due to heavy rain flooding on the railway between Manningtree and Ipswich, trains had to run at a reduced speed during evening rush hour - services were delayed by up to 15 minutes.

Gavin Mellersh, from Hadleigh, said 18.5mm of rain had fallen within half-an-hour. “It started at 2.15pm and ended at 2.45pm but what’s rare is rain of that intensity is normally accompanied by thunder but there wasn’t any,” he said.

He said average rainfall for Hadleigh would be about 40mm in September.

Chris Bell, forecaster for Weatherquest, said Mr Mellersh’s readings were likely to be common throughout Suffolk and north Essex.

“This is not surprising, there is potential for thunder storms in the next couple of hours coming into Essex and parts of Suffolk.”

The maximum temperature today in Suffolk has been 17C (62.6F) – the average for September is 19C (66.2F).