HAILSTONES an inch wide fell in the storm which battered Bolton on Sunday.

Amateur meterologist Alastair James was so amazed by what he saw, he went outside to collect them up - and popped them in his freezer.

He picked up the hailstones in his garden in Chapeltown Road, Bromley Cross, as they fell at around 3pm on Sunday.

They fell with such force, he said, that they felt like someone was throwing stones at him.

The storm brought flooding to parts of Bolton and visibility on the local motorway network was down to five metres. Major roads such as Chorley New Road, Bolton, were awash.

Alastair, aged 19, has been studying the weather for 10 years and has what is called a Stephenson Screen at his home to gather information on temperature and rainfall.

He said: "I have never seen anything like the storm on Sunday afternoon. One minute it was gloriously hot, but humid, and the next there was thunder, lightning and rain.

"The hailstones were huge.They were chunks of ice and battered the roof of the house like a machine gun.

"I gathered some up and put them in the freezer and they really are amazing.

"It was quite painful walking out during the storm - it felt as if people were throwing stones at me."

Elsewhere in the north, flash floods in North Yorkshire washed away roads and caused landslides, cutting off villages. Worst hit was Helmsley where the River Rye burst its banks.

In Newcastle, an elderly couple were rescued from rising flood waters which engulfed their car.

Alastair, who is on a gap year and intends to studying building surveying at university, said the temperature reached a high of 28C in Bolton on Sunday.

He said: "It was warm for this time of the year, but it was not exceptional.

"The cloud cover stopped it from becoming even hotter and it meant the atmosphere was humid on Sunday."