throughout the Island.

By 9.30 p.m., 1.81 inches of rain had fallen, with Pembroke receiving the worst of the downpour.

And at least two houses were struck by lightning and some 25 residences in Paget and a couple of homes in Warwick were plunged into darkness.

During the downpour, flood waters rose high enough to reach the steering wheels of some cars parked on Woodlands Road, Pembroke.

And the extent of the flooding on Dundonald Street caused Police to send out an advisory to motorists to stay away from the area.

The area behind Green Lantern on Bakery Lane was also covered in water.

Lightning that accompanied the rain caused the lights to go out in 25 houses along South Road and Southcote Road, Paget yesterday afternoon. Power was soon restored.

There were also a few isolated cases of electricity outages throughout the rest of the Island. Lightning struck a transformer in the Watch Hill area in Warwick rendering a couple of homes without power.

A Bermuda Weather Service spokesperson told The Royal Gazette that the rain was caused by a cold front.

"There have been remnants of a cold front north of Bermuda for about a week,'' the spokesperson said. "It finally made it to Bermuda.'' He added that the downpour was more characteristic of spring, then summer.

"It is weakening,'' he said. "We can expect a mixture of sun and cloud with the odd light shower today and tomorrow.'' The Bermuda Fire Service received 24 calls as a result of the heavy rainfall.

Most calls came from Pembroke where 11 businesses and residences reported flooding.

Legal matters were put on hold after Magistrates' Court on Parliament Street was washed out at lunchtime.

Fire officials also received five calls from Southampton, three calls from St.

George's, two from Paget, and one from Devonshire.

A spokesman for the Bermuda Fire Service said: "We've been pretty stretched and had to bring in extra personnel, including an entire crew, just to deal with the 24 flooding calls.

"On top of that we had a number of other false alarms due to the heavy rain when it got into several heat detectors and set off the alarm.''