and east of the squall line saw less severe storms, but the rain that fell in the night of 1–2 July 1968 was rich in Saharan dust, turning it blood red and leaving dusty deposits on the surfaces it fell on – only the south coast and uplands of Wales avoided the red rain. The last comparable storm associated with Saharan dust was seen in October 1755. Aftermath The storms resulted in at least four fatalities. Three people were struck by lightning – a 72-year-old woman in Northallerton, a 14-year-old girl in Oldham, and an unnamed woman in Hampsthwaite – while an 80-year-old man drowned in flooding in Welshpool. Hail broke windows and dented cars across a wide swathe of the country, and damage was reported at both Cardiff Airport and RAF Chivenor. At Yeadon, West Yorkshire, the accumulated hail piled deep, and in parts of Yorkshire the ice was so severe that roads had to be cleared with bulldozers. Bradford saw severe flooding on 2 July, with many streets in the centre left underwater, as did the Isle of Man. The Met Office noted that many rivers across the West Country and the Midlands burst their banks, and said that every town and village in Devon was flooded, with damage to property and crops assessed as "a major disaster". The summer of 1968 would prove to be one of the worst ever recorded for flooding in the UK, with further storms causing the Chew Stoke flood of 1968 just a week later and the Great Flood of 1968 that September, and would not be equalled until the 2007 floods. In the wake of the storm, a number of normally rare African and Southern European insects were reported across England, having been blown across with the Sahara dust. See also New England's Dark Day Red rain in Kerala References 1968 natural disasters 1968 in England 1968 in Wales Floods in England July 1968 events in the United Kingdom 1968 disasters in the United Kingdom Weather events in England 1968 meteorology