The storm, which hit a bit before midnight, flooded several streets and underpasses in the city including several common flood-spots, such as the Stockmann Tartu Maantee crossroads, the relatively new Ülemiste tunnel on Peterburi Street and the railway bridge area of Endla Street near the Kristiine shopping centre.

Police recommended car drivers avoid these and other areas for a few hours.

By morning rush hour and going into the holiday weekend, the flooding had subsided and the affected areas were navigable once more.

ERR TV House damaged

The torrential rain also caused damage to the ERR TV House on Gonsiori Street in central Tallinn, collecting on the (flat) roof and flooding through TV studio ceilings, requiring ERR staff to do what they could through the night to patch up the leaks and protect essential equipment and space (see video above).

Damage was so bad to the main building, known colloquially as the 'old TV house', that morning topical and lifestyle TV show 'Terevision' had to be broadcast from an alternative studio in the second TV house, also on Gonsiori Street.

Initial assessments suggest that of the three TV channels the national broadcaster runs, ETV+, the Russian'-language channel, has suffered the most extensive damage to its facilities.

Gonsiori street itself is currently closed in any case due to roadworks.

World Cup broadcast disrupted

The weather conditions even caused disruption before the storm began; football fans were left hanging when the live broadcast on ETV2 from the world cup group game between Argentina and Croatia, being played in Nizhny Novgorod in Russia, was cut off around eight minutes before full time.

The broadcast from the stadium ceased, after briefly being interrupted by interference and some unrelated entertainment images had appeared fleetingly on the screen, it has been reported.

The blackout was apparently due to dense cloud cover interfering with the satellite broadcast and occurred before the thunderstorm and rain itself.

Croatia had been 2-0 up over a frustrated Argentina in a particularly physical game, following an almost comedic volleyed goal from right winger Ante Rebić after a goalkeeping error on the part of Chelsea's Willy Caballero, and a tremendous strike by Real Madrid's Luca Modrić.

However the third Croatia goal, scored in stoppage time by Ivan Rakitić (Barcelona) went unseen by ETV viewers, as did a flurry of yellow cards in an already ill-tempered game, with the last few minutes of the broadcast being made up by discussion and analysis by the presenter Tarmo Tiisler and a panel of pundits including head of the Estonian FA Aivar Pohlak.

Weather over the Midsummer holiday (jaanipäev) weekend is set to be changeable, with rain forecast in the western half of Estonia in particular.