A raging storm battered a home as rain arrived in Thailand following a punishing heat wave.

CCTV footage shows a powerful squall beating down on the house in Lamphun province on April 23.

The torrential rain and strong wind blew down the home's steel gate and destroyed a portion of the patio's roof.

The storm came as temperatures soared to a record 45 degrees Celsius last week during a heat wave across the Asia Pacific region.

Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist and weather historian, described the scorching heat as the 'worst April heatwave in Asian history'.

In Thai capital Bangkok, residents were warned not to go outside amid 42 degrees Celsius temperatures causing power outages due to surging demand from air con units and fans running.

The country's national weather service said the heat index - what the temperature feels like when combined with humidity - also hit a record 54C (129F).

The warm weather is now giving way to extreme tropical storms.

The Thai Meteorological Department warned that southerly and southeasterly winds prevailing over upper Thailand would strengthen between April 23 and 26.

Outbreaks of summer storms, accompanied by thunderstorms, gusty winds, hail, and lightning strikes, were expected to affect the northeastern and eastern parts of the country first, before spreading to other regions.