Stormy Weather II

[DracoM]

Think something is coming my way from southerly direction too. Hey ho!

[Serial_Apologist]

Reports in their dozens of today's storms over the Midlands and Wales, and how intense some of them have been. Photos of a number of funnel clouds (incompletely descended tornadoes) in several of them.

[BBMmk2]

Turned out to be a very good day, yesterday. 20C today. I now take advantage of being allowed out, weather permitting, of my daily saunter on my scooter. Still refreshing though.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thunderstorm directly overhead as I write this. Well, I say "thunderstorm", but actually the rain itself is remarkably just moderate, considering we're getting shotgun-style thunder, which means cloud/ground discharges, and within a few hundred metres. Just the kind of rain needed to sink in, rather than just wash off the clay soil into drains.

Looking a Lightningmaps, this appears to be part of a convective convergence chain, starting over in Luxembourg, peaking over Belgium (right now) before trundling NW and reaching as far as Cambridge for the time being. This means the line will just keep regenerating along its length, and with little to shift the mesosystem north we could be under it all afternoon - just when I need to get out to the shops! One hope is that breaks in the chain will occur at some points, because tomorrow looks likely to be a repeat performance at best!

Ooh, really sudden loud bang just then, a couple of secs following the lightning. I wonder what got hit... it would usually be a tree.

PS London and the SE seems to be today's focal point in contrast with the Midlands, Wales and the NW over the past 3 days - regional re-distribution of the meteorological wealth! There's another (at the moment) less intense field of activity over Devon, part of another system spreading up from NW France.

The rain here is just into the "heavy" category now.

[DracoM]

Regular rumblings, no rain, but continually massing then dispersing, then re-gathering.
When sun is out, it's HOT.

[Serial_Apologist]

Regular rumblings, no rain, but continually massing then dispersing, then re-gathering.
When sun is out, it's HOT.

Well after lunchtime's downpour it seems most of the energy is now spent, with just a few isolated storms scattered around, and convection stymied by leftovers from this morning's storms in the form of anvil cloud extensions into continuous featureless grey altostratus sheet, offering residual spits and spots, under which little cumulus convection can take place 'cos the convergence forcing has dissipated, and on the other hand the sun can't get through to the ground to re-trigger ground-up atmospheric heating. It certainly cooled during that storm - down from 22.5 C at the start to 16 C at the finish: now back up to a windless and close-feeling 21 C.

[ardcarp]

I can't believe how lucky we've been. After an early morning of light cloud, it's been another stonking scorcher of a sunny day...with sea temperature warmer than average for June. There's been rain and thunder just 25 miles away in all directions. 'Bubble' seems to be the in-word...but it seems we're in one. But who knows what lurks tomorrow,

[Serial_Apologist]

I can't believe how lucky we've been. After an early morning of light cloud, it's been another stonking scorcher of a sunny day...with sea temperature warmer than average for June. There's been rain and thunder just 25 miles away in all directions. 'Bubble' seems to be the in-word...but it seems we're in one. But who knows what lurks tomorrow,

Indeed - I am wondering exactly the same thing! This evening another little thunderstorm passed just to our north, and so, risking the possibility of being struck by lightning, I led one of the neighbours out into the street and pointed out to him various interesting features about the cloud formation, which showed a very strong rain core, centred in the vicinity of Brixton (3 miles to the NW), the rain curtain deep orange in colour, and very dark grey cloud base, which in one place appeared to be "dropped", which could indicate an incipient wall cloud, itself a sometimes precursor to a funnel cloud or even tornado. Disappointingly the thunder had ceased at that point and we saw no lightning.

[Petrushka]

Another thunderstorm here at around 5pm with rain almost as heavy as last night. However, it soon petered out into a brighter evening.

Last night's storm was one of the strongest I've come across for years, with almost continuous lightning for around a couple of hours. The thunder wasn't particularly loud, just deep rumbles, but that lightning was spectacular.

[Serial_Apologist]

Another thunderstorm here at around 5pm with rain almost as heavy as last night. However, it soon petered out into a brighter evening.

Last night's storm was one of the strongest I've come across for years, with almost continuous lightning for around a couple of hours. The thunder wasn't particularly loud, just deep rumbles, but that lightning was spectacular.

Then it was probably high-based then, Pet - you don't usually get frequent lightning like that in this country from low-base storms, such as the two we experienced here today - though the thunder in the latter is often louder, since a larger proportion of lightning discharges tends to be of the cloud-to-ground type, so the hearer is nearer to the actual flash, if you get me.

[oddoneout]

The forecast rain and threatened thunderstorms didn't materialise here today, but looks far more likely for tonight and tomorrow morning. Rain would be welcome but I'm not so keen on thunder/lightning at night - I don't sleep well at the best of times.

[gurnemanz]

The forecast rain and threatened thunderstorms didn't materialise here today, but looks far more likely for tonight and tomorrow morning. Rain would be welcome but I'm not so keen on thunder/lightning at night - I don't sleep well at the best of times.

We cancelled an evening tennis four on the basis of the forecast. Rain did not materialise in the end. Annoying, but forecasting these very localised stormy showers is obviously very tricky.

[LMcD]

The forecast rain and threatened thunderstorms didn't materialise here today, but looks far more likely for tonight and tomorrow morning. Rain would be welcome but I'm not so keen on thunder/lightning at night - I don't sleep well at the best of times.

12.6 mm so far today, but the rain's easing off now.

[BBMmk2]

Down my area, we seem to miss these thunderstorms! I don’t know whether it’s because being stuck in the middle of the Weald?

We’ve just had boring old rain, which is much needed, though.

[oddoneout]

The rain started around 3-30 am, and seems to have kept going. It's easing somewhat now and depending on which direction the cloud mass on the map is going(the Met don't seem to put direction of travel on it and I've learnt the hard way that the wind at ground level isn't always an indicator) will be dry by midday.
Good quality rain here in terms of soaking in rather than running off, which is always welcome, and the lack of rain shadows at the edges of the garden suggests it came straight down which is even more welcome - my very narrow garden suffers disproportionately from the effects of a neighbour's large shrubbery on one side, and the other neighbour's overhanging/too close trees on the other.
BBM has just reminded me - thunderstorms don't seem to have materialised here and the local rag doesn't have any mention, not even updates on the warnings put out yesterday, so I'm guessing they missed this neck of the woods.