Joey.G

Fantastic, thanks all, great spots. Coast you've already got your own map in your head of that stretch of the South coast then Im a Westcountry boy and I've not got sat nav nor a smart phone nor mobile internet any more so I really need to learn my way around if Im to have any chance of chasing. Keep them coming, I am making a map. Any others from around the country can be added too

... where to watch them from? With talk of albeit slight risk of imports tonight I wanted to get some advice on where the best spots for storm watching are along the south coast. Im not working the start of this week and if theres still some potential this evening I will take a drive down, at the very least as a dry run (no pun intended!) to learn the route etc ready for when more promising setups occur. For now Im curious about spots between Brighton and Bournemouth, they must be easy to get to from main roads and have great views. Eg im sure Ive heard Portsdown Hill mentioned before on this forum?? Feel free to add your local viewpoints to this thread, wherever you are. I find it one of the more frustrating things about UK chasing is getting to a storm and driving around trying to find somewhere to watch it from! I will make a google map to share as a tool to aid chasers. Many thanks and best of luck to all for tonight and the rest of the season

lots of sferics now from the cell in the East near Goole, anyone near there?

Lots of sferics from it too, would love to be able to see that now

sferic shows up on NW lightning detector, looks pretty lonesome in all that rain!

ooo unexpected deep growl of thunder here

Sky clearing immediately behind the trough here in Reading. Was pretty blowy for a while. Signs of reintensification in the line along the coast, lucky devils

Good morning storm fans, another day of good potential and Ive got an unexpected day off, where should I go? Or should I stay put? Good luck to all out there anyhow

Certainly been a good April so far, lets hope summer has some treats for us! OT, cell near Oxford looks small on radar but ive watched the cloud from Reading and its just turned into a beauty anvil, would be surprised if theres no lightning in it..

Short timelapse of the cell that passed over Reading earlier here: And a pic

Just been out to watch that come over, was going to head south toward Basingstoke but stopped on the S edge of Reading as it was coming quick! Look really good on approach, even blue sky ahead of it with a bit of a shelf too. I would have been watching when those sferics happened but I didnt see or hear anything. Either I was too far north or it was IC and too far away. None the less was fun. Was about to say its fizzling but its regrouped and it about to smash London, wouldnt be surprised if you Londoners get a proper storm!

Quite a cluster of sferics from the cell just north of Cardiff atm, moving really slow right now too

Id say im probably outta the nsc already, cell hitting Reading atm dropped a bunch of IC strikes and then a lovely big CG right where I was looking Lightning seems to have stopped now and now were getting dumped on, big rain & small hail.

As a southern fairy up here in Balloch, Dumbartonshire this is the worst ive seen for years, lights flickering and street lights have been on and off. I know the trees are a bit tougher up here but Im still trying to convince my gf that the sick animals can wait till this afternoon and not to go out!

Yup enjoyed cycling through that this afternoon. I was just south of Reading, very heavy rain and strong gusty winds. A little after it had passed over I went through a ~500m stretch of road that seemed to have a lot more twigs and small branches down than the rest of the journey. Definitely some turbulent weather out there today

Had a flash and rumble to my south here in Reading about 45 mins ago but nothing since. Correlates well with detectors. Also had an aweome hail downpour at work around 16:30 and on the train home there was a beauty of an anvil visible as the shower/storm moved off north (photo below), shame about the window reflections

Skies looking pretty tasty to the north of here at the mo, would suspect a chance of thunder if there were more people on this forum at the mo!

Even a few sferics showing here

Has been pouring here in Reading, no thunder heard and it doesnt really look it either, but for garden soaking it dont get much better!

storm pounding paris at the mo on that webcam above, seen lightning

Think now may be a good time to re-share this link that somebody else once posted here. You can watch the progress of the low over the past 24 hours in one animation http://www.yr.no/satellitt/europa_animasjon.html

Guess it was the first storm of the year for me, saw a few flashes and one cg as the storm approached from Newbury direction and some briefly very heavy rain and gusty winds with thunder as it passed overhead. Sun has been back out and theres a chance for this evening Couple youtube vids of the approach and the rain when it arrived in Reading and a couple of photos for the storm starved out there.

Looks like it is coming off for some at least, theres been a few rumbles around and these showers look to be growing a little on radar. Ones even popped up in the West Midlands! Dont think one tiny shower near Stoke is going to placate Blizzards tho, sorry dude! Back OT, skies clearing in Reading but the band of activity looks good to the North, still plenty of convection & pilius keep cropping up on the small new stuff

Just had the blob over Reading here, dont know where the heavy precip is. Only just enough to damp the dust in my neck of the woods and no thunder. Nice big drops though. Once this little lot has cleared through, is there much more to be looking out for tonight? I assume the MCS feature just inland of the BoB is staying well south of us..