Wivenswold

I do keep an eye on storms over London and the point was made that Central London hadn't had any decent storms, which is correct. Noise pollution being what it is in the capital, you're unlikely to hear thunder that's 5 miles away especially during the day when lightning is less visible, so your experience of storms this year will differ greatly within a few miles. NW London had a corker a few weeks ago but my wife was working in Holborn and only heard a rumble. Those in Croydon, Bromley and Romford have also had good storms that would have gone totally unnoticed in Zones 1 and 2. London is roughly 30 miles across, has excessive noise and light pollution and is therefore not a great place for experiencing storms.

I can tell you that the gap between you in Central London and me in North East Essex has had loads of storms. They just seem to miss our two locations.

We've missed the storms in this Easterly and have therefore not had any rain since mid May. It was surprising to see the lawn turn beige as soon as the temperatures rose. It looks like August out there.

Doesn't look like a mudfest this year unless there is a very heavy shower on Saturday and it doesn't dry the ground before showers on Sunday. The set up reminds me of the 2005 festival. It was beautiful at the start then one early morning storm on the Friday as it was getting light. I went for a walk around the site afterwards and the ground wasn't muddy. I'd just grabbed a bacon sarnie by the Pyramid stage when I noticed the second storm brewing and legged it back to my tent. Within 30 mins the whole markets area was under a foot of water and lower ends of two campsites were flooded. So, 1 storm good, 2 storms bad.

Pretty good past 12 hours considering we've yet to see a warm summer day yet. Only got the edge of the Colchester storm but it was nice to sit in the garden and listen to thunder for the first time this year. The Suffolk storms were agonisingly close. Family about 8 miles north of us were treated to 3 storms in total with some superb lightning and constant loud thunder, such are the margins on days like this.

Utterly disappointed with cold nights and cool days that are approaching. I have Fibromyalgia which makes winter hard work and things don't start getting easier until the nights get milder. I'm so fed-up with being trapped having to live in this horrible, failing country (thanks Brexit) with it's crap climate that I'm meeting my MP to thank him for championing something that stops people with chronic illnesses from being easily able to start a new life in warmer European climates. I've been watching models and getting really upset that I'll be waking up in lots of pain for at least another fortnight. I keep doing the lottery hoping for a modest windfall so I can either quit work or get the f out of the UK.

I can tell how hard the rain is by the loudness of the meow from my cat Ziggy when he comes in. My cats see me making light and heat happen in the house, we make water appear then stop, they must wonder why we can't turn off the rain and make light and heating happen in the garden

Are UKv and Arome suggesting a Thames Streamer and/or Kent Clipper situation? The former carpeted NE Essex the week before Christmas 2010.

Frost didn't clear from shaded spots today, that'll help the temperature plunge.

At which day are we calling "Shannon's Entropy"? I'd venture there's enough variance between the models at Day 4. The rest is FI.

NBC2 providing good coverage on You Tube. Hurricanetrack is my favourite, though Mark was having a few hour's kip at a motel. I wonder whether "Kip" and "Motel" have appeared in the same sentence since The Small Faces toured the US.

NBC2 providing good coverage on You Tube during their early hours. Forecaster just pointed out that the hurricane-wind field of Charlie would fit into the eye-wall of Hurricane Ian. Many who fled to the East Coast will likely still experience Tropical Storm force winds. That predicted rain field is going to make a mess of its own thru Tampa and northwards.

That area of rain heading north towards Southend has pepped-up in the last few minutes.

A little reminder from this Map from The Met Office. If you want to improve your chances of seeing storms, move to the darkest blue area.

Hi Tracy, I was sat on in my arbour in the garden with one of my cats and a mug of tea watching Chelmsford have its amazing storm this morning at 3am. I wasn't jealous at all.....maybe a little then. My garden is set-up for storm watching, Though nothing as fancy as my sister's garden shed pub.

Considering the main area of the storm was about 20 miles from here, we had hours of lightning and there were rumbles for about an hour. Very little rain here though. I suspect the band will pep up once the sun starts warming things up.

It'll be wider than that with the best of the lightning on its Eastern flank. I'd have the centre over London then curving up to where the current storms are in Norfolk. It's still set to miss me, however, watch out for HG cells to initiating over Sussex, Kent and Essex shortly.

Someone else may know better but as it's a Solent View camera on the Isle of Wight it should be facing north away from where the lightning is, currently.

Seeing faint flashes and distant rumbles but have no idea where it's coming from. I'm at least 50 miles from the nearest storm.

Not the clearest of cams but some lightning displays going on West of St.Malo.

Really seems to be building over Brittany now.

That's strange, I just got up because I can't sleep due a very noisy cricket outside (it's nice though, sounds like I'm on holiday) and heard a rumble. No planes up there, nothing on lightning maps either. I'm 56 miles north of you and the sound of thunder can carry further from Elevated Storms. No rain on radar either though.

I'm not clever enough to answer that. I believe something in the ether made 2009-2011 more prone to Atlantic blocking.

Yes, some of the south east has had some pretty bad luck with storms, I went 3 years without one a while back. But, it's a fact that if you live in the warmest parts of the country you are going to have more storms than those in the North and North West. In return we've had very little snow on the coast of Essex since the big winters a decade ago. I've started to hate all British weather apart from heatwaves because I have Fibromyalgia, need all year warmth and the closest place to the tropics my blue passport will allow me to start a new life in nowadays (thanks Boris) is the Channel Islands.

I must admit to being very lucky this year, seeing 6 storms at home (including Monday's one) and 2 while in London. This is unusual for me and very unusual for this corner of Essex as homegrown storms often collapse when they get a cold feed of air off the North Sea. It's worth noting that the sea near me has been 2-3oC warmer than usual this year so I wonder if that may have been the difference. And a little luck of course.