MR CB

Tonight is exciting indeed...still a while till I can venture out and look to the sea. I have a feeling this will fan out and lose a little energy over the Channel, but will give us some much needed rain. I do like the intenisty of its arcing front on the radar - must be quite a sight to see torrential rain right at the front...needs to move a little more east for my liking but further development is possible.

The Channel here looks threatening already - a big CB rolling in with mammatus. Heavy downpour imminent I think...looks good and earlier than forecast looking forward to later this evening.

Indeed there was a very good sign this evening out over the Channel - some Cumulus Castellanus in a long row with well defined heaps and virga, I'm sure this is a sign of the humid air. As soon as I saw it I though thundery rain possibly tommorow or Sunday

Had a short heavy shower in Eastbourne - distant short deep thunder rumbles in the Channel from the cells due to clip far east Kent coast. Looks like a cell for Brighton/Newhaven/Seaford is gonna make landfall...more later?

Yes and no - looks like this one has been overcooked a little...no MCS or imports - nothing of real interest over France. All eyes west for that cold front which should move across us overnight - may get a shower or two from that. Nice bead of cells south east of Plymouth ;-)

Exciting prospects for Monday 6pm onwards...I will of course be on the look out right over the English Channel and may try to get some overdue photos. If it all kicks off I can post on here from my smartphone. A long uncomfortable day at work, but an MCS for the evening. Will be cloud and radar watching all day. As ever all the user input and model/charts on here are appreciated. El-Gordo indeed...haha here is the forecast for Sunday and Monday! :-)

Well I had a good long look out into the Channel and could see quite frequent lightning strikes both elevated and cloud to cloud, coming from the potent cell to my south. I think our chance is more likely to be from the cells now west of Lille - if the tracking stays the same. Wind was a very strong easterly breeze.

I can concur from Eastbourne. I have been on the beach and have heard distant thunder as early as 5.30pm. Dinner now then off out again! There are some clear anvils out there but a lot of false cirrus - I hope the anvils don't get decapitated.

Saw some Altocumulus this morning - did look a little of the castellanus variety...probably a good sign for later! Smaller chance for me today but still a possibility. Fingers crossed Coast! - cheers for the daily inputs.

Hello to the fellow Eastbourne posse! Some large convective drops and a louder rumble here - I've gone back indoors. Off out inland now so will sadly miss any 'out to sea' light show (if any) :-(

Can hear some deep rumbles out to sea yey! First of the year :-)

I can see the cloud thickening along the coast towards Hastings...very convective looking sky. I'm expecting some convective rain to brush along the coast, don't think I'll see any lightning - maybe a rumble out to sea.

Just saw the article on MSN - shame some famous faces are getting the shove off screen. I think Rob is the last of the 'old skool' presenters and has a softer delivery... HAHA someone had edited Tomasz Schafernaker's Wikipedia entry...but as I type this it has been removed (some disgruntled resident of the Outer Herbrides?) I have to admit that I did have a bit of a 'man crush' :blush: on Tomasz Schafernaker

Well I was driving this morning and the Cumulus just built up very quickly (almost from nothing)...each shower seems to get heavier and last longer. Heavy burst has now cleared...hope we'll get a rumble later?

Been out on Eastbourne seafront - some nice lightning out to sea and interesting cloud formations in and around the cell (now heading up the Dover straight). I did see some similar looking clouds as seen in the Hythe 'supercell' from the outskirts of this cell and it appears that the upper part of the cell had part of its anvil cut / spread / split? There was some mammatus to its rear. Anyway I missed the Hythe 'Supercell' earlier (busy) but did hear the thunder it produced - didn't seem that impressive of a storm, but wish I'd gone out just to look at the cloud formations. Luckily I witnessed that Hastings one in 2007 Looks like Seaford and Brighton will get the next cell...

Looks like I'm about to get a moderate shower or downpour here on the south coast...they seem to be pepping up too ;-) Hopefully the next few days will give us heavier rain with added lights and bangs - fingers crossed we get some...

So much for three hot days and then a thunderstorm...should be revised for 2010 as three hot months and then a thunderstorm! The lack of thundery activity this year is disappointing but we do have at least another six-eight weeks to go I just take it the conditions have not been favourable. At the moment I would just like some rain! Maybe we'll get one awesome plume event in late July/early August...

Rain has pretty pathetic the last week or so - its not been enough to wet the ground properly and just seems to fizzle out...the area currently moving north over Sussex is just light but large drops and nothing exciting. However after watching the Meteox loop the stuff SE of Le Mans heading N-NW could be interesting - however the Channel will have its say now doubt. I don't expect storms - just possible downpours later. Thanks for the update Coast

Looks like some interesting cells have developed over North Wales and are developing/drifting to the Manchester and Wigan areas... I'm looking forward to tommorrow evening for the South Coast - by then we should have some idea of what to expect. First proper summer thunderstorms this season?

Don't worry this will all blow over soon! just quite awkward for those with travel plans...will be interesting with tonight's sunset so keep 'em peeled

Yep that was pretty intense and surprising - we had very heavy hail for a few minutes which made an absolute racket - looked like a thin layer of snow

Just had a pretty decent thunderstorm here in Eastbourne (first of the year) with plenty of rain - what a surprise! Hadn't kept tads with the current conditions...good cloud to cloud forks. Is that a strong convergence line extending into Hampshire? Saw what looked like a small gust front just before the rain and the clouds raced along very quickly!

Had heavy rain form late afternoon until late evening then beefy shower in early hours - nothing since except cloud. Just waiting for the convective arms to swirl up from the S-SW as this impressive LP tracks slowly east...some heavy showers approaching Brighton coast...hopefully some here within 2 hours

Some of those prep returns on the Isle of Wight / Hampshire area look a little scary...(possible intensification). Flash flooding perhaps anyone? Not long before the rain starts here...finger coming up the Channel.

Seems to be kicking off in the Channel again...nice cells all scattered ahead of the general heavy rain from the SW...north and south of IOW look interesting atm