PiggiePalace

Hi Tom .... Thankfully.....I hope..... it looks like it will miss us as we are too far east. Our next event is after 4.00am tomorrow with the stuff coming from France....but it's just looking wet atm! ...from a newbie near neighbour (ie 10miles north of you) who doesn't "do" torrential rain (owing to local flooding issues) or severe winds (owing to proximity of large ancient trees)......but likes a good light show!If you want to see it ...your best bet is to pootle up to the Ashdown Forest A22 viewing points and look North-west/Westxxxx

Me too...me too.....first real lightning show this year. Clear starry skies but it's like bonfire night on the horizon! Someone west of me is getting a real treat tonight!

Dark interesting clouds all afternoon, culminating in a single thunder rumble plus heavy rain...for about 20mins ....and now a rainbow here in Mid/North Sussex against a very black background. Clouds look to be heading east/south-east'ish..but what do I know!!!!!!I'm not a weather buff..and couldn;t possibly determine the direction etc....but there just may be some interesting things coming towards someone in Kent? this evening!edit...will leave this to anyone else can pick up the cell from here and track it forwards to wherever it;s going....! xxxx

Interesting to see just how narrow the area was: Have checked out various weather stations following the A127 from London out towards Southend/Leigh on Sea: Daily rain totals currently recorded as follows Epping 14.5mm Harold Hill 14.7mm Upminster 31.0mm Rayleigh South 16.5mm - think this might be a glitch/typo Laindon 68.6mm Eastwood Leigh on Sea 63.3mm Southend on Sea 69.6mm Just glad this lot didn;t fall in Sussex otherwise I;d be under 1m of water now!

Coast and John Pike -thank you both - I really appreciate your updates. It may be too early to confirm yet..... but will this prolonged heavy rain currently predicted for Eastbourne also extend 34miles north-west up the A22 towards East Grinstead? Given current dry ground conditions , my house is at serious risk of flash flooding from surface water runoff from the Ashdown Forest. The only time it has flooded before was when 55mm of rain fell in 45 mins on 20/07/07 with similar dry ground conditions. A predicted 4-6hours at 25mm/hr means it could overtop recently installed flood defences of 60cm so I would need to take additional preventative action tonight I'll be coming back to this thread throughout the evening/tomorrow....meanwhile the guinea pigs are searching out their water-wings and I'm off to the shop to stock up on booze and fags going to be installing additional flood defences up to 1.0m and putting all the valuable upstairs xxx

Thanks for the clarification Phil UK. Just one more question ....what if you slept through the storm and weren't aware of it? Will I still be allowed to leave NSC?

Looks like that's it for me.....sky is clearing very quickly.

Went very dark here 10 minutes ago - have just had 5mins of heavy rain but now calming down to drizzle. ....Edit - just started raining heavily again

Further to the above post.........Have committed the most unpardonable crime of going to bed before midnight and apparently sleeping through our first storm this summer....... Blimey that pinot grigio has a lot to answer for!

Sigh.......And so it goes...and so it goes....etc After a complete non-event last week (owing to what appears to be a secret microclimate and shield here,) I was clipped early this morning both north and south by the cells in the SE. This amounted to an "exciting" half a dozen rumbles/1min torrential rain per cell; one flash of "benign-bestowed" lightning from the north .........and meant getting up far earlier than I'd planned! To cap it all we have had a rainbow to the SE from here.....yes a blinkin' rainbow ...here tonight with nowt in terms of rain/clouds etc. Sheeeesh! Talk about adding insult to injury I guess this means I'm still in NSC?........ Newbie here politely requesting details on the eligibility...or maybe that should be escape ..... NSC criteria?

Nothing here...AGAIN!...so sympathise with fellow Sussex persons...But snapped these at Gomshall Surrey approx 18.30pm on 29th... on the A25 between Dorking and Guildford looking north/northwest....guess this was the late London activity reported?

Hi - newbie just joined. Love this site! All quiet in the Mid Sussex microclimate - aka 2 miles south of East Grinstead - despite being bang in the squall line according to current radar. This area was wiped out by flash flooding from the local stream on 20th July 2007 at approx 11.15am following 55mm of rainfall falling in 45 minutes bewteen 9.30 and 10.15am. Given current conditions ref parched ground/weather, we have had the flood defences up since last week expecting the worst - but apart from about 2 hours of heavy but not torrential rain, including one lightning flash and a couple of rumbles, on friday afternoon....we've had absolutely nothing else! Our last flood alert was Xmas Eve last year...and I can;t rememebr our last rainfall!For those of you waiting expectantly - I'm very happy to redirect anything your way!xxx