Spikecollie

Acas in the moonlight is so beautiful, little illuminated castles in the sky.

We are supposed to get some thunderstorms tomorrow here in Dijon. The weather is weird right now. 21c at nearly 2130 and a warm south wind...

We had a couple of flashes here in Dijon this morning. Dark walking to work at 0730 in the torrents.

Oh dear! Not a nice experience flying to Paris this afternoon. There was some sort of squall line around Manchester first off with visible forming anvils, and then it was just never ending turbulence which got really lumpy into Paris - poor me was almost reaching for the dreaded sick bag and had to sit outside for a while to feel anything like normal and un-pukey again! Mlllaaa... Gorgeously warm here in Dijon BTW right now...get thee hence Atlantic!

Just had a light shower here, some nice shower cloud formations over the hills...

Looks like another delightful trip to and out of Manchester airport for me on Monday then!

Still gloriously warm here, just been out tidying the garden in my t-shirt. Hard to believe all this weather is coming...

Looks like it's going to continue to be pretty unsettled right into next week. I'm escaping back France on Monday, but I think the rain will eventually catch me up even in Dijon, and northern France looks grim! I for one hope this is an isolated early Autumn event and that we don't have anything like a repeat of last year...

Spare a thought for the poor folks in Herault who are again being battered by storms. Up to 350mm of rain progged for some areas in the 36 hours up until the end of tomorrow and there's a red weather warning in place...

Here's the link to El Tiempo for Palma Mallorca in case you haven't got it - http://www.aemet.es/es/eltiempo/prediccion/municipios/palma-id07040 Looks like a nice week once a few storms are out of the way on Tuesday. You'll likely have some nice CuNb formations to look down on and enjoy en route over the south of France into Spain, and you'll miss our first autumn wind and rain event at the end of this week - lucky you!

Well that lived up to expectations! Some magical CBs out of Paris, but boy did that aircraft get chucked around. Before departure the pilot just said there is some CB activity north of Paris so I'll be leaving the seatbelt signs on. I had a row to myself and was just spellbound...there was no way around the storms so it was straight through. The formations were amazing and lots of lightning flashes.was so dark inside them, really spooky and awe inspiring...another experience! Out the other side, everything was totally different and a final murky descent into LBA...

Lots of sferics in the south of the UK and now starting in northern France. The guy on BFMTV weather has just mentioned explosive clouds in Paris and the fact that there is a storm there now. I'm just heading out to take my train back up there and then flying back to Leeds this afternoon. This is going to be an exciting and picturesque trip back...

Perfect for something you can remember in moments of stress...a take me back event...enjoy!

I've been in aircraft round and through storms where the lightning appears pink, blue or green. It depends on the clouds, water content of the air, or pollution it gets refracted through - refraction equals prism equals rainbow effect. Am I right?

I've got a storm hound too! My Border Collie is andorable old man now, but he still senses a storm up to an hour before it arrives by staring at the sky and muzzling me to come and look. He has been storm trained in France! Not trained I guess, but accustomed. There is no fear, in fact he will try and chase the lightning like he does with fireworks. When he was four and on his first visit, he squeezed underneath our tent when we were camping in a really big storm in Dordogne. I woke to the chaos and found him gone only to locate him by someone's camper van barking at the sky. That evening was very weird as all the dogs in the valley below started to bark one by one, Spike eventually joined in to the pre-storm chorus. That was his completely free initiation ! We have brought him up to enjoy storms as we do. The latest development came last summer with "orages sec" dry storms with lots of elevated lightning and little thunder in Limousin. He watches the kitchen window in our house and announces each flash with a small bark! He had some good opportunities this summer...

That is something to go to sleep and dream about! Beautiful shot...

I guess it's elevated by its intensity. It really is the BIGGEST cell in Europe right now. I would be a bit scared under that lot. I guess we will hear on the media what's gone on, but I suspect it will be like last night and this morning in parts of the south. Don't chase without great care in your car. People have died over here in France the last few days in vehicles in flash flooding. Please be careful...but enjoy...

Yes, but, the storm in Norfolk is the BIGGEST in Europe...what's happening there?!

That flippin' Norfolk storm is bigger than some of the continental European ones...it's wasted! None of the METARs in the area are reporting anything. That's not surprising though...they say scattered showers when they should say VCTS!!!

Can I have their storms then?!

Does no one live in south Norfolk? There's a mighty storm going on and no one's there... Stevenage too...hello!

Over 14000 strikes in Europe today. Not even close to the record, but formidable nonetheless...

I suspect it might have been born that way. I'll check it out. Looked it up but I have read up on this before because I was fascinated by some "sea urchins" that fell from a storm in Limousin. Is it hemispherical like this guy describes? "The round side is the one that was facing the ground as the hail fell downwards in a fairly non-turbulent area of the cloud. The hailstone develops a preferential fall orientation as more ice accumulates on it, making the round side heavier and more aerodynamic than the other side. Therefore, that side continues to face downwards each time that the hailstone drops through the cloud, throughout its lifetime of being repeatedly carried aloft and dropped. Once the hailstone becomes too heavy to be lifted or the updrafts in the storm weaken, the hail falls to the ground with the rounded shape on the bottom and flat (or sometimes a scooped out bowl) shape on top." http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/wea00/wea00280.htm Aren't these clouds so awe inspiring?

A lot of strikes going on in the south of the UK now...who's under them or are you all your way back from work? Looks like the whole of western Europe is firing off! Blitzortung is like a a Geiger counter again!!! Nothing under the Bourgogne shield though - a demain a Paris!

That's a biggie...remind me why they come down flat...!