Thunderstruck

Starting to hear more frequent thunder now. Think this one will be a little bit closer than the last... Just had loudest rumble yet and I think it's just started raining

WOW HUGE CG!!!! No thunder though

My attention is now turning towards the NW. Very bright lightning on that cell.

Too far away to make out individual crawlers, but seen some lovely sheets nonetheless. Any CG's at all, or is it more elevated?

Huge flash to the NW this time! Here comes round 2, albeit still distant.

And that storm near Chelmsford is hot on the heels of the first one. Think I'll make myself comfortable. Glad my bedroom window faces west!

Lovely flash over Lakeside way just then. I'd be on my way down the A13 now if only I could drive...

Think it's moving more Southwards than towards me. Still, nice little unexpected light show. Seen some lovely sheets that have lit up the whole western sky.

Just heard first rumble. Slowly coming closer. Quite a good light show actually, anyone else in South Essex/East London/North Kent seeing this?

Swear I just saw a distant flash to the west.... Oh wow, I did! A storm appers to have formed over Thurrock! Took me by complete surprise!

Had a brief moderate to heavy shower a little after 14:00, but no thunder. Other than that it's been dry and bright all day.

Sferic near Southampton? Guessing false return, but can anyone in the area confirm?

Unstable skies all round, very high humidity, I have a headache, everything's in place, it just needs a trigger.

Cells popping up over other parts of Essex but nothing here yet. Still feels very ripe though.

Incredibly humid here, very uncomfortable out. Sky very milky, with the odd bit of ac cas. Not ruling anything out...

Raining again here, but nothing else. Not expecting anything electrical now, although it was never originally forecast so I'm not too upset

Heavy rain here now, possible distant thunder heard a minute ago...

Possibly just heard a distant rumble but can't be 100% sure...

Thunder being reported in Gravesend and Rochester on twitter, neither of which are too far as the crow flies. Haven't heard anything yet, but will keep an ear out...

Promised more than it delivered today, though the rain that fell just over an hour ago was absolutely insane. Haven't seen anything like that for a long time. Only noticed one flash and rumble, but looking at the detector, quite a lot of strikes were picked up elsewhere. Glad others have had a good day as well

Currently en route home from Southend, and it's just started tipping it down out of nowhere. Lightning also picked up just the other side of Basildon. Woah! Monsoon rains from nowhere! Edit: And now thunder!

Nothing here last night, but wasn't really expecting all that much. Surprised to wake up and see that it was dry outside, but it's possible that any rain we did get in the early hours (not sure if we did!) dried up quickly.

Hi everyone! Arrived home from a very relaxing (and hot!) two weeks in Crete about 24 hours ago. The weather here couldn't be more different! Mid/high teens and raining all day. On approach into Gatwick yesterday, I snapped a photo from the plane on my phone of an anvil that seemed to have produced some lightning over SE Kent: And as a matter of interest, I'll also include another anvil spotted over mainland Greece. My plane was cruising at FL360 at this point, and the cloud top was level with it!

All mention of storms dropped now, not that I thought there would be anyway, so that's probably it from me for a couple of weeks since I'm off to Crete on Tuesday morning. If anything happens there I'll let you know in the European thread, but at this time, it's just looking like sun and mid 30's which is fine by me. Hope you all get something during my period of absence

Hmmm.....