Thunderstruck

Met O and BBC seem to fancy storms at 2-3am here. Must say I'm not convinced, since nowhere else is saying it, and BBC's map seems to totally contradict that. Not that I particularly trust them...

Just started raining heavily here but still no thunder Edit: Damn it, I hate it when planes go over in this weather, I always think it's thunder!

Very dark skies to the North not long ago, that produced some heavy rain and one flash of lightning (not seen or heard) just north of Chelmsford. Looking to the NW now, seeing what may be a funnel cloud, but could also be scud. Hard to say. Must say it doesn't feel particularly ripe out there, but we shall see

Just had a moderate to heavy shower here for an hour or so as well as some nice unstable skies but no lightning or thunder

Thanks, that was my instinct too

Lightning strike showing up near Southwold, anyone able to confirm/deny its presence?

I shall also join the above posts in singing last night's praises. Best storm here for years, over an hour of frequent, incredibly bright lightning, as well as near constant thunder, not to mention the torrential downpours. Awesome. Hopefully something similar occurs during the summer holidays so I can stay up and try and take some photos without worrying about being tired at school, although it will be a long time before anything like that happens here again. I'm in Crete from 25th July-8th August though, be interested to see if anything happens then...

Starting to move away now. Not sure how long it had been going before it woke me up but my parents said they'd been hearing thunder for about an hour. Probably our best storm of 2017 so far, and our 10th day of thunder of the year. Not bad. Now the simple matter of getting back to sleep...

Wooooo! Woken about half an hour ago to an awesome storm! Frequent, strobe like lightning, loud, booming thunder and even a positive CG not long ago! Awesome! I should be asleep but that's not happening...!

Ok, I'm going to get some sleep while I can. I might get woken up, I might not (rather not, I value my sleep!) but either way, hope everyone else has a good and safe night, and I'll be back in the morning!

Is it me or is the eastern most cell in the Channel on course to be the almighty, dreaded Kent Clipper?

Potentially just saw a faint flicker to the NW? Not sure if I'm just seeing things...

Just had a flight bound for Luton pass over at about 3000ft! Must be diverting into Southend! Are conditions really that crazy up there?!

Aircraft inbound to Luton taking a rather convoluted route. Anyone think anything from the Channel will hit here tonight?

Yes, I'm just down the road in Benfleet and I noticed that too...

Think you could be right

Wind just come up, but the Kent rain band looking reluctant to cross the Estuary

Just heard a rumbling sound, but I think it's an Airbus A320 stacking for Heathrow

Sky slowly getting darker. Also just had my pre-storm headache that I sometimes get come on... All eyes on that rain pushing up through Kent, but is only rain at this moment in time

Winchester taking a pounding right now!

So the current state of play for me seems to be that the Hampshire storm will miss to the NW, but the non electrified rain near Brighton does seem to be heading my way. There was a nice breeze earlier but it's all now gone very still...

Yikes! Hope your family, and indeed everyone else, are OK!

Come on guys, still ages to go yet. Not over till it's over. In fact, I'm wondering if something is trying to spawn over Essex/Kent way. Those clouds near Rochester look interesting, and I'm only 13 miles away as the crow flies, and there's cloud building up pretty quickly here. By no means a bust just yet

So if that track of the French storms is right and remains as it is, it should just skirt the bottom edge of Essex, which is good enough for me

Anyone else noticed that hook shaped area on the back of the main storm near the Channel Islands?