Supacell

I have headed further southwest to be not far from Bromyard. Hereford is a quick jaunt down the A465 from here. Well, 40 minutes so not that quick.

Currently just northwest of Worcester. Wondering whether I should just stay put. I'm nicely in the risk zone now. Just need to keep track of the radar and find a good viewpoint

Had a sleep, got the Red Bull and back on it. Currently heading towards Brum with the plan to head southwest towards Worcestershire area, possibly Herefordshire. Eyes on the developments across Cornwall and Devon moving northeastwards.

In my state of almost certainty that the storms would die long before reaching Derbyshire I drove out late yesterday evening in the direction of somewhere towards the north or northeast of London. I was quite happy when it became apparent I wouldn't have to drive as far as that and ended up settling just south of Northampton. To be honest if I'd gone any further I would have been too late to get out of the car and i'm never overly keen on storm chases where I am stuck in the car. As it happens I arrived at a closed Tesco Extra just in time to see the storms move over and have shelter whilst they did. It was after I'd watched the storm that I realised the drive I had made was not necessary, as there was a storm moving over my house back in Belper. The storm arrived with a decent amount of lightning, although this died out somewhat as it came overhead. There were a handful of good CG's, most of them I missed as they were to the side of where my camera was pointing. There seemed to be lightning in every direction. When the storm arrived it was over fairly quickly, at least the thunder and lightning part was. It came with a brief spell of T&L, gusty winds and torrential rain before returning to just heavy rain. It turned out well last night (this morning) as I saw a decent storm. The fact there was one at home is no bother, it would have been awful if I'd not seen a storm myself. Now need to get some work done, catch up on some sleep and then get ready to go again this evening.

I am getting ready now to jump in the car if it looks likely to survive inland.

It will go mental on the south coast tonight as I'm not there

Passed over. Gusty winds and torrential rain for about 5 minutes but no electrics. Came on very sudden, got drenched closing the window.

I have heard a couple of distant rumbles. It is getting quite dark out though. Lightning detector is showing sferics quite close but nothing much yet.

September can absolutely produce the goods when it comes to thunderstorms. The set up has to be right though. The set up this week is a good one for thunderstorms. This is my 19th year chasing storms and I have seen many storms in September and when they occur they don't seem to lack intensity because its September. Bear in mind also its been an unusually warm/hot summer and one of the warmest August's ever. I am unsure how much that would impact it really, but I do know that European countries who usually have better summers than us, usually get some absolute belters in September. One of the best storms I have ever seen was on the night of the 15/16th September 2016 and I narrowly missed a huge storm just two days before on the 13th September across the Peak District into Yorkshire and Manchester.

I would rate the storm season this year as.... Hang on, it's not over yet . Next week looks the best week so far this year for a more widespread thunderstorm risk. Probably a risk somewhere in the UK on every day from today onwards, with the better and more substantial risks from Monday onwards.

Here is my video of the storms around West and East Sussex early Thursday morning. Apologies for the length of it, it is in 2 stages. Watching it from Worthing and then chasing it across West Sussex and East Sussex.

Thankyou. Dedication mixed with a bit of craziness . I'm not a forecaster but it took me by surprise. I was thinking somewhere like Hastings up to Colchester and then probably Lowestoft

Still raining here in Essex. A good dose of water overnight and this morning for some you southeastern folk who need the rain, quite desperately.

I have to say the start of last nights chase was quite stressful. Numerous road closures meant i found it a struggle to get to the south coast, but in the end i did. Ironically I could have just stayed where I was in Cambridgeshire/Essex, I'd have got quite a showing anyway. My plan to end up in Hastings/Eastbourne changed last minute and I ended up in Worthing as storms looked to be further west than anticipated. It looked at that time like the strongest part of the activity was going to move right over me although I was not seeing much lightning at first. As I was watching the storm move in the lightning activity increased but the heaviest stuff appeared to shift eastwards, hitting Brighton head on instead. Having said that there was still a thunderstorm over Worthing with quite a bit of lightning and plenty of rain. A couple of CGs observed out to sea, but none close to me. I could soon see frequent lightning flashes to my north and east though so I decided to move on. My idea was to drive NE in the hope of getting ahead of the strongest part of the cell, easier said than done. It was moving fairly quickly and dumping a lot of rain. So I couldnt get ahead of it but I was under it, driving under biblical rain and frequent flashes of lightning. They were probably some of the most scary road conditions I have ever had to deal with. Lots of flooding that I was unable to see because of it both being dark and the rain being so heavy. By the time I reached Crowborough I decided to give up whilst I still had a car! So now I am sat at Thurrock services contemplating a 3 hour drive home. At least this time I saw a decent storm. Only regrets, I wished I had been in Brighton.

It's bloody kicking off to my north and moving away Currently on route to Eastbourne or thereabouts

Thanks. Decided to just do the bridge and delays weren't as bad as my sat nav made out. In Kent now mulling over my next driving stint.

There are a lot of accidents this evening M1 closed southbound M11 closed southbound M25 long delays over Queen Elizabeth ll Bridge Essentially means I'm going to struggle to get south. I really want to get south as want to catch these storms before daylight tomorrow. So thinking the south coast is my best bet.

Definitely. Although to be fair it was raining at home. Currently at Bishops Stortford trying to decide my next move. M11 is also shut (as is the M1) but can still get to the M25 and on to Kent by going round the closure. Alternatively I could stick with the Essex coast, which is closer. @Peachy good luck tonight, nice to see I'm not the only one willing to drive a long distance to see a storm

I'm currently just at some services near Cambridge getting some food ahead of a long night ahead. Had to detour along the A14 to M11 as M1 is shut between me and the M25. It was 19⁰c at home, 26⁰c and humid here.

Margate, Bexhill, Hastings are all good shouts. All a long drive but then I'm crazy enough to do it for a good show.

As in do a rain dance? In all seriousness though, I think I am 90% certain I'll be making the trip southeast now. Question I ask myself is how far southeast.

This mornings GFS and UKV runs upgrade the CAPE across the East Midlands and Lincolnshire for this afternoon. Areas just to the east of the waving front could see some heavy showers and thunderstorms develop. I will be keeping an eye on the skies, although this risk seems more south east of my location. This is the UKV for early evening. Best place for seeing a storm this evening would be Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. By this point instability is also increasing across the southeast. This continues through the evening but precipitation looks scarce here until the early hours of tomorrow morning. Having said that the UKV does break our some showers and maybe storms across eastern parts of Norfolk through the evening. Either way, by 4am there is a lot of MUCAPE building up in the southeast. Precipitation shows up through the early morning tomorrow as elevated storms are expected to move northwards along the plume. Areas affected are no longer just Kent. Most of southeastern England to the east of London looks a fair bet. East Anglia also, this more likely first thing tomorrow morning. There is also a fair amount of deep layer shear showing which from my point of view has been somewhat rare this summer, especially when coupled with higher CAPE values. Granted i have used just one model to illustrate but most of the models are in the same ball park. I will likely pop out for a mini chase/drive later this afternoon to see what is going on closer to home. Should forecasts come together today and confidence increase I may take a trip further afield for tonight.

That is unfortunately a possibility. Models have slightly shifted westwards this evening, which is good news for those wanting storms in the south-east. But as we all know, the final positioning will be hard to determine ahead of time. It's never easy in the UK.

Is this relating to just Wednesday? As from what I see the period in question is more early hours of Thursday into Thursday morning. Although even then we are talking a far South East clipper. However, if things shift just slightly east then the whole UK misses out. Likewise, albeit a lower risk, things could be slightly west and bring most of the southeast including London and East Anglia into the frame.

ICON also showing storms for Kent for Thursday early morning