tornadomanuk

A showery and breezy start to the day here. Was woken up around 3:30ish with heavy hail and a rumble of thunder.

Milky white/hazy skies here in Chard this afternoon. Feeling muggy though, much more so than the last few days.

Beautiful, clear blue skies here today. Very nice indeed. Looking to be a tad warmer tomorrow too!

I thought I would start this post as I'm interested in finding out the answers to a couple of questions I have regarding thunderstorms. The early hours of this morning (19/07/2017) was a great night for storms in my area but I wanted to know - There where numerous cells around me all producing good amounts of lightning - frequent too. The cell to my SW, then W was a particularly prolific one, spitting out lighting (mostly IC) every 20 seconds or so. My question is what causes a highly productive cell to suddenly stop producing lightning. Literally it went from flash after flash to then nothing. Then after 10 minutes or so went back to bombarding the area beneath it with a good light show. Is it to do with inflow feeding the storm to be momentarily cut off? or is it to do with shear? My second question again relates the the fact that numerous cells where surrounding my area. When a lightning strikes, say from the cell to the North, it almost (9 times out of 10) triggers the other cells, some a fair distance away to trigger a strike as well. Is there some relation between each cell, or is it the fact the atmosphere is so unstable that one strike can cause others to happen at the same time?

That was an intense 3 hours of storms for a long time. Even better than the storms back in May. The lightning was amazing from a distance, anvil crawlers that ended with CG's, Different colours of lightning, from distant yellows to bright purples, amazing. Had 2 storms that came directly overhead. One at around 1:30ish and a much larger one, albeit shorter in time storm at about 3:00. That last storm gave me the loudest thunder I have ever heard! Every blinding overhead flash was immediately followed by explosive - literally sounded like an explosion- of thunder. You could even hear the split second of crackling before the almighty crash, and the bass! wow, set of a couple of car alarms! Really enjoyed that I can tell you, and summers not over yet!

Great webcam find there OddSpot. Saving that ready for the summer!

Lightning activity seems to have diminished down here although still some very heavy rain on the way. Storm rumbling nicely over between Weymouth and Poole. I wonder if water had a part to play as the storms that followed the River Severn were particularly active until the storms went further inland, and the activity over Weymouth Bay are still going? EDIT - A couple of strikes appearing again near to Crewkerne now - maybe because its nearing Lyme Bay perhaps?

Trying to hold together as it slowly approaches this way. Another strike now near to Blandford in Dorset.

Live 2 day Chasercon event happening now in Denver if anyone is interested. A large agenda throughout the weekend with top chasers talking about past chases, etc. Well worth a look at the live stream on Youtube.

Was woken up by a loud thunderclap at approx 12.11 this morning. It was one of those were you are not sure if it's in your sleep or not, but it definitely was! Saw another flash about 3 minutes after followed by another crash, but this one was further away to my NW. Then that was it! The rain causes surface flooding around here, probably caused by blocked drains from fallen leaves.

Looks like this next round of stormy activity is going to miss us unfortunately. Very pleasant out here now after this mornings miserable weather. Feeling muggy too.

Nothing directly IMBY, but certainly some vicious looking rain cores in the storms to my South West and South at the moment. Could hear distant booms of thunder but they quickly faded as they moved steadily south east.One thing I have noticed over the last few convective days, there were (and still are) some very high rainfall totals within the core of the cells.

It was a pretty decent day yesterday for storm activity. I was in Taunton until lunchtime when the main storm hit. Nice CGs were raining down around the county town and the rain was very impressive. Asda really needs to sort out there roof with various leaks and drips everywhere! Not sure about today as yet, looked promising around an hour ago with blue sky appearing, but since then, a low grey cloud cover has now encroached the area which will limit any storm growth. Early days (or hours!) yet, so hoping something will develop to make it day 2! Looking like it could be the last day for a while for storm activity too. What I really want is a hot and muggy plume to come up from the continent overnight to really get some decent lightning! Still waiting for that!