tornadomanuk

could this be the start of round two here? I'm watching the showers in Cornwall as they make progress ENE. Wonder if they might intensify like the first lot did earlier this afternoon.

On radar those line of strong showers that past through here seem to be losing some intensity, then on the other hand new cells seem to develop quite rapidly back towards my West (Mid Devon). Certainly not what i was expecting according to forecasts/charts, but its still early and still have a few hours for intensifying.

Just clearing East from here now, great cloud structure on the back-edge. Still not producing a great amount of Sferics (sorry to disappoint (Andy B!)). Distant towers trying to form into something in the far west.

Line of heavy showers pushing East and produced some heavy squally rain and just a couple of booms of thunder.

Its still not overly 'productive' unleashing lightning/thunder every 4/5 minutes at most and no hail to mention of. Might become more of a feature as it trundles eastwards during the afternoon.

Yay first thunder of 2010 at last!!, Rain still not quite here yet but rumbling very nicly

Very black to my West, looks like some very heavy rain in a narrow band soon to hit here. Will report any thundery activity as it hits, but nothing heard yet and the rains only a few minutes away. Could this be the first thunder of 2010??

Its been quiet here most of the afternoon with all the action further west. But interesting developments just approaching Cornwall. Surely there must be storms with that lot!

Thunder now reported in Mid Devon (Tiverton area). Also exceptional rain been falling in the area esp. towards Exmoor. Everything is developing to my West and moving North. Will phone the folks in Watchet to see what the situation is up there.

Damn you all with a thundery afternoon!! lol, only joking!. I'm enjoying the surprisingly warm sunshine here considering I thought it would be a dull day here.

Morning all, a lovely day here this morning, with brilliant sunshine and just a few clouds to spoil the blue sky! I don't think that rain band over the SW of Cornwall even made it this far east last night. Certainly hardly any rain to speak of. Looking forward to Tuesday for possible storm in the South.

Interesting radar watching down here at the moment, small shower just formed directly over Chard and seems like its the only one in this area. Wondering if it may intensify? rain just falling now.

Strangely enough with all these cells/storm firing up, the rain-band over the SW of England remains pretty stagnant. Certainly doesn't appear to have moved that much to me anyway.

Another organised cell now in the channel SE of Portsmouth

Thanks Ian F for your great input (have you got another 3am start tomorrow?? lol). Good luck to all those in the 'risk' zone over the next 24hrs.

Wow..........just Wow. Amazing distant photos of the 'mushroom' cloud. Loving those type of shots as well as the close-ups. Thanks guys

Very mean looking storm to the North of Burnham-on-Sea judging by this webcam!! http://www.burnham-on-sea.com/webcam/

Had a rain shower just under an hour ago and has then immediately frozen onto the icy surfaces here. Main road seems fine but minor side roads/pavements are very slippery. Already seen a driver who, may I add, was driving far to fast, turn into the car park and then slide forward up onto the pavement and into a signpost. Luckily no one was standing were he crashed. Already though there are signs of the ice slowly thawing now.

Yes defiantly starting to form a very pronounced line just off the coast of Cornwall and just in land of the West coast of Wales.

Absolutely brilliant to see Ian Fergusson posting on here, a very welcome member of the team! (although how on earth do you put up with Steve Yabsley???!!). Richard Angwin also came up with the point of tornadoes being called 'mini-tornadoes' is ridiculous in his lunchtime forecast on BBC Somerset. Back to the current situation, the winds have definitely increased alot down here in the last hour or so, looking forward to radar watching!

Will keep an eye on that one, seems to be heading my way very soon!

Well, after a pretty intense 24 hours down here, including some powerful gusts caught on mobile camera its a lot calmer this evening. Some localised flooding on some minor routes and the usual debris (twigs, the odd large branch, etc) scattered about. Took a drive down to Hambridge to find the river has overflowed its banks, flooding many fields as usual! Hopefully will get a quieter night sleep than the 4 hours I got last night, although maybe the next sounds to wake me later could be of thunder instead of wind judging by whats developing just off the SW peninsula?

Still raining down here, but the winds (sustained wind speed) is now noticeably easing off very slowly, although the gusts are still powerful but becoming few and far between now. Managed to record some impressive gusts/horizontal rain during the last and most potent squall line to pass here. Will try and post later.

After a noisy night with torrential rain, thunder and wind, things did calm down for a couple of hours. Even thought the sun was going to make and appearance - but things are steadily going downhill again. Very strong wind gusts are developing again, perhaps even stronger than last night. Could be a very interesting couple of hours down here judging by those squall lines approaching from the SW. The weathers strangely been behaving like a Hurricane - Stormy winds during the night, then the calm, now back to the stormy winds again!! the only difference is the winds aren't in the opposite direction!!

Dramatic Footage from a tornado touchdown in a town in Japan (I think) taken from a flat window. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3tohiUBSlg&feature=related