multi cellular thunderstorm

Thunder heard in Nottingham, finally! Loudest thunder I've heard since lasy years USA stormchase. Still wasn't very loud though, and I can't see any lightning. I think the core of the storm is out of view to my north.

Met Office forecasts continue to mention the 'risk of thunder', it seems very unlikely to me, especially up here in the East Midlands. This is the forecast for my region... Some other regions have 'thunder' in the forecast for tonight, but only the East Midlands forecast mentions thunder tomorrow. Surely not likely?

Got intense showers to the north and south of Nottingham, but still not a drop of rain here today. The one passing to the north of Nottingham has really intensified fast. Seems Nottingham was the breeding ground for that one. At the moment Lincolnshire is looking like a great place to be this evening.

Looks promising for this area, again, but after so many disappointments recently I'm not feeling very enthusiastic at the moment. Still just heard one distant rumble this year, Nottingham isn't living up to my expectations at all! Cameras are ready though so if anything interesting hits Nottingham in the next few hours I'll have some pics/video to share.

Same here, just one distant rumble heard this year and no lightning seen. Everything is west and south of me today. That cell north of Birmingham looks best at the moment. Very active with a lot of lightning and probably a lot of hail going by the radar echoes. Looking back through the last few radar updates, that cell was 3 separate cores which merged into one big one.

Nice line of heavy showers now from Cheshire down towards Cambridge and beyond. Typically it was just light drizzle as it passed over Nottingham, before rapidly intensifying within a few miles. Still only the one strike detected so far as syncmaster said, but I think there will be more around that line before long. Also some rapidly intensifying showers heading into north west Wales now which could well produce lightning soon.

Stunning photos, really good to see Tour 1 is going so well, especially when things looked very quiet on the models before the tour started. That structure is amazing! Would love to have tested my new camera on that. Looking more hopeful on the job front for me, if I get one soon I could be back next year.

Very nice album, some excellent photos there.

What a start! Especially when things looked so quiet about a week ago. Looking forward to seeing more photos. I'm jealous of the storms, but like Arron I'm also very jealous of your location. I would love to have chased that far south and got to the gulf of Mexico.

Haha yes I know what you mean, mine was working fine with my girlfriends hair bobble wrapped around it, but last time I changed the battery I ended up breaking it completely by sticking a screwdriver in it, and now there's bits rattling around everywhere. So now that's finally gone, I only use the Netweather Extra radar and lightning detector to track storms, and of course the window, but they rarely come close enough for that!

Good question. I seem to get more excited in Autumn about snow than I do in Spring about thunderstorms. Having said that, I think I actually enjoy thunderstorms a lot more. They are far more exciting and unpredictable, especially thunderstorms in the US Midwest which I have been lucky enough to experience. I would far rather see the most extreme storms on earth than the deepest or most extreme snow, so I think that confirms that I like storms best. I do love snow too though.

Good luck with Day 1. Now that's it's actually underway, it's even more difficult sitting here in the UK knowing I'm not coming over there. Made even worse by my failed 157 mile chase to north Lincs today. Need to somehow scape together enough money to come again next year! Can't wait for the first 'report & pictures' thread.

Got back to Nottingham at about 20:15, after a 157 mile round trip. Obviously it was disappointing, but it's the first time I've been around that area, so I have some usable knowledge for the future. Things got slightly more interesting about 6ish to the north of the estuary, with some little lowerings associated with the intense line of ppn which formed, as you can see in my pics... Looking forward to next time.

Pinning my hopes now on the heavy ppn passing north of Nottingham and heading in the direction of the humber estuary. Anyone think that will develop into a storm as it moves towards this area? How are the other chasers feeling about our chances?

Got a good view over the estuary where I am now. I'm on a single track road called horkstow road. Not a lot happening though, just a light shower at the moment. Think I'll stop here for a while and see what happens. Might have to give up about 6ish and head back to Nottingham.

Sitting near Gainsborough now but I think I'll head a bit further north soon and try to find a good viewpoint. Radar is looking a bit more promising now.

All packed and just about to head north east. I'll be checking the forum while I'm out and hopefully myself and others chasing will have some pics and video to share with you later. Good luck everyone!

Me too, first stop probably Gainsborough to check the radar and forum then either North towards Barton-on-Humber area, or East towards Grimsby area. Doesn't look very interesting here yet.

Thanks, that's actually a very good place to start for me, I think I'll take your advice. It should only be about a 1 hour drive from Nottingham at the most, and would put me in a good position, and from there I can head NE to the Humber Estuary. I'll maybe aim to get there for about 3pm unless things change. I'm quite excited about today, I've never actually chased in the UK before, so it's a new experience.

Sounds good. This is my chase area for today, I don't want to chase anything north of the Humber... This area is completely new to me, does anyone have some good lookout points? The Barton on Humber place sounds good, I'll keep that in mind. There's obviously not much high ground in that area, but are there any good hills with nice 360 views? I'll be in a grey Seat Ibiza, and I'll probably wear my 'powered by stormchasing' jumper if anyone sees me.

http://www.sat24.com/en/gb Some breaks in the cloud in N Wales, N Midlands and Lincolnshire, hopefully cloud will continue to break up. Temps already up to around 17C in Lincolnshire. Might see some of you out and about later.

Nice to see a few breaks in the cloud here and a bit of sunshine. I'm still planning to go out this afternoon, possibly north Lincolnshire, but Nottingham is also fairly well placed so I'm worried that my chase might fail and I miss a storm in Nottingham. I should be able to decide fairly late, if I head for north lincs then Nottingham might be the breeding ground, but with pretty fast storm motion, I probably can't watch a storm in Nottingham and then drive ahead of it again. Anyway everything is charged and ready to go, good luck anyone chasing, and everyone else.

Forecast from UKASF... http://ukasf.co.uk/storm-forecasts/169 - (Click link for risk map) That makes very pleasant reading I have looked at the latest high resolution NMM model run and it fits with the risk area above... Going by the above charts, I might be more tempted to head for the southern part of the risk area, due to slightly higher temps and lapse rates. Also that precipitation chart has me picturing an MCS cluster around Humberside/Yorkshire, with a lone supercell in Lincolnshire. That's probably just my optimism, but I am definitely leaning towards Lincolnshire rather than going further north. I'll check things again in the morning, but I'm pretty sure I'll be out tomorrow heading east. I'm seriously in need of a good storm, so it's time I went out to find them, they certainly aren't finding me!

It is a repeat yes, but I watched it again for the 3rd time. I really like it. Did you know our own Paul Sherman features in it, as well and some appearances from Nick F, Ian Cameron, Tom Lynch.

Ok yeah please.