Harry

First distant rumble - officially a thunder day (or thunder night)

Seeing my first flashes now to my S and SW

Reminder for those saying September isn’t a good month for storms here’s hoping it gets inland

Ribbon of Ac moving overhead here - plume moving in it seems

That’s hilarious. Put my phone on charge watching the first episode of the Sandman - few sferics over Cherbourg. Picked up my phone just now to see it’s gone BALLISTIC! Woohoo!!

Cherbourg now lighting up a bit more frequently - big question is how extensive and far inland it tracks.

That’s nothing - look at the spec over the Cherbourg peninsula - that’s kicked out already three strikes - well before it even showed on radar

Potentially some rapid developments west of Caen not showing on radar yet but showing on blitzortung??

Pucker mackerel sky here

My favourite storm related post of the year

Shouldn’t think the sun will be much of a player, what with any storms developing well after sunset

Met Office were spot on for my area on 25th August but on this occasion I’m right on the eastern edge - and the latest UKV has taken a shift further west, possibly leaving my area completely dry. Still a little concerned by the lack of CAPE apart from central southernmost areas, so whilst there may be so torrential downpours, away from IoW/South Coastal areas I am dubious about extent of lightning. Happy to be wrong

I’ve seen a few times now comments along the lines of “shame it’s September…” implying any storms won’t be as good. It was only 9 days ago we had storms that were extremely active in terms of lightning. Two storms three hours apart kicking out 2 lightning flashes every 3 seconds at their peak! I’ve seen some belters in September over the years - if we can get the cooler autumnal air over-riding residual summer heat and humidity (and there’ll be no shortage of that in the next 24 hours), then I see little reason to be pessimistic. UKV resembles a classic plume breakdown for C/S/E England (although I’m just maybe too far to the east) while AROME is on the same page. My trusty go to NMM is a little meagre on the CAPE though, signalling IOW and surrounding areas may be preferred spots for southern areas for storms. Could be an interesting night for some.

View from the M25

The sky has been looking reasonable unstable here this afternoon/evening. Not so that it’s going to keep me glued to my window however. Good luck all of those in the risk zone Edit - just popped upstairs to see if I could see the Brighton cell (I can’t). But some really nice looking instability emerging

Have not been following charts too closely of late. Therefore find myself surprised to see threat of activity so soon ahead of what could be a lengthy period of storm potential. Have attached the latest phone app forecast which has been pretty consistent now for several days ️

The weather app on my phone is very keen on storms early part of next week. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday currently

Bit of lightning and the railways fall over

Thunder and lightning moved on now. It was mad - first time ever I’ve had to get ready for work with extremely frequent lightning! The storm at around 03:30 had near constant lightning (1-2 flashes per second) and this morning’s storm was pretty damn close! Amazing few hours - though am feeling a little sleep deprived now

The amount of lightning I’m seeing is on another level!!!

Now we’re sucking diesel The aforementioned gap might be starting to fill!

Now I’m up to start getting ready for work. Literally I’m in the only gap in a line stretching a hundred miles or so. As I’m writing, bright flash but fairly dismal thunder. Better than nothing lol And another!

Now flashing every 1-2 seconds - amazing lightning frequency.

Yup! It’s more active than I was expecting. I counted 13 flashes in 30 seconds - and it’s about 10 miles too far East going to call it quits shortly. Had my fill of mostly cloud flashes. Update - here comes the first convective downpour overhead. No lightning apart from the lot flashing to my east.

The sky to my East is now CONSTANT lightning with occasional rumbles. Just had an impressive distant explosion from a positive strike! Anywhere west of my area might be out of luck!