A.J

cells dying a death before they reach, mainly orphaned anvils, but not giving up hope yet!

Look on the bright side, if you're stateside bound soon you'll get enough storms & tornadoes to sink a battleship!

Thunder in Brixham in the past 30 minutes & in Dartmouth, close but no cigar for you atm!

plenty of sferics along the south devon coast stretching from Start Point through Torbay & up to Exmouth......up here in the Midlands a line of cells sinking slowly SEwrds, anvil topped but not producing any lightning, pulse type convection so updrafts quickly building, dying & building along the outflow

Was just about to post on that early morning riser of a storm Mark...You beat me to it!

Ok, a quick whistle-stop tour around the UK, lets see what we can see......Things are a bit quiet on the storm front currently..... Storm cell near Wimbourne/Poole kicking out some lightning.......A clump of cells in the Uxbridge/West London with a few sferics......sferic detected near Chichester, Sussex.....sferic near Crewkerne in the west country, and across into Ireland, a nice thunderstorm along the Irish Border heading towards Ballybay

Aye and if you put an egg & one of those birds-eye boil-in a bag meals in it you get fed at the same time, storms & a meal....bargain!

Just brought a pan of water to the boil. The lengths that I will go to just to see a bit of rapid convection!......... I'll fetch my coat!

I actually agree, simply because in a westerly flow we are in the natural rain shadow of the welsh mountains, air is relatively dry & descending due to our proximity to the welsh mountains, further east these air pockets obtain moisture from their proximity to the surface & energy by solar heating gaining lift/bouyancy thus convection initiates the further east one is........Convection wise, I think an unstable SWly or NWly flow is much better as the Bristol Channel & Cheshire Gap form natural funnels & low level convergencies for shower development in our regions, not forgetting to add that said air is fed with plenty of moisture from the sea....Not saying this is correct, but certainly makes sense to me

Judging by the storms he's had recently, he's probably on cloud - 9! ...lol

Anyhoos on a more serious note, the good news is that convection has initiated again over Mid-Wales and showers are developing, so maybe there is hope yet

The answer is actually very technical, and relies on air mass boundaries and their interaction with the 11 year solar cycle & plate tectonics and their relationship with the planet Nibiru , not forgetting quantum fluctuations in a parallel universe, but in laymans terms, the simple answer is because the West Midlands absolutely SUCKS!

Perhaps it's because Londoners are full of hot air, thus aiding convection?

aye.....maybe another 'May 9th' monster will spring up later on...unlikely, but never say die!

That's all well & good Liam, but I'm sat here scratching my head as to why nothing is firing in Mid-Wales, energy, lift, cold pool aloft thus steep lapse rates & plenty of diurnal heating is present in that area, the only thing missing is some surface convergence, but whilst that aids convection, it's not essential.....Towers are trying to go up but they're messy and quickly collapsing but there seems to be little or no cap in place...there might be a pocket of some mid-level warmer air perhaps....I haven't got access to the full NMM model to look at the atmos profiles.... ...Neil aka victor meldrew...give it a rest mate, it's the same old speel from you every summer....in this current convective period of weather, the south eastern quadrant has had the bulk of the convective action, it's simply a case of atmospheric parameters being in place for the SE area

Well, just got back from my escapade through Warwickshire & Worcester, and utter crud it was!......occasional heavy rain, cells dying a death, and well, that's just about it....I sincerely hope the weather gods are going to refund me the £30 in diesel costs...all the energy in the western half of England has died and yet again it's sarf-east that prospers, and a huge hole appeared over the midlands where there should be thunder, lightning and general armaggeddon!....not a happy bunny!

Ok, I've had enough sitting at home staring at radars...I'm off for a chase!.......Going to drive now over to Coventry & then head towards the Worcester area down the A46...Looking at where things are happening, I think that's a good route......Should be back home for about 3ish....Cheerio!

yep, just posted on that in the convective thread Luke...I'll be down near worcester this afternoon armed with Camera & then heading back up the M5 corridor...might be a good spot for footage

Are you still In Tewkesbury Jane?....Big cell has fired to the west of Tewkes & NW of Cheltenham....very impressive radar returns, should imagine quite a bit of hail in that one, also strikes being detected (it's the one I mentioned a few mins ago firing near Ross-on-wye)

Further afield, a nice 'smattering' of discrete cells firing around England especially along the A303 corridor through Salisbury plain w/sferics detected to the west of Winchester, also the M4 corridor (Bristol to Reading) and sferics detected from a cell near Ross-On-Wye

Matty, a couple of discrete cells have popped up to the west of Coventry, that's probably what you're seeing now, already moderate ppn falling from them...and more cells further west going up near Birmingham...The stuff over Wales is still some distance from you (50 miles or so) and looks like it will primarily affect areas to the north of Birmingham....The only concern for me is that it does seem to be weakening somewhat on radar, thus the knock-on effect of possible mid-level remnants hampering convection later on today...Not saying that this will happen, just worth baring in mind

good hail shower recently to start the day...and good development for the west & north midlands developing over mid wales...As Ed pointed out in the convective thread, this development ties in with an area of low level convergence pepping up convective activity

a couple of radar grabs to illustrate the rapid convection...look at the 0950 grab centered on my postcode, then the 1000 grab images courtesy of NW Extra

just had an impressive hail shower here in south staffs....very encouraged by the rapid convection/development...This cell has gone up in 10 minutes and has produced pea to penny sized hail...impressive indeed, and now eyes west to whats developing over mid wales....

Calm down, you'll give yourself a hernia !... ...right then, up here things are trying to happen, sun breaking through again, a few more discrete cells firing to the north, although on radar they look a bit more junior than those down in the sarf east, less Cb, more Cbeebie...lol