Hector the Convector

Ha small world, my uncle and aunt used manage the Yew Tree inn many years ago. Fond memories there! Snow was always better there than my location in Southampton. Anyhow, few flashes of lightning here this evening. Potential seems better tomorrow afternoon, fingers crossed

I've never tried to upload any weather pics before (so hopefully this works) but here's a video screen shot of the Southampton storm at roughly 6.30pm. The view is from Eastleigh Swan Center car park and i believe the lightning is striking somewhere near to West Quay shopping center.

Yeah looks like he may do well! Very heavy shower near his location now by the looks of it..

Good luck to all you lot in the Midlands. Lots of storms firing by the looks of it! Living in Southampton my area of interest currently is the area to the SE of the channel islands. Seems to be a few heavy showers popping up there

Nice hail storm! Thanks for sending! Convection building here too in south Hants..although perhaps not quite in the same league as where you are..

Sounds amazing. Some of the best storms that I've seen were in France during a cycling trip...it's the place to be! Can you share any pics/videos? :-)

Fingers crossed! I may chase too if the storms fire a bit closer to home today. I don't blame you for paying the 41 quid! Sounds like the sort of thing i'd do! This forum makes me feel slightly more at home lol. Time to look out the window again...neighbors must think i'm a right weirdo

Yes can see that cloud near Southampton, although convection is waxing and waning. I can see faint streaks of rain falling from it..hopefully bodes well for more Southern regions today

Hi Aj, something kicking off on radar to your south west now. Hopefully you will be in a good spot!

Any chance you can film it and post it on here? I'm storm starved!

Looked like it was snowing when i looked on your cam earlier! Luckily i managed to dodge the showers today during rough runner (15k obstacle run). Hoping for some storm imports from the south next week..

Hopefully the Squal line will intensify further as it heads towards you William. I will keep an eye on your cam!

Evening Kate, yes it was all pretty mental for a while wasn't it! I love the sound of rain on a conservatory roof but i think that would have been a little too loud for me! I don't think i've experienced rain as heavy as that before. We even had water pouring through one of the ceilings :-/. Yes i agree it's all very still out there now....calm before the storm! p.s thanks for the link. It's nice to know that my station reads the same as the official reading!

I'm based near Southampton and that squall line really had some venom! One of the strikes was blinding with instant explosive thunder. The rain and hail was exceptional too, some of the heaviest I've ever seen

Yes i agree Kate, some of the most powerful lightning strikes witnessed in a long time here. One of which was a direct hit with virtually no delay between lightning and thunder (which was more like an explosion). The rain had stopped at that point so i wasn't expecting it either. Scared the hell out of me actually! My weather station is reading 986mb too :-)

I live near Southampton, and i have just witnessed the closest lightning strike of my life from that very storm. Quite a scary experience to be honest! Storms are not very frequent here though. Our best chances are normally in the summer when storms drift out of North France. But as tonight has shown, they can happen at any time of the year! I bet Cyprus get some good storms during the Autumn..

Loud crack of thunder woke me up at 1.45am. Wouldn't be surprised to hear more looking at the radar..

Hi BarnetBlizzard. Have you had anymore ideas with your title yet? I studied environmental science and geography a while back and done my dissertation on global warming and hurricane activity in the north Atlantic. Like you I originally wanted to conduct a UK based study but I really struggled to find the data (not that I'm trying to put you off!). I wrote to the met office twice and never heard back. But that was back in 2010...I think they use twitter alot now, so that may be a good place to ask them questions? Hope it's going well mate!

Wouldn't have thought it'll be long before you see something in your neck of the woods. There's an area of showers to the south of Plymouth that will probably expand north and eastwards over the next few hours. Anyhow, hope you get a great storm! Very humid here too..

Great storm video there Aj! That's one of my favorites. I love this one from Malta too especially after 1 minute into the video:

Good shout Odd spot...just seen a couple of strikes on that Le havre webcam!

Yeah good shout Ben. May see something on this webcam as the storms approach Saint-Malo http://www.earthtv.com/de/kamerastandort/webcam-saint-malo-frankreich/live-stream/

Nice little cell moving into South Brittany now...hope you see a good storm there today!

Just seen some lightning on this webcam in Kent... http://www.devonhurst.co.uk/webcam/

Sounds intense! I think the winds are peaking now in your region, but i'm not 100% sure on that. It's getting really windy here near Southampton now, almost on par with any storm so far this winter