Dangerous55019

Yesterday afternoon, once the main band of rain had passed through, we have some weakly convective cloudscapes, I didn't think much of it, apart from how pleasant it looked in the sun compared to our normal grey gloomfest... Then Yesterday evening the hail showers started. But when I woke up this morning we have got fantastically convective skies, and the app on my phone telling me that there were a couple of lightning strikes around 03.00 (ish)! Can anyone confirm these lightning strikes please?

Morning @Soaring Hawk I have to agree, this is turning into one dreary, colourless autumn, with just endless grey skies and virtually no colour whatsoever on the trees. As an autumn lover, it pains me to say this, but I will be so glad when autumn 2017 is over, as it just hasn't struck a chord with me at all.

Speaking from a totally IMBY perspective, Storm Brian was a damp squib... A dull, grey, wet Saturday afternoon, with nothing more than a gentle breeze. Today, is at least bright and sunny with a good strong(ish) blustery wind... But neither this or Storm Aileen last month, have come close to what Storm Doris was like earlier this year.

Looking forward to it already.

For me I absolutely love the autumn ... But there are a few negatives. Ok, so here's the positives... September: I love September, I love that last final burst of summer, with the shortening days; the misty starts to the days before giving way to another pleasantly sunny and warm day(s), along with the cool nights, plus the odd occasional thunderstorm, the harvest. For me there is a magic in the air, and I love it. October: I love the colours on the trees, those misty mornings starting to turn into proper fog days... If we get a (true) Indian summer there is a misty, smokey golden haze to the air which just makes everything look so beautiful. The light in October and September is like no other time of year. Likewise I love the run up to and including Halloween... For me there is a particular magic around the time of the clock change and Halloween, and I absolutely love it. November: By the time we get to November my love of autumn starts to wane... But again, I love the first frosts, the first proper howling autumn winds... There's nothing like pulling wrapping up, and pulling boots on and heading off for a nice walk on a cold and frosty, or blustery and wild, late autumn day, the smell of proper hearty food cooking. I also like to see many more misty, foggy, cold mornings and evenings, with that beautiful light that only a low sun in the sky can bring. And now the negatives... I really dislike endless days/weeks of just grey anti cyclonic gloom, as I know that the coming winter will have many of those. Once Halloween has passed, for me the magic of autumn goes with it. ... At that point I find myself wanting and craving to go back to August so I can go through September and October again. Also its the run up to Christmas! Plus all of the faff and farce that comes with it. ... BAH HUMBUG!! ... And I've just remembered that I've forgotten to put the sprouts on... Back in July. Lol

Morning @Turnedoutniceagain I was thinking the same thing, but when I went for a walk across the fields yesterday evening a lot of the leaves appeared to be holding on... But then the wind got stronger, and stronger.... I know that we've got a few large branches down, but until the sun comes up I can't do a full assessment. Hopefully there's still a bit of autumn colour to come.

Morning everyone. Well, I know we've got a fair few branches down (as of a walk yesterday evening), and that the wind has died down from what it was last night, but other than that we've held up ok here. I'll do a full assessment later once the sun has come up.

The wind has started to proper howl around here now... Not quite sure how strong the gusts are, but I think it’s safe to say that it’s reaching its peak. Stay safe and enjoy everyone.

At about midday the skies cleared and we’ve now got (what feels like) a lovely summers day, but with one heck of a blustery wind!

Morning @shadowfax It is very spooky... Due to the Saharan sand apparently. This is gonna be an interesting day me thinks. Stay safe up there.

Time of photo 10.34 BST. Ok, now not a brilliant photo I know, but I’m just out with the hound on his mid morning walkies, when I looked up at the sky, and saw that the sun was blood red! Now I’ve seen orange coloured suns at this hour, but only on hot sticky sultry summers days before a big thunderstorm breaks out. But never a red sun. Me thinks that hurricane Ophelia is going to make this an interesting day! Stay safe people. By the way, morning everyone.

As you know, I normally try and be fairly optimistic and up beat with my posts, certainly with regards to autumn, but I have to say (from a totally IMBY perspective of course), what a dull, grey, colourless autumn this is turning into! Hints of the glorious colours on the trees, rapidly get replaced with green to washed out yellow, and then mud brown, before falling to the ground. Only a handful of pleasant sunny days since September, most have started off kinda sunny, before the dreaded grey infill rolls in around 10.00 in the morning, leaving us will yet another day of dull grey damp nothingness... In fact very reminiscent of summer 2016, and that was an awful gloomfest! If its gonna be grey and calm, then let it be misty and foggy, as at least that's atmospheric! This dull grey nothingness is just awful! I really hope that things change soon, either with a few good autumn storms, or proper fogs, or clear pleasant sunny days, as the light in October is like no other time of year. But for me personally, autumn 2017 is rapidly turning into one to forget.

Morning @sundog Seconed, thirded and fourthed! I'm, actually thinking exactly the same as you.

From a totally IMBY perspective summer 2017 started around here in late May with a very warm/hot spell. June was also a half reasonable month, that actually gave us a small thunderstorm on the solstice. But I haven't forgotten those four days of continuous rain at the end of June July was a month of two halves... Up to the middle of July it was Summer (unless like me you were up and out before 05.00 - Then you could feel and sense the coming autumn in the air). From the middle of July, the pattern changed, and it was a westerly pattern, but still with plenty of fine days and another overhead thunderstorm. August... What can I say other than 'Hello Autumn' But in all fairness, there were plenty of fine usable days. With regards to thunderstorms, we've had loads around here, so no complaints there But there was a thread earlier this year about the decline in thunder days, and again from a totally IMBY perspective, the big storms of yesteryear have now gone, but here we are now getting loads of much smaller storms, instead of the one off big beasts... And this year has been a classic example of that.

Hiya @Carl46Wrexham I fully agree mate... I saw the top of the storm cloud when I was in Porthmadog earlier this evening... But I didn't think it was going to do anything either. It looks like it over Hope Mountain... And I can still hear distant grumblings.

Just had a few flashes of lightning and a couple of good rumbles of thunder here.

I've got to be honest, although there was a lot of convectivity about yesterday, I really wasn't expecting anything to kick off... But there have been some impressive cloudscapes about.

It developed just to the south of me... I just caught the distant thunder. I agree, not much to sustain it over land, but hey, it's much better than what we had at the beginning and first half of this year, so I'll take it.

WOO HOO!! Looks like things are reigniting again over towards the Llay area. What a pleasant start to the day.

Morning @Chris.R I was out earlier and I saw the sky flickering... Never heard any thunder though as I was just a little too far away. Still, a nice start to the day.

A little bit of convectivity going at the moment to my north. Not really that surprising being as we're now in an unstable airmass in the wake of Storm Aileen.

So was storm Aileen a proper roof tile rattler, or just a crisp packet stirrer? I dunno, because I managed to snore me way through the entire thing! And I had the window open all night! Lol But I am hearing reports on the news of trees down in Cheshire and Staffordshire... So it must have been a tad breezy at some point in the night.

My barometer is currently saying 986mb... The mean wind speed around here at the moment is 20 mph... Gustsing to 28 mph. But the skies are totally clear. Aileen is nothing spectacular at the moment.

I haven't checked the exact wind speed here, but it is gusting in fits and starts... But we are now getting some very mournful sounding gusts over the top of the chimney.

We had a good proverbial handbaging from Storm Doris. Lol Evening by the way