Evening thunder

Yes not expecting much here, as I mentioned the coasts get more now. In fact there is thunder/lightning back home now, centred to the west over Exeter. Edit: Looks like a real nice light show kicking off back home now.. would be a great view from home

Looks like some quite active storms have formed in SW England and the Channel.. Typically I'm in Egham (I went to an inland uni so I go back to uni just as the coastal 'storm season' begins, after spending summer near the coast when inland tends to get more storms.. doh.)

I thought Unisys looked wrong, certainly overdoing the cold anomalies around here and in the Atlantic. In reality there's quite a lot of above average water around our side of the Atlantic http://ghrsst-pp.metoffice.com/pages/latest_analysis/sst_monitor/ostia/sst_plot.html?i=34&j=2 (Switch to anomalies below the key). It's like Unsys is comparing to averages for September or August rather than October. The Northern Baltic is near about average on the link above (significant cooling from summer), whereas Unisys shows several degrees below average (which it would be compared to the average for a month or two ago).

Had a downpour and a couple rumbles (that I could hear easily - possibly more) here in Egham earlier, but of course that came just after my lecture started at 2pm.

A single crack of thunder in Egham just now. Just started raining.

Can't recall often seeing such amounts lightning generated by showers over the sea in an Atlantic flow as the last couple of days.. the high sea temps probably have a part to play. Egham of course went through a gap between heavy downpours just to the north and south yesterday. Maybe better luck today. It's this time of year, just as I go back to uni, where I wish I was near the coast as it becomes a better bet for thunderstorms and other interesting weather.

At uni my top floor room is really warm still (need windows open often) so probably not for a while (Not sure about the rest of the house but I'll keep my room radiator off at least) Back home in Devon not had it on either, parents will probably put it on if it gets cold enough indoors say the first air frost that usually happens in October or November, or if we get low teens days/windy conditions.

2nd driest month since starting my records in Oct 07, 16.2mm according to the Davis, though that includes many days where it recorded 0.2mm of dew. 1st driest month on my records is 9.2mm in April 2011. The only rain was 12.4mm on the 19th (manual had 12.9mm so will correct to that), 0.6mm on the 1st and I think 0.2mm or trace amounts on one or two other days. That is a very variable thing locally though, for example William Grimsley who posts on here lives under a mile west, and his Vantage Vue had 31.6mm from the thunderstorms on the 19th! There was local flooding in Newton Poppleford. Mean (5 minute) temperature was 15.0c, actually the same as in 2011, though the mean max this year (20.8c) was much higher than 2011 (19.1c). It is also the first time in my short records 4 months of the year have had a mean max >20C (yes August just managed it at 20.1c). So September's mean max was 0.7c higher than Augusts, and the mean (5 minute) was 0.1c higher. I don't know the max + min derived mean, but will Friday when I am home where cumulus software calculates this and is also set up to record in the 0900-0900 GMT meteorological day.

A bit warmer than expected back home today (I'm at uni), 21.6c max after a 5.3c min. Slight Foehn effect of Dartmoor perhaps?

What a load of old bleepers. What as red as his face should have been after the '100 days of snow' farce last winter? Edit: oh wait just realised those were quotes from last year, Lol. But even so his face should have been abut the reddest after that.

Yeah David Braine usually does the Spotlight forecast. I have very occasionally seen Ian do the Spotlight one which was nice. Much cooler nights than recently back home (am at uni now), min of 4.6c yesterday morning and 4.3c this morning. Yesterday morning was very nice, clear with pure blue sky and very good visibility at last (was at home still then), but since turned hazier again. A bit late as I haven't posted since then but we had a thunderstorm at home on Friday morning. Initially frequent lightning from a storm to the SSW and another distant one in the channel, averaging every 3 secs at one point, and then more cells developed nearby/overhead. 12.4mm at home but some of the downpours were very localised, William Grimsley is less than a mile west of me and had 31.6mm!

Can clearly see flashes from that storm from down here near Sidmouth, and I have a hill to my NE. May go to a local viewpoint as from there I saw actual CC/CG bolts from a storm in about the same position in July!

Storms east and north of here again, can clearly see flashes from that storm all the way down here, and I have a hill to my NE. May go to a local viewpoint and look, saw actual CC/CG bolts from storms in about the same place in July! Would be good to have a active storm close/overhead here, but the Met Office now suggest the focus further east more..

Recently had some mid level cloud which dropped the temp back although the sun is back out now meaning the temp is back at 21.7c, however the nice gap that was coming on satellite images is suddenly filling in with a lot more cloud. Unless it gives some heavy showers/storms it would be nice for it do disperse a bit. Was wondering if we could scrape past my short term (2008-2014) record of 24.7c seen last September but probably a slim chance. Yesterday saw 24.4c though, not bad at all. Could make out distant flashes from a thunderstorm over south Devon about 1:30-2am last night, and even hear what I think were faint rumbles even though it was over 30 miles away. Not the first time I've heard thunder from that distance (and further once) from over the sea though.

23.7c with sunny spells and some altocumulus, and feeling very warm. The warmest day of the month so far.

The thing with Swansea and the Mumbles Head station, Mumbles will basically be the driest in the area. As the air moves onto the mainland and over higher ground it rises creating more rainfall. The figure of around 1360 seems a bit high perhaps, maybe it was taken from another station in the northern suburbs or one near but not in the city? I do also wonder if the high wind at the exposed location effects things, I'm not sure if it would as it is an official station and they probably try to correct for wind by providing correct sheltering of the rain gauge or something, but I know wind can cause issues for gauges even at the standard 30cm height when recording totals and comparing between stations. If you look at Mumbles it is in a little area of 600-1100 colour, so 999mm could fit into that just about.

Cloudy start, not from low level stuff but quite thick high level cloud with a few low patches recently. A little hazy sun just now, currently 16.0c Yesterday had a lot of high cloud so hazy sun at best, first day to not scrape 20c this month at 19.9c

Bit of a longer post than planned above.. Anyway here's something that may surprise many (even me with the strength of the anmalies) Last winter averaged the wettest on record with this focussed towards Southern England, however across most of England sunshine totals were above average, significantly so in places. Rainfall anomaly - http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/pub/data/weather/uk/climate/anomacts/2014/16/2014_16_Rainfall_Anomaly_1981-2010.gif Sunshine anomaly - http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/pub/data/weather/uk/climate/anomacts/2014/16/2014_16_Sunshine_Anomaly_1981-2010.gif Seems to have been much duller in some North Western hilly/mountainous areas due to orographic cloud creation perhaps.

Well yes if the lows did just provide cloud/persistent rain then I agree. But they tend to provide many types of weather. A front with rain/wind, clear skies behind the front, squally showers (even thunder/hail/snow if you'er lucky), strong winds, squall lines. Not to everyone's taste but to a weather enthusiast like me better than cloud and nothing else days on end. In anticyclonic gloom I tend to turn off, as it's not capable of doing anything (except burning off), with deep lows I'm usually much more tuned in to current weather, latest radar and models etc. Maybe not so suitable to outdoor activity without having to keep an eye on the skies, but I tend to discuss my weather interest more on here Maybe we get a different type of low down here, or a higher tenancy for fronts to blow through and get clearances with a little shelter. But being serious location may well be a factor, at uni in Egham it tends to more often be just a band of moderate rain and still at least as much cloud, which I find less interesting, whereas back home rain can more often be heavy with winter fronts, with heavy showers/CB cloudscapes more often following with clear skies between. I also find stormy seas quite a sight to (safely) watch. If it were a mild cloudy drizzly/damp flow between a Euro high and a low to the NW I agree one of the worst types. In summer I'd be more inclined to think deep lows were one of the worst types too, would much prefer a warm/hot thundery spell. Also in winter I'd prefer snow/cold spells of course, but would still find them interesting.

Sunny intervals and 18.1c Nothing wrong with wishing for a change or something different on a weather forum, won't exactly make last winter happen again lol. Not that I'm particularly wishing for rain although meteorologically I found last winter interesting. I like rain sometimes, I also like sunshine, dry summery weather and easterly winds for a change. It's not really surprising though, if you are interested in various weather types September hasn't exactly provided much variability, just sunny or cloudy with temps 20-22c. I'm probably happy for dry and warmer than average conditions to persist before the cool down happens later, though throw in a thundery element before I go back to uni with the warm/summery weather then that would do nicely

No way, there's actually quite a lot of weather happening and meteorological interest. That award goes to anticyclonic gloom!

I think the dust devils are developing over/near the lava field due to its intense heat. The ones I saw were over the lava which extends down the left half of the view until the foreground hill blocks the view on the left side of Bardarbunga 2 cam. It looks black and not much different to other ground in the day though you can make it out. When it gets dark you should be able to see parts of the edge where the crust breaks as well as the more active/hot flow in the lava field growing orange. On cam 1 the hot lava field definitely seems to be generating quite a strong updraught.. I wonder if it's even making its own (perhaps acidic) rain? I saw some great pictures several days ago showing dust devils being shed from the lava field and effectively a towering cumulus/cumulonimbus developing downstream as a result of the updraught. Edit: pretty dark now but mainly just little dots where the crust is broken glowing, the advancing front is now out of view

Yes I was hoping for clearer air too. The forecast still goes for 'Very Good' visibility later or at least tomorrow so hopefully it arrives. Sunny intervals and cumulus clouds now, 19.7c

There's something on the previous page that isn't, so really no one knows at present.

Still managing to be mostly cloudy and hazy here so far, even though it looks mostly clear on satellite. Temp 18.7c. Yesterday turned mostly sunny in the afternoon before clouding over again later, max 22.2c.