Azazel

People in the midlands and further north need to be more patient:p

mean looking storm skirting past andover. Big rumbles of thunder every ten seconds or so and saw a few IC bolts too

sod's law this looks like its going to hit us head on and i'm at work:( booooooo

blatantly too far south today. We will breed them for the midlands to enjoy no doubt:p does anyone know of any lightning detector app for the iphone? I literally cant find anything:(

beautiful capture that - definitely a meso in there IMO

waited out for four hours looking to the south in an attempt to catch our first ever nighttime lightning photos. Saw three strikes over the southampton area (est. 30 miles away) and caught this lol - heavily heavily cropped obviously and looks terrible but... they all count!

this bad boy last year, the tilt on the updraught was awesome.

was going to venture out with a view towards the south coast in an hour or so but i'm not sure its worth it, I swear everyone on here lives miles away from me! Anyone nearish who can shed some scientific/optimism on my situation?

Blahhh nothing really of note here, its oppressively humid though, got a ringing headache. Turkey towers trying to go up to my north and south but seem to be hitting a cap and collapsing on themselves. Not holding out much hope here in North Hampshire

Depends if the storms are elevated above the boundary layer does it not? Most MCS' we import from France (when that used to happen, somewhen before 2007) are elevated and therefore unaffected by the relatively frigid channel. Surface-based storms would indeed struggle moving over a cold mass of water, but elevated storms would be unaffected. That's not to say an elevated storm cant become rooted in the boundary layer and surface-based later on once it has crossed the channel. But anyway, we all know the drill now. MCS develops over France, moves north then dramatically East avoiding the UK entirely apart from the very south eastern corner. I do live in an absolute graveyard for decent thunderstorms though (apart from one noteable storm that became organised and sheared last year..she was a beaut)

Absolutely love the days getting longer! I don't understand why people on here have to bash eachother for different seasonal preferences though, we're all different and that's what makes us human. I for one suffer from SAD, definitely. In the summer I am much more active, feel happier and more energetic and once I notice the nights starting to close back in, I immediately begin an emotional, downward-spiral back into depression. I do however enjoy Autumn and Winter up until New years eve. I like Christmas and the winter festivities and can't imagine ever spending them in a warm climate, but by the time Jan 1st rolls around I am absolutely sick of the dark and cold. I have noticed in the last couple of weeks the angle of the sunlight subtley changing (when it hasn't been absolutely jaffa cakesing down with rain) and in those brief moments, i've felt an absolute wave of happiness come over me. I literally yearn for Spring and Summer at this time of year and can't wait for that first "springlike" day when it gets to around 15 degrees with no cold wind and hazy sunshine. Admitedly, at times last summer it was difficult to sleep, but that really doesn't bother me too much as even with little sleep I still feel twice as energetic as I do in mid-winter. I remember walking home from a friend's house drunk at about 2am last summer and it was so warm and still, it felt like being abroad on holiday. It was magical. It reminded me of being young and camping out or getting drunk in the park all night long (i'm 28 so it wasnt THAT long ago:p). Having said that, in September sort of time, I again notice the subtle change in angle of the light and I do get excited about the onset of winter and Christmas and particularly the first snowfall of the season - this winter has been remarkable to me as it is the first I can recall without seeing a single snowflake. All said and done, I think I would put up with whatever winter decided to throw at us as long as I was guaranteed a nice summer and as we all know living here, thats very rarely the case. The driving wind and rain over the last four months has really done my head in.

In Whitchurch hants at an elevated position on top of a hill near the train station. Gusty outside. Every so often a gust will shake the whole house and there was one almighty gust where I genuinely thought my bathroom window was going to implode. Hearing trains between Salisbury and london Waterloo have been cancelled due to a tree on the line at Whitchurch. Probably one of ours from the back garden:/ Bit hairy out there! Worst noise I've heard in a long time

those two pics are lovely

had a cracking storm down here today, tilted updraft, rotation with possible short lived meso before it blew itself out. lots of lightning and booming thunder.

I know my post is partially borne of frustration, but i just feel sometimes they could do better. Trust me, I really do appreciate how difficult the weather is to predict and how you need a multitude of ingredients to fall into place at the correct time. You have no idea how angry it makes me when i see someone consult their iPhone weather app and say "its meat to snow here at 4pm" acting like the weather is similar to trains or buses.

Everyone can defend the BBC and Met Office to the hilt if they want but it makes no difference to me. I watched the forecast several times last night, even as late as some time around midnight and they didn't mention potential showers, they showed an ORGANISED band of rain moving up from the south which NEVER happened. If they had said potential, thundery showers then I wouldn't had a problem as I know how sporadic they can be and you can't really predict where one will pop up, but an organised band of rain the size of Hampshire you think they might have an idea. Reminds me of the snow in 2010(yes again i appreciate how hard snow is to predict) when the forecast said we MIGHT see the ODD flurry in the wind for my area (the whole of hampshire) and it snowed solidly for 8 hours, trapping my friends and family who had ventured out into towns in their cars not expecting snowmaggedon. I appreciate the weather is hard to predict and there is a lot of science and calculation and even guess work involved, but blimey they don't half get it wrong A LOT. People shouldnt get upset and so defensive when they get it wrong either, its their job. If i got as many things completely wrong in my job, I would probably be fired.

massive bust for us last night. Still no rain, nothing. Closest we got were the wiltshire storms in the afternoon/evening that werent even forecast. Not sure what happened to the thundery rain that was supposed to move up from the channel. Good thing I didnt stay up! Think maybe central southern England should be removed from all future forecasts as we never get anything here

my first ever attempt at capturing lightning! boom! (from earlier today mind)

just went out to the fields behind my house and could see the wiltshire cell producing some pretty neat fork lightning. set the camera up and BAM! realised i had forgot my memory card:/ ran all the way home and back and the lightning just stopped lol. zilch! got this one earlier though from whitchurch, hampshire so cant complain.

The best storm i have ever seen was sometime in may 1999. think it may have been towards the end, not sure. i was 15 at the time and going to florida the next day. I was in the woods and climbing the trees with my friends as you do out here in the countryside. I looked over to the horizon and i saw the most perfectly defined anvil i have ever seen, it was textbook with what looked like an overshooting top and judging by wind direction it was coming our way. I even remember shouting down to my friends "looks like we might be in for a bit of thunder!" i climbed down from the tree and we went to my friends house to grab a couple of cans of beer (tut tut) and sit in his garden as the storm approached. When it got closer, there was beautiful structure visibile, no heat haze obscuring the base of the cloud which was clearly visible with tendrils of scud crawling along the base and the sky behind it turned a curious bright orange. Desperate to get a better look, i headed into the village centre by which time the storm was fast approaching. It got so dark at 1pm on a may afternoon that the streetlights came on (day darkness) there was a real eerie calm and the wind seemed to be blowing towards the storm which at the time i thought was off because wind normally blew from the direction of the storm (obviously i didnt know about inflow/outflow etc back then) the wind also felt hot and the sky was a really really deep shade of sea green with whispy white scud circulating the base at an incredible speed. Suddenly almost right above us, the clouds began really rotating and 'sucked up' in the middle. I thought at the time it didnt look real and almost like a playstation game or something. then it began to fill and extend down towards us, basically dropping a funnel cloud ontop of us which whipped up the air around my feet and my hair. At that point it was time to run for it and as soon as we turned on our heels, a flash of bright red lightning and the loudest crack of thunder before the heavens opened up and dropped the heaviest rain ive still ever seen til this day with constant thunder and lightning amazing

sun has come back out again here after some heavy rain but im starting to be sceptical of the chances of much here..too much clag.

well even though the warmth of march has been long-replaced, we have had a lot of beautiful, convective cloudscapes down here in the last week or two. Today i get home at 4.30pm and hope to go out with the camera. fingers crossed development holds off until then in my area..hate being stuck on the bus on the way home when i can see thunderstorms but cant stop to photograph them!

This pic from XCweather showing where the best DP's are and the progression of the warmer air nicely. Think I'll be going to work tomorrow unfortunately..looks good east though i cant see my attachment? EDIT: Thats better

^^no tell me about it..before he took the video he tried ringing me 3 times to stick my head out the window and my phone was on silent:(