Azazel

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:(

hi guysss..just wanted to share with you the funnel cloud over whitchurch, hampshire my friend Richard Long caught on his phone on the evening of the 19th

thanks guys:) fingers crossed for some actual storms this year these were the only images i captured last summer (unfortunately on my mummy's digital camera) nice powerful updraught tower though..the cell was sat somewhere over reading.

beautiful pictures again in this thread..a couple from me

Hi guys, still getting the hang of my DSLR but took my first ever sunset snaps today:)

some absolutely beautiful pictures in here. That one of the wolf jumping the gate is fascinating if not a little unnerving! one of my fat tabby cat william and my dopey dog asha

First potes..old pants ones showing a volcanic sunset last year...a large convective cloud with what appeared to striation banding and a strange horitoztal area of cloud connecting the two bases..third is a suspect wallcloud. also attached some other photos

Havent been here in a while due it being the dullest period of weather i can remember! had a shower pass over yesterday which dropped some heavy rain and my mate rang me from the pub 100 yards away across the street to tell me it was hailing there. THATS a SMALL margin!

this seems most likely..although not 100 percent sure as there were a few thunder days that month it seems! taken from www.met.rdg.ac.uk "Rain continued to fall over many parts of Scotland until early afternoon on the 29th, while Ireland has a mainly cloudy day. England and Wales began dry and sunny and became quite warm in places. An area of thundery activity (accompanied by hail in places) moved into SW England by 0600 GMT, moving NE and spreading to the E Midlands and East Anglia by late evening. A thunderstorm at Bristol (Totterdown) from 1215 GMT until 1515 GMT resulted in 18mm of precipitation, including 10mm from 1325 GMT to 1338 GMT when a 26 kn gust occurred. During the passage of a thunderstorm at Wokingham from 1551 GMT to 1608 GMT 15.7mm of rain fell, with a peak rainfall rate of 199 mm/hr around 1554 GMT over a two and half minute period. Thunderstorms resulted in local flooding in many areas (eg. in parts of SW and Cent S England) and there were reports of small tornadoes in the SW. Rainfall under the core of the storms was heavy, eg. 25.4mm at Cirencester (of which 15mm fell in 15 mins with winds of force 5 to 7). Several places from Birmingham to Wokingham reported rapid pressure fluctuations during these storms (associated with temperature falls as large as 5degC). Hail in a storm at Dartford was 1cm in diameter, while in Danbury (Essex) 17mm fell in 5 minutes. (Southampton 27C, Lerwick 6C, Chipping Norton 34mm, Folkestone 14.0h.) " although it could also be this one! Most parts of S Ireland, Wales, and England S of the Pennines, had a cloudy night with fog forming by dawn on the 19th in parts of the Thames Valley. Other areas had a clear night with a ground frost in parts of Scotland. Scotland then had a sunny day while further s cloud moved N over much of England, Wales and Ireland. After a wam and quite humid day, thunderstorms occurred over SE, Cent S England during the early evening, moving to the S Midlands later in the evening. Some thunderstorms were heavy in the SE with hail in places (1cm in diameter at Maidenhead where 20mm fell in 20 minutes, the temperature fell 7C during the early evening storm, pressure rose 2mbar and roads were temporarily flooded). The NOAA12 channel 4 thermal image at 1637 GMT (courtesy of Bernard Burton) shows what appears to be a mesoscale convective system of storms during this event. At Crowthorne 26.3mm fell between 1630 GMT and 1745 GMT. In Hampshire, golfball-size hail fell at Easton and Itchen Stoke, and the hail was still lying 15 hours after the storm. Conservatory roofs, glasshouses and guttering were damaged by the storm and gardens and crops were devastated there, and several minor roads were flooded. There were also reports of large hail on the Isle of Wight. (London Weather Centre 24C max, Redhill 22mm, Lerwick 16.0h.) depends which one was a saturday! although im not sure about the 2nd one as it certainly wasnt early evening.

yes i think it may have been! I was off school so it was definitely the weekend and also i'm pretty sure we flew out to florida on a sunday so that seems to tie in nicely! It was the best storm I've ever seen by miles!

Hi guys, havent posted here in ages! my most vivid and awe-inspiring account came the day before I went on holiday to Florida in 1999..I live in a little town called Whitchurch in Hampshire, it was somewhen in May..although i'm not quite sure of the date. I was 14 at the time and i remember the early afternoon being quite warm and bright. I was climbing a tree when i spotted a massive anvil out to the south west and exclaimed to my friends below that we might be in for a bit of thunder later. As the anvil slowly crept closer the sky behind it gradually turned to a deep shade of orange. Visibility was superb which is a little unusual for this country with all the late spring/summer haze but you could see the cloud base perfectly and the dangling tendrils of scud hanging just below the line of the horizon. My friend's house is on a hill and we could see right over the centre of the village and out to the west where this thing was now beginning to come in quite fast and it looked awesome..the huge anvil now stretching right over our heads and the solid updraught base dark as night against the now vivid, orange sky behind it partly obscured to one side by a solid hail-curtain. As it got even closer the sky darkened quite dramatically and me and my friend decided to run down to the centre of the village, i wanted to be right underneath it as it came over the top of us! When we reached the village it was exceptionally dark for late may at 3pm in the afternoon..the streetlights came on and there was an eerie calm as warm wind changed direction and began to blow into the approaching storm from behind us. As the storm reached us the sky turned sea-green. It was the such a deep and vivid green it was very unsettling and something to this day i havent ever seen since. There was white and ragged scud swirling just below the cloud base moving rapidly across the sky in different directions and it was at this point that i looked up to see the cloud base very visibly rotating. There were clear striation bands from rotation and It appeared to 'suck up' in the middle almost like looking into a whirlpool and it didnt look real..almost like computer graphics..then it got really scary as the rotating mass began to extend down towards the ground literally about what must have been half a mile away and heading straight towards us. My knowledge was pretty limited at the time (it still is really:p) but i knew this was a funnel cloud and possible tornado forming so i turned on my heels and legged it with my mate back towards the house. As we turned to run, the wind blowing into the storm (obviously inflow) picked up tremendously making it hard to run as we ran away from the storm and suddenly there was a huge crack of thunder and the heavens opened..literally. Firstly, marble sized hail and then absolutely torrential rain with red lightning which again..i havent seen since..it poured down for about 10 minutes before easing and the storm moved away to the north east, still rumbling away. It was breathtaking. Does anyone have any more info on this event? it was may 1999..not sure of the date:(

great shots..love the whale's mouth effect

ahh tidworth near salisbury/grateley/andover...no not that far at all..i actually work in grateley:D

thanks where abouts did u live Louby?

thank you for the welcome! i've put my location in my profile now:D

Hello all..new here..i post over on UKWeatherworld...just thought i'd share some pictures from the last couple of weeks with you. First couple show a mammatus display over hampshire on the 11th April...the second set show a nasty thunderstorm over hampshire on the 13th April..i hope u enjoy:)