Grazy2266

Couldn't agree more I'm in Buckinghamshire and it seems we are in for a few hours of rain, but a few flashes would be nice lol

Thanks great pictures! Dull and a tad cooler here in Bucks, light rain every so often. Looking at the situation I don't hold any high hopes, I been thinking this since 12.

Yep its certainly looking interesting on the South Coast. Estofex have just issued a forecast, rather later than normal www.estofex.org

Can hear distant thunder to my southwest, approaching!

Sounds good, its looking fairly good along the south coast at the moment, sleep well lol

Plenty of rain overnight here in Buckinghamshire, which was very welcome indeed, a few flashes and a couple of distant rumbles that's about all. Things surprising still look fairly good with what's coming over the channel, dawn activity cant be bad lol

Yep much needed rainfall, its just on my doorstep now not long to go, deffo time to sit out on the balcony, its become such a rare event here rain! lol

Yep I'm seeing a thundery area quite weak but recently developed.

May be worth keeping an eye on what's to the south of you, I'm noticing some development over the last 20 mins, waiting game I'm afraid!

Finally some welcomed rain is only just 23 miles away, lets hope its enough to treat the garden nicely lol. Its only rain nothing too electrical going on there at the moment, but its still welcomed!

Some nice pictures there, very clear too, nice one!

Have a few showers knocking around here in Ivinghoe (Beds) just heard a few rumbles of thunder from the shower which looks to be over Luton, aircraft are avoiding the normal direct flight path into London Luton at the moment. Keeping my eye on the approaching showers from the SW had reports of some thunder in East Oxfordshire within the last few seconds.

I think conditions are a little more favourable tomorrow and I think we should see development a little earlier in the day across the western side of the UK. Not much hope for here I'm afraid lol

Yep all airports have to follow World Meteorological Organisation and International Civil Aviation Organisation regulations and I'm sure all do, blimey i hope so lol This study was originally started for early study of wind shear in the UK as PART (obviously along with other data) of a independent storm reporting network and was experimental between 5 independent (not BAA) airports (more have joined since), the study has continued over years and I'm sure has reached its conclusion on the small effects of wind shear in the UK, however the stats are still being recorded and the information is collated and used purely by the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations members and its not reported or collated for use in any other way. We report various real time data to the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations for use in various educationals and to universities for various projects. I suppose you could call this an independent experiment, i just don't know when it ends lol When i worked for BAA airports we use to report data for independent sources, so its rather like that!

Stansted are not on our network thats why they don't appear Tommy, I'm sure they do fairly similar to Luton. Also a good point you raise there about thunder days John, the above stats are thunderstorms which is why the numbers over 15 years are very low, they have a certain requirement to meet before being regarded as storms. Ill get some more info from work and post, so you can see where the stats come from and what the requirements are etc. (you will be surprised what an airport regards as a storm lol)

Its also worth noting these are airports, remember some locations don't have an awful lot of airports in the area. Also some airports can be pretty far away from the town or city they are named after. So stats can often differ from airport to town/city. Example London City airport is off the scale at the very bottom, but Heathrow isn't and its not a million miles away. When an airport reports thunderstorms they are not necessarily overhead!

I don't have that data to hand until tomorrow however I know Birmingham was 32 in 15 years, and Manchester was 27 and Luton 13 thats all I can remember at the moment. There are certain reqiurements to be met before they officaly class a storm, many places would have high values if thundery showers were to be included.

Yep I'm afraid so, Ive always said that the Midlands don't do bad for storms.

Hi all, When I was at work yesterday I found a very interesting document, it's basically the most reported thundertsorms at UK airports over the last 15 years. I thought I would share it all with you. Kinda can see a trend here! 1st Birmingham Intl 2nd East Midlands 3rd Manchester 4th Liverpool 5th Blackpool/Jersey Intl Airport 6th Robin Hood Airport (only reporting for last 5 years, new airport nr Doncaster) 7th Durham Tees Valley Airport (formally Teeside Intl) 8th London Luton Intl 9th Bristol Intl Airport 10th Cardiff Intl Airport 11th London Heathrow Intl 12th Southampton Intl 13th Norwich Intl Airport 14th London Gatwick Intl 15th London Manston Intl (reporting for 13 years) 16th Newquay Intl 17th Exeter Intl Airport 18th Southend Airport These are all the airports that take part in the system. Scottish Airports are not included nor are Irish airports or very small regional airports.