UKSupercell

OMG ABSOLUTE AND UTTER ONSLAUGHT!! HAVE A FEW PICS AND 1 or 2 VIDS. Been raining and Pea-small marble size hailing, torrential for the last 30 minutes or so, seen at least over 20 lightning strikes, very loud thunder right above me and the road and front garden are completely flooded, puddles everywhere, some of the heaviest precipitation i've seen in years. FIRST BIG STORM OF 2009 (well in about 3 years), JUNE 27 - UNBELIEVABLE.

Been raining at moderate intensity with big raindrops for at least 30 minutes now, just turned heavier for a few minutes, nearly torrential intensity, LOTS of thunder in the distance, probably to the east but i haven't seen a single lightning flash yet. Weird. Guess the main storm is miles away but it's definitely very wet here now, a fair amount of rain has fallen.

Line of towering cumulus to my east with an anvil or two to the south east, possibly heading my way. Big dark clouds south of me as well. West - not as much in way of darkness or cells. Just had another light-moderate rainshower for 15 minutes or so but with large raindrops. Thundering to the east.

ACTIVITY - Line of towering white cumulus amongst a dark grey background to the East (towards west London), huge grey towering cumulus to the south, 1 massive cell growing to the west and up north my view isn't as good but i'm sure there's some massive cells there as well. Just had another light rainshower with massive raindrops and rumbles in the distance. Big anvil to my south-east, it might be heading my way I think, I'm unsure though....

HUGE CELLS TO SOUTH OF SOUTH BUCKS: Berkshire - South West London area some ENORMOUS cells to the south here one with an anvil forming it looks a whopper another just towering miles. There have to be some storms around me in the next few hours there is just so much convection taking place right now.

LOTS OF CELLS all around me in South Bucks, some huge looking ones to the North, West and North-west but they're so far away on the horizon I can't make out if they're actually legit in other words if they're dissipating or still growing. Other towering cumulus clouds to the East and the South looks pretty hot for storms right now some big convection there. Generally, towering cumulus in every direction here in South Bucks, my money is still firmly on me not witnessing a single storm today even though about 30 minutes ago we had a very light rain shower but with big raindrops.

Not having a whinge but seriously, I'm a bit frustrated why the metoffice consistently put out weather warnings for thunderstorms and flash flooding when they NEVER happen. This is I think the FOURTH time in a row this year now, it's really annoying, they're supposedly 87% right most of the time but that is absolute tosh. Why don't metoffice get a proper dopplar radar as well, a bit like the one on www.spc.noaa.gov that the yanks use, it's a quality tool. As for any storms, predictable had nothing last night and nothing today and I doubt we'll get any storms on saturday or sunday. Typical really!

Can someone please give me your honest opinion, is it likely I'll see some lightning in South Bucks tonight or will it skip slightly to the west of me?

LOL - seeing the "no storms club 2009" page made me laugh. Classic. Applies to me in South Bucks (Beaconsfield), we never get storms here, it's such a dreadful place to get storms, North Bucks (Aylesbury up to Milton Keynes), East Bucks (chesham area) and South West Bucks (high wycombe) always seem to get more storms than South Bucks, same with Hertfordshire (east), Oxfordshire (west), Berkshire (south) and London (south-east/east) - they all get more storms than south bucks, seems to me storms love avoiding my area. I don't know if i'm talking a load of twoddle but from my point of view here in the Beaconsfield area we never get any storms, had 2 or 3 thundery showers so far this year but they've been hardly what I would call a "thunderstorm." All they were was heavy rain, a few rumbles and that's basically it, don't think i've even seen a single flash of lightning yet and no hail either, just boring showers really. Well anyway, I damn well hope we get a storm either tonight (probably unlikely) or tomorrow, saturday or sunday, surely we can't miss on all 3 days. Well, I'll be posting here if we do get a storm but it's probably unlikely.

FINALLY, FIRST PROPER RAINFALL ALL DAY. That cell just moving easterly/south-easterly has just hit me head on here in South Bucks, torrential and I mean some of the heaviest and loudest rain i've heard in ages, for about 10-15 minutes, raining lighter now, no hail or thunder/lightning predictably, but at least we've had a decent type of convective rainfall today, be it without any lightning and in the dark at the end of the day. In South Bucks though, all i've had today apart from that last torrential downpour is a very very light shower earlier on, about 4 or 5 hours ago from the edge of a storm cloud. As per usual, all the cell's missed me. The late cell that developed to the west/north west in Oxfordshire and into North Bucks missed me, heard it had some good lightning. And some massive cells developed just to the east of me, moving into west and south-west london, possibly the ones that disrupted the cricket at the oval. Even one or two heavy showers developed to the south as well in the early evening, so pretty much everything with lightning dodged me today and I didn't hear one crack of thunder. Why do storms love dodging my area? Happens summer after summer.

Yep, it'll be the cell that's just hit my area South Bucks. Have just had a torrential downpour here. The first ALL DAY. Now that has cheered me up.

SOUTH BUCKS MISSES OUT AGAIN. As per usual, storms always seem to dodge South Bucks. Have seen some huge cells develop East of me today, some dark clouds a bit over 1 hour ago to the south and this morning there were heavy showers to the north-west and north of me, the same now again, this cell that developed in oxfordshire is probably smashing west, north-west and north-bucks right now and I can see it's real dark and flat to the north-west and north. Funny how it seems to be avoiding us although there is ragged, darkish cloud overhead right now and the wind speed has picked up, there's no rain or thunder or lightning. And i predicted no storms for my area today. Metoffice wrong, me right, again.

QUESTION: Looking at radars, it seems nothing is likely for South Bucks, my area. Anyone got any other ideas?? As I've seen storm sells develop directly above me today move to the east towards West London, I've seen 1 or 2 shower clouds to the south 1 hour or so ago and now there's storms to the west and North west - saw a huge anvil about 30 minutes - 1 hour ago.

No surprise, if you check I think page 8 you will see some of the storm cells that could be the ones I've photographed from South Bucks, looking East so towards the outer west London area, therefore it's probably these 2 beasts that will be over you right now.

PICTURES - SOME GOOD CONVECTION TOWARDS WEST LONDON. Taken at 15:20 looking East from South Bucks towards outer West London area. Taken at 15:20 looking East from South Bucks towards outer West London area. With better Camera, about 30 minutes later. The 2 Congestus clouds, looking pretty positive with reasonably solid convection. Close up of one of the cells. Possibly a Cumolonimbus calvus forming.

ABSOLUTE MONSTER HEADING TOWARDS WEST LONDON FROM SOUTH BUCKS AREA. PICTURES WILL FOLLOW SHORTLY.

Cor haven't been on this site in ages, is it me though or the previous few "possible thunderstorm" days have been forecasted incorrectly by the metoffice, YET....AGAIN. I know forecasting is a hard job yadda yadda yadda but when Metoffice, consistently fail on their thunderstorm forecasts (and with their new "super computer" i've heard) then it's really quite tedious, this is what they said for today in my region (Bucks, South east near London). "Scattered thunderstorms with heavy downpours are likely this evening with some more prolonged and locally heavy rain during the night. A warm and quite muggy night with mostly light winds. Minimum temperature 12 °C." Ok one, there were no scattered thunderstorms at all this evening in the south east (I heard there was thundery rain that skimmed through Kent and into essex, suffolk earlier) and now they're talking about prolongued heavy rain, well I've checked the radar and it seems some is moving directly my way but I doubt it'll be particularly bad. Secondly, the forecast at the start of today was "isolated thunderstorms breaking out," obviously that wasn't the case and they predicted thunderstorms for last night and heavy thundery rain moving into the south-west which literally petered out the time it hit England shores. Sorry if i'm moaning or whatever but everytime Metoffice (who are supposed to be the best forecaster) predict thunderstorms, they never happen and it's getting really frustrating now, the moment I read there's gonna be storms, I get excited but it never happens and quite frankly it's not acceptable since this isn't a one off, it's around 80% of the time they get it wrong.

lol how??

Just wondering - how much do the BBC and Metoffice give falty forecasts, I mean - metoffice claim they're 87% right most of the time, well thats good but then again they're not, this year and especially over the last 2 weeks they've made so many blunders, like 2 weeks ago they predicted that heavy thundery mass of rain to come up from france and cause flooding, and nothing ever turned up like that, just a very week batch of light-moderate rain. They always predict thunderstorms as well and they never get this right, since i've seen no thunderstorms today on any of the radars.... It's just frustrating with the amount of errors they've made lately and im not whining or anything but also don't you guys think it's about time they upgraded the radar system, I mean when you go on www.spc.noaa.gov - the american storm prediction centre with the doppler radar etc, if you go on the live radar and look at all the detail on it, its just phenominal. oops did not mean to put the topic in here!?!? anyone know how I can delete this topic??