UKSupercell

I'm holding off on driving north atm actually. Monitoring the Cambridge cell and atm it doesn't look like it's particularly intensifying. NW Wales is having a light show but that's far too far for me to reach from South Bucks now.

Think I can see that to my north, here in south Bucks. It's HUGE!!!!! Explosive convection. Right, as always, lastminute.com - I'm setting off for Cannock in a minute. We'll see what happens.

Cheers

Fair play. Sounds like a good shout to me.

Where are you at pres? I've been sorting things out at home but may jump in the car in 30 mins or so. What are things looking like?

So where does everyone think is a good place to head to for these potential severe storms? I am in south Bucks at present only 5 mins from the M40 and randomly picked a small town called Church Stretton between Ludlow and Shrewsbury on the English-Welsh border. Would take about 2hr30. Alternatively I could reach Cannock in 2hrs but it seems the direction of thunderstorms is currently NW rather than NE...?

Got some indoor cheapo hygrometer and decided to put it outside for an hour. Currently 19.5C in rural south Bucks with humidity 79%.

Ain't been on this thread for a few hours, but refreshed to see this. It's like this year on year mate. I have some weather book which claims the SE has the highest thunderstorm activity in the UK. Yeah....utter b*llocks! Maybe the Kent east coast on a good summer, but otherwise, I've been saying for years that the best place to be for homegrown thunderstorms is the midlands up into Lincolnshire.

So browsing twitter and various other websites just now, the general jist of things for tomorrow's action seems to be West Mids, E and N Wales? It is a little tempting to get in the car and head to Church Stretton, Shropshire. It's a place I've just randomly picked out on the map. To me that looks fairly central to the warning area, unless anyone's got any other suggestions?

170bhp on a 2.0 passat, I bet that goes like the clappers! Solid car. We used to have two Ford Rangers at work. First one (08 plate) good as gold, had kickass acceleration and was decent off-road with BFG A/Ts on. Second one (13 plate) was sodding useless. Crap off-road, no oomph accelerating, dodgy gear-stick and it developed some "limp mode" fault meaning occasionally (quite often sometimes) it would go into limp mode and you could only do 50mph max (until you turned ignition off which isn't ideal at high speed on a motorway.) Took it to a Ford garage and I don't think they ever fixed it. Sumin to do with turbo perhaps. Maybe we just got a dud with that one! Current work truck is now a Mitsubishi L200. Pretty solid so far, and decent off-road.

Do you have a Scenic m8? Ha just messing, the Scenic is a solid vehicle, I'm sure it gets a family of five to the South of France and back and the kids to footie on a regular basis! Put some mud tyres on it perhaps ha ha I'll tell my Mum that!

Yeah, that's what I thought, I'm hoping so anyway. True, although for once I have nothing planned and am looking forward to just sitting out back with a book and chilling out. The M3 is 30 mins south but unfortunately my motor (which is a 200bhp 4x4 Jeep with A/T tyres that goes like the clappers) is in the local garage to be serviced on Tues, so Mum has insured me on her pansy Renault Scenic for the next few days!!!! It's a comfortable drive but let's just say the Jeep is better suited to chasing!

Hello all, hope everyone is doing alright! Question for the experts on here: So I've moved from Bucks to East Hants, but I'm back in South Bucks house-sitting and looking after the parent's old cat while they're away all week, am I right in saying I'd be better placed towards Portsmouth for some French imports, and better placed back up here in Bucks for some potential homegrown storms over the next week?! Fingers crossed for the storm drought in Bucks (probably since late July 2019) to come to an end this week, as things look fairly positive! What do you guys think?

Stunning! That looks supercellular, right?

July 23rd last year was memorable. I made the one hour trip down from work to the New Forest and watched the storm from a car park in the heathland, somewhere near Lyndhurst or Brockenhurst, I forget. The lighting was phenomenal, all directions, every second. It was breath-taking. Anyway, I haven't posted on here in about a year, hope everyone is keeping well, what with the current crisis and the idiots at the beach! Moved from south Bucks to near Petersfield start of the year, so the coast is even closer! Not sure whether East Hants does better than the Chilterns for summer storms, but it can't do much worse! Fingers crossed for tonight.

Just east of ringwood in new forest just stopped side of road with loads of others crazy lightning multiple flashes a second got fair bit on camera this is bloody mental!

Still in Christchurch don’t know whether to head west to Taunton way or east to Brighton way!

Near Christchurch Dorset atm still in the pub. Thinking I should stick around here for a while before moving. Then do I go West to Purbeck area or East to Ports, Chichester etc....?

Having a late dinner near Christchurch Dorset in New Forest. First proper chase I’ve done in a couple years I think. Fingers bloody crossed. May well head west and to the coast after this. A lot of patience and waiting involved!

Thinking of heading down to Hants, Dorset, Wilts pos further west after work, as hear that’s in firing line most? Suggestions anyone?

Just finished reading the old thread. I was tracking the radar, lightning maps and a variety of forecasting models last night, while intensely browsing the previous discussion, camera and tripod at the ready in the spare room looking over the fields to the south/east (London way) but I just had an inkling the storm was gonna be a Kent clipper after a while, around say 10PM. I woke up about 1AM and looked at the radar which pretty much clarified this. Hats off to you though mate, driving all the way from Derby to the south coast. Was it Hastings you said you ended up eventually? Glad you got to see some lightning. Fingers crossed the UK will see less disappointment when it comes to French imports (and thunderstorms in general) over July and August. Onwards and upwards!

Ah, I remember that one, mental strike rate! I never saw it but I remember staying up and feeling envious at the lucky sods south and west of the New Forest!

It was hitting 140 strikes per min and it lost intensity in this regard and was peaking at 115 per min for a while and now hovering around 85 per min. I've seen French imports that have usually hit Kent only over the years that have had 3, 400 strikes per min at some points. Oh down to 65 strikes per min now. What's happening?!

If I were you mate I'd personally go to Brighton/Eastbourne. Can't miss the lightning if you're there, surely. Doesn't look like the most intense stuff will head west of there, and perhaps it will shift more north-easterly across the channel and steer more towards Kent, but I think those two spots on the coast are a good bet. Just my opinion.

Was just thinking this. Seen far too often an area of heavy thundery rain move northerly or even north-westerly and the actual more intense cells shift north-easterly to hit east of London (in other words usually just hit Kent.)