South East - Severe Thunderstorms Of 02-03 July 2009

[Neilsouth]

By late afternoon apart from being hazy and hot up to 30c there was still no sign of any storms in this part of kent with no visible instability in the sky. By Mid evening Storms started to develop over Calais and move north , north west towards the south east but by the time they got to mid channel they decayed rapidly. For our part of kent a stream of altocumulus filtered in from the south and the humidity increased. Although there was now signs of instability in the sky it did not look like the storms could make it across the channel as they decayed well before the south east coast.. This was about to change!

As a low pressure system traveled across northern France , storms exploded across northern France from Le Havre to Calais. This low pressure system started to swing it's storms towards the south east from the south and south east with no signs of decay!. For here the sky became increasingly cloudy with altocumulus and turreted altocumulus this gave the sky an eery orange haze.

By late evening the storms across northern France had blossomed into two MCS systems with increasing intensity. Although i had checked outside nothing in the sky had changed and it was hard to make out anything from the south as it was still hazy.

During the night 11.00pm onwards i checked outside and could see visible flashing to the south/south east which slowly increased in intensity, this was the sign of things to come. As time passed the first outline of the storms could be seen with the flashing , huge cumulus towers spreading upwards. To one side i could still make out the moon which was a lovely orange colour :lol:

By midnight i could make out a huge atom bomb style cloud and the first cg's , bright orange cloud to ground strikes and also the first good thunder rumbling to the south. This is the strange thing there was no wind it was really calm , you could also make out the sounds of sheep baaaaah from the distant fields. Almost as if the sheep knew something big was coming!

In the early hours the storm hit , lightning flashing to my east huge forks nearby , lightning crawling across the sky but i heard this roar.. I couldn't understand what this roar was , yes there was a slight gust but it wasn't until the first big drops came down i knew what it was. Suddenly the rain became more and more intense , the distant fields vanished , the motorway vanished and the rain kept on coming down. The roar hit , i now knew what it was , Intense rainfall. Rainfall that i haven't experienced to my knowledge so far in my life time. The tree in front of me became a haze , the roar of the rain was so intense it was difficult to make out objects. The lightning struck with such intensity that lights flickered , car and house alarms went off it was like something out of the day after tomorrow. The rain still came down , suddenly there was a gust of wind and it gave me images of being in a hurricane only due to the intensity of the rain not the winds

As the rain died down the lightning ended up to my north east with more flashing to my east , the storm had passed. It left a rather large flood of water in my back garden and i could make out either police or fire engines rushing up the motorway probably to something serious. I tried to stay up during the early hours with more lightning overhead and then to my south but alas i couldn't . however we didn't get that rainfall rate even with new storms overhead. I had checked the sat and radar throughout the night , the storms came from two huge mcs systems one from le havre and the other from calais. These were no small mcs but two large menacing beasts from france :lol:

What a night , one i'll never forget!

[Neilsouth]

Glad to hear you had a great time last night :lol: Such a shame you couldn't record, would've be good to look back on but still at least you'll remember it.

Yeh i wanted to buy a new camcorder but i've just spent £1000 on a new car . My camcorder keeps damaging tapes and the sony usb streamer for this camcorder only works with XP , oh well i'm sure ill remember this though :lol:

Sat pics and radar

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/N...s/Weather/2.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/N...s/Weather/3.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/N...s/Weather/4.jpg

^ As they are copyright , only direct link allowed.

Edited July 3, 2009 by neilsouth

[Methuselah]

Thanks for that account, Neil. It reminds me of when I was in Tunbridge Wells in 1969. Classic Kent storms, eh?

[Neilsouth]

Yeh , just wished i had a decent hd camcorder

[maidstone weather]

I just wish it came here! yet again another night when all i saw was distant sheet lightning and distant rumbles - if it was daytime I wouldn't've seen it at all due to it's distance away from me!

Glad you had a good storm though Neil (again!) :lol:

Edited July 3, 2009 by maidstone weather

[Neilsouth]

maidstone weather , i did ask this before but i'm not sure if you replied..

1) Do you drive?

2) If not do you know anyone else into storms that does?

3) You will get a great storm one day

[maidstone weather]

maidstone weather , i did ask this before but i'm not sure if you replied..

1) Do you drive?

2) If not do you know anyone else into storms that does?

3) You will get a great storm one day :o

yeah i do drive, but at 2am in the morning, when i woke up at 6am the day before, i wasn't going to drive

if it came in the evening then I might've done, and fingers crossed that some day! I can't believe I sat in the gap, or the crack ( :o ) whilst others to my east and west got a good show! It always happens in this part of Kent and I can't understand why! :o

[maidstone weather]

just wanted to clarify, this chart really sums up last night! :o

Edited July 3, 2009 by maidstone weather

[MR EXTREMES]

very dissapointed all that heat and we got nothing in way of storms here in southern england.

infact ive seen only 1 lightening flash this year so far.

[Harry]

Thanks for the account Neil!!

Shame though like MW, I ended up in the gap/crack/void, but nevertheless I did experience one of the most relaxing and 'at one with nature' moments lol!

I went over the golf course, laid on the ground (which was dry haha!!), watched the rustic moon slowly disappear behind Acas clouds and eventually thicker clouds from the south, watched the stars, watched the clear sky frequently flashing blue and reflecting down onto the ground (sometimes far brighter than expected), crickets chirping around you, moths fluttering overhead....

Normally with these humid, import situations the cloud very quickly fills in from either anvil, thick haze, Ac, however last night the sky for a long time was crystal clear. I was very surprising how far away I could see the lightning - I started seeing flashes before the storms even made landfall, well over 60 miles away!!

[WindWatcher]

very dissapointed all that heat and we got nothing in way of storms here in southern england.

infact ive seen only 1 lightening flash this year so far.

Are you sure?

I set off from Southampton at about 11.30pm, travelling East along the M27 then A27, I watched the lightning out to sea over Portsmouth as I came down Portswood Hill. Then I spent awhile on Hayling Island watching the lightning, but couldn't get any decent shots, so I decided to head along to Worthing, unfortunately by that stage, as it made land fall, it was loosing electrical activity but I did see some very bright CG lightning and overhead thunder. It was really nice sat in one of the shelters on Worthing seafront watching the cloud and torrential rain pile in.

The drive back around 3.30am was interesting to say the least, the roads were totally flooded and I nearly lost control after aquaplaning a couple of times. Visibility was dreadful with torrential rain/small hail and a fog from the hot roads that rose about 6' from the ground and was really thick in places.

Awesome night, I just wish it hadn't lost intensity as it came ashore.

Steve

[UKSupercell]

I eventually had a very brief thunderstorm last night, it put a smile on my face since I wasted 3 hours from 11:30-2:30 on net-weather and all the other sites with radars and lightning detectors, just hoping the huge storms wouldn't dissipate like usual.....but they did.

It was around 3:15 AM I was on here and I heard it started raining, then it started raining a bit heavier, around moderate intensity, then I had a big rumble of thunder and actually thought maybe I was in for a treat. Went over to the window, looked up into the sky, waited around a minute and a kind of multiple flash happened right above my head and thunder followed about 3 seconds later.

I then came back on here and heard another loud rumble so possibly another flash of lightning I missed, so I went back over to the window and waited 2-3 minutes and was thinking "ah screw this" and a huge bolt struck right in front of me just to the west it was cloud-cloud lightning and the bolt was very long, was pretty impressive.

Anyway, that was all Mother nature had to offer and the rain wasn't very heavy either, but at least I got to see 2 lightning strikes in the end, still, it doesn't damn well make up for wasting 3 hours last night and getting no sleep.

Motto of the story - When there's french imports crossing the channel at around midnight with a predicted arrival time of 2-3am, go to bed for a few hours cos when you get up you may well be going straight back to bed.

[Joey.G]

Are you sure?

I set off from Southampton at about 11.30pm, travelling East along the M27 then A27, I watched the lightning out to sea over Portsmouth as I came down Portswood Hill. Then I spent awhile on Hayling Island watching the lightning, but couldn't get any decent shots, so I decided to head along to Worthing, unfortunately by that stage, as it made land fall, it was loosing electrical activity but I did see some very bright CG lightning and overhead thunder. It was really nice sat in one of the shelters on Worthing seafront watching the cloud and torrential rain pile in.

The drive back around 3.30am was interesting to say the least, the roads were totally flooded and I nearly lost control after aquaplaning a couple of times. Visibility was dreadful with torrential rain/small hail and a fog from the hot roads that rose about 6' from the ground and was really thick in places.

Awesome night, I just wish it hadn't lost intensity as it came ashore.

Steve

I decided it was worth a shot driving from Stroud in Gloucestershire when I saw the radar at about 11.30pm, by the time I got to Worthing there was only rain and the fog from the roads left :lol: So I drove home

[Harry]

I forgot to mention earlier too that the smell of strawberries last night was insane!!

I decided it was worth a shot driving from Stroud in Gloucestershire when I saw the radar at about 11.30pm, by the time I got to Worthing there was only rain and the fog from the roads left So I drove home

:lol: Sod that for a game of soldiers - that's why I very seldom drive off to find them - the weather is so variable here I dont bother taking the risks! Mind you living in the SE, with the imports coming straight at you, you often half think to yourself there is no point in going anywhere, lol

[Joey.G]

I forgot to mention earlier too that the smell of strawberries last night was insane!!

:lol: Sod that for a game of soldiers - that's why I very seldom drive off to find them - the weather is so variable here I dont bother taking the risks! Mind you living in the SE, with the imports coming straight at you, you often half think to yourself there is no point in going anywhere, lol

Yeah I know what you mean, this forum and NWradar are new to me and ive been gettin a bit overexcited this past week. Been all over the country and seen virtually nothing. I wondered why so many people sit at home and complain when a storm misses them when they could go to it! Now I think im starting to get it...

Still, ive gotta try if I think of last night as 'almost there!' its not so bad, sounds like it was epic in some lucky corners of the country (Neil!)

[chrisbell-nottheweatherman]

I thought I heard a faint rumble just after midnight but must have been imagining it. Was awoken around 4 am by thunder - apparently I missed one rumble, then heard the next a minute or two later. A faint rumble or two followed; it seemed to be over, then, after another couple of minutes, a huge flash and almost immediate crash of very loud but short-lived thunder! I haven't been scared of storms to any great extent for years, but still my parents wake up when we get storms at night, as I always asked them to sit with me when I was a kid. Anyway, a few more flickers and bangs, some heavy rain, and that was that. Don and dusted by about 20 to 5.

[*AL*]

Sounds superb for all you guys that had a storm, still nothing here in Swindon totally gutting as this heat now slips away.

[Marcus_surfer]

No pictures?

[Neilsouth]

No pictures?

Fraid not though i'm sure someone did , the location wasn't very good and when the big strikes came near the rain was so intense you could not have held a camera :lol:

[dogs32]

No pictures?

iM VERY Surprised myself that Neil loves taking pics and hasnt bothered to try to capture any..

shame really would of been nice

[Neilsouth]

Read what i wrote , it wasn't that i hadn't bothered...

[tinybill]

reg last night storm

--------------------

at about 1,50 am last night in the middle of the storm we were both half asleep there was a sound like a plane engine and plane was coming down on top of the house we both shot down stairs ready for a bang lucky for us a street near us was hit throwing people out of bed, causing damage by a lighting hit

[Neilsouth]

wow , interesting story tinybill

[BarnetBlizzard]

Did london get any storms last night as i was asleep?. This morning when i woke up there were puddles, so it had obviously rained but im not about thunder and lightning.

[Harry]

Did london get any storms last night as i was asleep?. This morning when i woke up there were puddles, so it had obviously rained but im not about thunder and lightning.

They did at Wimbledon apparently - people queueing for tickets got clobbered by a thunderstorm in the early hours, lol