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here's yesterday's genius of the year: http://i.imgur.com/5HeWG2R.gifv

Good morning gang, So to say I got lucky last night was an understatement..It all started around 10pm when some cells on radar exploded to the west of London along a Convergence zone that set up. By roughly 10:30pm they turned electrical, and I mean they really fired up. At peak flashes ever 5-10 seconds with some amazing thunder. This cell continued to dump a load of rain and some spectacular lightning before filling in around 11:15pm.. Then, just as I head to bed I'm dosing of to sleep, I saw on radar further south and west a new cell had fired, although only short lived this cell was not elevated, unfortunately I didn't get much footage as I like to enjoy the storms, but my word the CG lightning lasted around 5-10 minutes before it collapsed.. Anyway, so I am laying in bed nearly a sleep huge flash of lightning instantly followed but the most tremendous crack of thunder it went right through me. So now I'm back up at the window and as I stick my head out the window a pair of forks come right down in front of me and the thunder well, I can only describe it as the whole of West London heard it and me being under it felt it shake my bones. This cell then died very quickly and I managed to catch some flashes off the cell over Basingstoke way.. All in all a night to remember with a show lasting well over an hour.. Some stills: Note all the different colours of lightning, was like a disco at one point!

"Dear the North of England, It's only been 24 hours but I must pass on a deeply heartfelt thanks for returning our weather - undamaged - in such a considerate and timely manner. I seem to remember it containing several electrical items when it was handed over to you yesterday - and unfortunately these appeared to be missing on receipt - but I'm prepared to overlook this as I hear it did leak somewhat when it reached you, so I guess that evens things out. Until next time - best regards, The South"

Mothership

I find it rather strange and fascinating that the weather has turned a whole 360 degrees since yesterday, and during such an active period! Shame that the events of the last 48 hours have been predominantly pulse-like in nature - which personally frustrates me as it always leads to a teasing chase but seeing all those forks dropping from that storm at Luton yesterday I'd still consider it the best storm so far this year. but gutted I continued to chase to Northampton only to find it had fizzled out but that's what was on the forecast as shear was negligible. Want to spend some time rooting through footage but have an important project to deliver this week so I'll post what I can in due time. Meanwhile I hear William talk of elevated Friday storms - potentially. Any further information on this?

High pressure trying to move back in during the 2nd half of next week on tonight's ECM

Did some timelapses earlier of the cloud-base as it passed over. The lightning literally died at the point of taking it so I'm not sure if what I was seeing was the chaos of the updraughts and downdraughts being forced together and choking the cell, but it was quite stunning to watch. Anyhow here's two screen grabs from the video (which I'll make available at a later time):

Still humid as anything around these parts........... evaporation over the allotments

Not a bad days chase, left Clee Hill around 2pm to chase towards the Wolverhampton/early Brum storm. Saw a couple of flashes, and heard a few rumbles but the darkness of the cloud impressed me more.

It was quite bad today in Brum.....

Let me get this very straight,my job entails working in conditions you would never ever be able to cope with,i have to be timed at certain sites entrance and exit due to health and safety,my working day is obviously so much more extreme than your comment stressed flower is way off the mark. I have to take salt solutions on 3 customers sites!! Suspect your job is very desk bound and not in anyway physical!

anyway, this little mushroom as seen from we Wales valleys... Of a shower between Newport and Usk

Banging headache,can't stop sneezing(even with tablets),wonder why summer is not my season. Very humid today more so than yesterday where i was,really can't wait for this crap to go. Does nobody any good at all if they have to work in it. Every single customer i've been to for the last 2 days has complained how uncomfortable it is so it's not just me being a old fart who bangs on about how he hates the heat!!

My current view east towards the band of rain over guilford way

That is a rather impressive radar signature, like a miniature hurricane.

Met office have done really well with todays forecast

Sorry for delay...the Gfs 6z op run ends on a very promising note with high pressure building in from the south and temperatures rising, if the run had gone further it would show temps into the 80's F with dry and sunny conditions. In the meantime, it looks like becoming progressively more unsettled later this week, through the weekend and all next week with bands of rain crossing the UK from west to east with sunshine and heavy thundery showers between. Speaking of showers, with a trough drifting SE early next week and becoming slow moving over the UK, it looks very showery next week with sunny spells and slow moving heavy showers / thunderstorms very likely and as for temps, less warm than currently but still pleasantly warm, at least across the southern half of the UK, especially the south and east. The trough slowly fills in situ but we remain changeable for a time before that big improvement towards the end of the run.

The line of showers can be clearly seen on satellite pictures. It is only a stones throw to the west of me (Stoke/Leek) so if it fires up I may go out with camera in hand once more. Currently editing yesterdays storm footage. You know you have seen a good one when there is no boring bits to edit out!

I do not think it is fully understood, but as far as I know and in real simple terms, lightning forms along a channel of partially ionized gas and as others have said, different factors affecting air (dust etc) around these will affect the shape and path of the lightning bolt, often causing forks (or 'stepped leaders') to propagate outwards to try find an easier route to Earth. With regards to the 'superbolt' (leading bolt) I believe this is just where the electric field and electrical discharge to Earth is greatest along the path of least resistance. Obviously your proximity and any barriers (e.g buildings, heavy rain or even cloud that can muffle thunder noise) to these leading bolts will determine how loud the explosions are.

Looking at the satellite/radar images from yesterday and having been sat under the storm that tracked across Bedford/Milton Keynes it appears very much like the storm was an MCS. This just goes to show that you can get organised severe thunderstorms without wind shear if there are enough of the other ingredients. CAPE values were very high yesterday. Today CAPE forecast is lower than yesterday, but still very reasonable. There is also the addition today of some 30knts of deep layer shear which is a new addition over what we have had on previous days. Working against this their is a stronger ridge in place again, much like there was over the weekend and on Monday. My take on this is that storms that do develop will be more isolated than those yesterday, and will probably not have the same level of intensity, but they will have more longevity than the storms over the weekend and on Monday. Most places will remain dry today but storms that do form will likely contain a lot of lightning, a lot of rain and will likely last some time before pulsing out. Met Office once again shows a small trough running from the far NW of England into CS England by early afternoon. Could be an interesting day for a few of us.

CG lightning.. Ashford last night.

Grinning like a cheshire cat at the moment, I couldn't have been better placed for the Derbys/Cheshire border storm. Right in the clear-slot but with lightning striking west occasionally within a mile. Some big booms thrown in for good measure.

Considering we're only 7 days into summer it would be easy to see why

The 6-10 anomalies tonight all showing a cut off upper low adjacent to the UK with mid Atlantic ridge but no unanimity on the precise position of the low so the orientation of the surface area of low pressure still a tad up in the air. So any reliable indications of the weather will need to be put on the back burner for a couple of days although one could take a punt on showery conditions with sunny intervals. Moving into the 10-15 period indications are the the upper low will decline fairly rapidly engendering a more westerly flow and with the Azores HP attempting to nudge in from the south west perhaps a north/south split

Most of us in this country are happy in 18C-20C in Summer clothing (some of us, myself included, are fine even in the low teens in Summer clothing). As you said, for most of the rest of the world, this is exceptionally cool for the time of year. They'd all be wearing jumpers and sweaters in such temperatures. So actually, perhaps we're the tough ones? Can I please request that you tone it down a little, your aggressive posts are becoming rather tiresome.

The Ecm 12z shows a ridge of high pressure building in across southern uk later next week bringing drier and sunnier weather after a spell of trough domination with a few bands of rain crossing from west to east from Friday onwards mixed with sunshine and heavy, thundery showers, as for temperatures, they look around average but feeling pleasantly warm in the sunny spells but some nights could be a bit on the cool side....so, certainly not a washout, we should see some dry and sunny weather too.

Well an exiting few hours in Birmingham....Lots of in the cloud flashes with some good overhead rumbles These days i tend to turn of the forum so my old computer can cope with the more important radar & Blitzy....plus it`s usually to much of a distraction away from what we all enjoy....a good overhead storm Really enjoyed just watching the cells develop and noticing all the surrounding aspects of the storm.... Like the freshness of the big raindrops and how come the Swifts always get it right Videoed the whole lot and took a 1 sec time lapse of the event.....Not the best method to attempt to catch a daytime strike ,,,,,but you never know?.... 3500 odd images and a couple of hours video to go... but one good image would justify the effort just got back on the radar and seen that the cells moving away to the NE Linconshire i presume ...just hope that it stops off at Leicester first

Not in your backyard...........................................

Looks impressive. little red dot me! JUST HOPE IT'S COMING MY WAY

GFS and UKMO both have the low at t144 at 1000mb the only thing to agree on is its position Whilst it won't be as warm as this week it would still be pleasant enough in any sunshine give the winds should be light

Not that i crave unsettled, even in form of storms. I'm firmly in the "Give me another Summer '76" camp!

Well it's Day 3 of this 'thundery spell' and we've seen only dry and sunny. Right now is the first time in this spell that threatening clouds have appeared. Will this eve see T&L and rain here?

Yes I agree, I posted 22 charts so it can't be bad, should be some fantastic skies next week as thunderstorms bubble up, a bit like yesterday with the local flash floods, the main difference being the temps but they still look decent for the time of year and warm in the sunny spells..would love a late June heatwave, a much longer lasting one than we had at the start of July last year.

Yes i agree and temperature wise the CET is already much higher than expected. I slight fall next week shown by GFS but things may turn out average so this may turn into a very warm June.

Yes Matthew, a fantastic end to the Gfs 6z run...it would be great if something similar to that happens beyond the unsettled mid month period.. fingers crossed for a very warm and settled late June lasting well into July!

Yep, I'm thinking that line will die off completely to be replaced with fresh cells popping up further S&W as CAPE and steering winds pull proceedings in that direction.

As I post this first rumbles being heard

Thankfully a bit more clearer and photogenic than yesterday.....Cell over the city shot up from nowhere. not many developing rain base`s though

Storm to the north me over central London, distant rumbles roughly every minute or so, though not as active as yesterdays storm that trundled north through south London with near constant thunder... Think it will miss me and pass west and I get some rainy dregs Looking north to central London.

Bit of convection here.

Yes it's better than I thought, especially later in low res. Anyway, gave the best update I could...cheers all.

To my untrained eye it doesn't look totally dreadful.. temperatures actually look respectable. Those above charts still showing 20C+ on some days. Might be unsettled, but doesn't look cold, and should feel warm in any sunshine (it's totally overcast here today so..).

Towering cumulus going up in tower (!) hamlets right now. Beautiful.

Yes, I have seen on some documentaries massive bolts that are many times brighter and wider than normal bolts right next to them - so big in fact they absolutely dwarf the normal CG bolts.. I believe this is a true occurrence but not much is known about it at this point in time and it is difficult to document as its very unpredictable. Kind of like how scientists never thought sprites existed until a short while ago. I think as time goes on more will be understood about these superbolts and hopefully more gets documented on them. Here we go. At 2:11 that is imo a superbolt.

Yellow Warning from Met Office for today: Warning: Scattered heavy, perhaps thundery, showers are expected to develop on Wednesday afternoon. Please be aware of the risk of localised flooding and lightning strikes. The showers will die out steadily through Wednesday evening. Chief Forecaster's Assessment: Whilst today's airmass is less unstable than the one which brought Tuesday's torrential downpours, there is still the likelihood of some heavy, thundery showers developing as temperatures rise this afternoon. Many places will miss these, but where showers do occur they are likely to be heavy and slow-moving, leading to surface water on roads and difficult driving conditions. Lightning may also be a hazard.

Mrs managed to capture this in Ashford last night.

Not a problem Frosty. The GFS this morning for the next ten days, A warm day today with some thundery outbreaks likely mainly confined to the Midlands and the NW before the arrival of the fronts from the west on Friday leading to a wet/dry scenario over the weekend. Next week is dominated by a slack area of low Pressure in situ over the UK with ridging mid Atlantic which looks ripe for outbreaks of thundery activity interspersed with some sunny intervals. Temps near the seasonal average.

Caught the sporadic lightning on my time-lapse

Just found out that there was a funnel cloud spotted today in Edinburgh. Obviously I didn't see it because I'm never that lucky but it's still pretty cool