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What a fantastic night we had in central southern England, and many other places too! I've never seen storms of that intensity or frequency in April before! Anyway I thought I would share some pictures from last night. Hopefully we won't have to wait for too long before the next event.

It says in your Logo "Amatuer Meteorologist and Storm Forecaster" Ben Any chance you could put a little effort into a forecast for the next convective event ? It's all too easy to bash others that give their opinions on here. Remember they are forecasting when conditions look favourable with what they have on the table from the models they look at and it did to them warrant a Moderate with 800-1000 MU Cape and an active front coming in from the west. Like I said hope to see you forecast the next chance of Thunder in the Uk and will look out for it and certainly WONT bash it if it goes wrong - Dan and Convective Weather like Torro and Nick here on Netweather do an amazing job and should be applauded IMHO

Good question, the maps with the symbols is a new concept I'm trying out for the Netweather forecasts, as is the areas depicted, for now only using the tornado symbol if I feel there is good confidence and likelihood of the type of storms that may produce one, confidence is low for this afternoon, so although not ruling out in the forecast, I think to put the symbol on the map would imply confidence of one forming - which there isn't. To echo Paul's post above, really don't understand the bashing the UK convective forecasts get, forecasting thunderstorms with any detail to where storms will form and where they will affect with any accuracy is inherently difficult - especially the UK, so we rely on models and a little recent obs data, such as radiosonde ascents and station data upstream of areas where storms may form to work out the forecasts, but models can often be out, even at short-range with simulating convection. Often a convective forecast issued in advance will tend have errors in reality to mapping where storms are most likely, but that is unfortunately often a downside for those who produce them, but the forecasts can give a general idea of where storms are most likely and whether they will be isolated, likely, strong or even severe - given parameters shown by models and obs.

Quite a nice morning, at present anyway, thin sunshine, St and Cs overhead, temp 12C and no wind. Yesterday turned out better than expected. I had intended to walk round Loch Freuchie but had to turn back due to foot pain - I bruised three toes after toppling off a standing on one leg thingy at my yoga class last week. Tootled around Perthshire thereafter. The weather improved and the temp reached 18C eventually but briefly. A couple of Perthshire pics: Loch Freuchie The Nevis Range from Rannoch Station

What an amazing night. I bagged 3 thunderstorms, 4 if I count a very distant one. First one was a small one just off the M1 near to Coalville, second just outside central London and the third, by far the best for lightning and thunder, near to Reading. I then saw distant flashes from a cell near Luton about an hour ago. Incidentally the dissipating anvil from that is visible from where I am in Milton Keynes. The best April storms I have ever witnessed by a long way.

Temps going below normal again soon,looks like this warm spell was a blip. A real nose dive The weather is and always will be variable, we live in an island with 4,000 miles or so of ocean upwind. Getting deep cold or intense heat for lengthy spells is not something that occurs with much frequency in the UK. My favourite guides to what may happen suggest that any heat is not being predicted over the next 2 weeks other than the odd day for more SE'ern areas. As to is this a predict for the summer=certainly not, much as the pattern, some suggested was locked in, during early winter, and we all know how the latter end of winter and early spring turned out.

That was a pretty intense storm that tracked across East Anglia. The hail core scored a bullseye on my mothers village of Redgrave.

Lightning over the IOw

From the storm that kicked off at 2am

Didn't get much luck here, just views from passing storms. Not bad for early on in the season though.

My post regarding the storm potential for the last few days is found here: Because of other commitments I hadn't had the time to update on the potential, until Saturday morning when I was freed of my A-Level work. To be clear, I haven't actually bashed any forecaster I continually go on about the uncertainty and the challenging nature of forecasting storms are what inspire me of these top forecasters regarding Dan, Nick and so on. The only point I ever made was regarding ConvectiveWeather's post after having updated the MDT area to cover where I live, after we had finished with all our storm activity. I regularly applaud those who put in the hard work and this is an example of me saying thanks towards CW. And finally, that chart which you originally quoted me in was away of condensing various forecasters and simplifying it for those struggling to understand what areas would receive what storms at whatever time. No hard feelings.

Much cooler than yesterday but dry and bright most of day as the rain stayed away! Good progress in the garden which was looking shocking after shamefully being ignored all last spring/summer. Due a beer and although it's only 10c I'll be having it outside

At least the forecast for storms breaking out across E England this afternoon has generally gone to plan

No thats Borough Market your thinking of Lass, Greenwich is about 10/15 mins further east along the Thames. Heres some pics of the museums, the dome, Royal Observatory and Greenwich park, and finally the Cutty Sark. Turned out lovely today, east is best, been out sunbathing this morning with my cups of sweet tea after cutting the lawns yesterday. 24c.

Been stuck in the middle looking east. Now I'm looking west.

Yh after looking back at posts can see you defending the forecasters so sorry for the dig. I just hope most people on here appreciate the time and effort these guys go to for us and the general public No hard feelings at all. Just as an aside note, last night after meeting up with Peter Scott to shoot some lightning he mentioned he had spoken to Dan earlier in the day (Saturday) and Dan had stated there was the possibility of a Storm that could become a Supercell over East Anglia on Sunday. Absolutely spot on to him as I dont know how many of you know that today saw that rare visitor to our shores. A storm initiated around 4pm near Saffron Walden and tracked up to Bury St Edmonds where it became Surface based, it then turned right from the deviant flow and produced a left split storm (Splitting is indicitive of a highly Sheared Storm/Supercell) this storm after looking at a sounding actually utilised locally 2000jkg of Surface based cape and produced hail upto 1cm in diameter. What an amazing few days

Beautiful weekend. First drunken Friday evening in the garden of the year. Hopefully the first of many.

I've heard of saving water, but thats some dedication

Butser Hill

Went to sleep with distant lightning flashing around (storm over Moffat/Ettrick) and was woken by two very short intense downpours, but nothing of that description here Catch. Smirry rain!?

Please do not adjust your sets, normal service is about to resume.... Pretty wet outlook unless you fancy floating around in the English Channel

No rain at all here in Darlo missed the lot of it The MDT zone was pretty accurate further south

What a fantastic night my word! Some of the lightning lit up my whole room while we were watching it! Torrential rain and strong winds fantastic so early in the year. Now woken up to Crystal clear skies and sunshine absolutely classic summer night time storms

THUNDER finally

Wow, been out chasing the last few hours and just got back, honestly haven't seen anything like that before. After catching the original storm here at around 7ish, I then headed to Hayling Island to the sea front to see the storms that were a bit further east heading towards the mainland. Had a great light show out to sea with a few close strikes virtually overhead too. Then started heading back to Southampton after seeing there was more lightning activity headed for here. Plan was to get to Weston Shore but on getting into Southampton the heavens just opened and I've never seen such torrential rain, even in Florida. The roads were literally becoming rivers and several cars had got stranded in the floodwater, fire engines racing to the rescue, alarms going off, all while the lightning was flickering away overhead. Did get some video on my phone which I will try and upload at some point. Best storm for years even beating the overnight plume in July last year. Can't believe it's only April, tonight was a real treat but I hope everyone has stayed safe.

That cell was intense, drove right through the core on the A3.constant lightning and very heavy rain. At its worst visibility was down to about 25m, so very dangerous driving conditions but a cool experience all the same.

Effectively, yes, strong upper winds are important in sustaining and organising storms, not just deep layer shear, strong DLS is required for bowing-line segments and supercell structures that produce large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes though. At least I have a stronger pulse heading towards me in Croydon, flashing away to my southwest though can't hear the thunder quite yet.

Reporting in from South Coast of England Pagham bognor and got one hell of a beauty of a storm ongoing

They are saying on another forum that we've to get more snow and below zero temps next week. Please god somebody tell me it's not true. I love snow but not all bloody year

Seeing Greenwich Royal Naval college brought back memories. Went to a ball there mid 1970's. My brother was a serving officer based there for a while. One of the most memorable "posh" events I have been to. Food incredible, lots of different venues for dancing. Only time I have had to wear a stiff white wing collar and was stuffed into my penguin suit with tails. My wife and I looked the business . She still does. I of course still dress for dinner. Tee shirt and shorts with my gut hanging over my belt. Well the last bit was a lie possibly. Crap getting old.

The cat not interested? Anyway, it's 23C, W2W (with the exception of a few burgeoning cumuli) and with a very humid SW breeze...I wonder if it'll go bang like it did in SE London, in April 2011?

didn't get any last night

That isn't strictly true because yes those revised warnings were too late for the early evening storms but some of those same areas then had further severe, quickly developing conditions after midnight.

Constant horrible drizzle here, the kind of rain that's really wet !

I found it interesting to observe that last night’s storms seemed to fit into the category of ‘pulse thunderstorms’ - where within mere minutes cells would out of nowhere become like mature summer storms and last for anything up to half an hour, but then they would almost just stop completely - like someone pulled the plug. I guess that’s what you get when you try and do your MCS storm out-of-season

The storms fizzled out before reaching my location here in East Anglia. Shown nicely in this sequence from Blitzortung tweeted by Dan Holley: Hopefully better luck for East Anglia this afternoon. Arome showing some instability in the atmosphere as the cold front approaches this afternoon, so in with a small chance.

Some of us did really well last night others not so the surface based storms further north that were due to fire got scuppered by that area of rain and cloud associated with the first thunderstorms yesterday morning I think. But then by the evening the monsters that moved north really put a light show on for us down south. Better still and a rare event is there is no crud left over this morning and it's back to clear skies and glorious sunshine

Agreed - has a feel of 1976 to it already

Still some good altocumulus castellanus formations here

Here's an overview of all the lightning strikes during our thundery period over the last 36 hours. We have totaled almost 12,000 strikes! I really didn't expect too much from where I am in Bristol, but boy was I wrong can say I've used all my luck on this one; the loudest thunder I have EVER heard! As a whole CS England done extremely well, whereas North Midlands/NW England unfortunately have done poorly compared to what could have happened. It's quite interesting to note also, that it is incredible to witness such strong elevated storms this early in the season. Whilst elevated storms aren't affected by SST's, generally earlier in the season they cannot prolong their intensity. The last 36 hours couldn't have been more different, as a result of the favourable conditions above the boundary layer. Can only be a good sign for the future... right?

Whole house just shook

Well that was the most intense storm I have ever seen. Like a really intense squall but lasted about an hour. Quite frankly I hope that's it for tonight because I was enjoying walking on the grass for a day or two before that lot.

WOW! Best storm I've ever experienced in my life, I live right in the center of the red zone and we've been getting back to back flashes, with full forks. The wind was pretty strong as well! Two storms in one day, the first was just a taste and then this one came along and left me speechless.

I live mid way between Portsmouth and Southampton and I think our house must have been under the main path of the storms this evening! I don't remember the last time I remember seeing so many lightning flashes over such a long period of time. I think when the last big storm rolled through just now for a period of 15-20 minutes there was a lightning flash every 3-4 seconds. The rain was absolutely torrential as well and you could hear it hammering on the roof wherever you were in the house. After last months snow, this week's warmth and tonight's light show 2018 is proving to be one of the more interesting weather years so far

Another glorious dry day though the temperature continues to get cooler - max today of "only" 16C, generally clear blue skies and a light to moderate SW wind. The march to summer continues, can tick off the appearance of the first bat flying around this evening - the swallows and house martins should be here in the next week or two. Farmers around us making the most of the weather with plenty sowing of seed. There has been some merging of fields round here which in turn creates some desolate looking landscapes. Not good for wildlife but makes perfect sense economically. Apologies to Hairy Celt again but got to show couple more daffodil photos. There is an old ruined croft (derelict at least 50 years) near us and the track leading up to it is lined with these double green/yellow daffodils - a heritage variety I suspect as I would bet on them being originally planted early last century (can see same type in the grounds of Dunecht Estate).

My contribution to this evening.

first video