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130 photos taken this evening. Have attached the ones I consider decent enough to share. Apologies for some of the scratches and marks on the pictures; my camera body needs a damn good clean. The last one is my personal favourite.

Well what a night for me!!!! Lol. So glad I made that trip down from Wrexham to see that storm. It was absolutely AWESOME! My hubby loved it too. I went out at the beginning of the storm and was running up and down the southern perimeter of Heathrow filming it then the rain came. So I dashed under the cover of the hotels underground parking and filmed it from there. Amazing. Watching 3 storms to the left, right and centre banging out constant lightning and constant rumbles of thunder. My little boy missed the first hour but when I went back to the room he woke up and was terrified. So I took him to the window and BOOM a massive fork across the sky and he shouted “WOWWWWW mummy that was AWESOME!!” So off outside we all went again and spent another hour watching it. He is now not afraid of storms and wanting more today Hahahaha. Just fabulous (not that you can tell ;-)) Haven’t watched the video properly yet. This is the only still I have that will let me post on here due to file size.

Cracking storm around Birmingham earlier this morning

Going to get slammed here soon

Got this bad boy! Now going to start heading back up, and potentially intercept that potent one thats fired up over Clacton heading towards Cambs. What a night this is turning out to be!!

One from Crawley last night....couldn't position myself as i was on duty...

I managed this shot from last night's storms here in Bexhill

video capture from this morning......this CG was the loudest of the morning and looks to have come down Sandwell way

Wow some really impressive storms tonight, and they have effected a wide area! I went down to my usual spot and captured a few shots Good luck to anyone who is hoping for a storm tonight, and if not I'm sure there will be other opportunities in the day's to come!

Text book convection visible from my location - CBs detonated to my NW (London way) and SE (near continent)

Am I right and this is an anvil? Anything going to come from it?

Yep, like the rest of you I see the ECM as pretty much a repeat of the current situation start to finish. Is any one else viewing these charts with a sense of disbelief? Just what the monkeys has happened to the Atlantic? When will it come back? Is it ever coming back? This also feels like the beast from the east but in reverse. In winter, we were looking for injections of cold from the north east to get deep cold in. Now, we're looking for injections of warmth from the south into the pattern to get deep heat in. I know I've said it a few times recently but I'll say it again because it sounds exciting for heat lovers - I don't think we are that far away from such a scenario, and it will take a much smaller model shift to bring genuine heat into things than it will to get rid of the pattern. Bearing in mind, we are now at a stage where the continent can generate its own heat so long as Atlantic / Arctic influences stay away.

Been on the Ouja Board again?

I have a lot of footage to edit and the plan is to spend tomorrow doing that, but I could not resist having a peek to see if one particular CG was caught on camera. I was pleased to see it was

If we discount the ukmo 144 chart then the warm spell looks good to go for another 7 days minimum. I wonder if the massive strat warming event in Feb really has thrown the atmosphere into chaos,probably one for the experts but the UK weather since late Feb has been more continental then maritime , i'm loving it

The thunderstorms NW of London look amazing from here. Gorgeous Cb! Storms firing other side of the channel firing - hoping they drift this way

ECM 12z, picking up the story at T168: How quickly is this high going to make it over the UK with no jet to drive it? next frame, T192: Steady small steps, (I'm commenting on this as it comes out, await the T216!) Didn't I see this somewhere before this evening? ECM T240:

Can see the Midlands storms from Oxfordshire

Beast

No surprises here; ECM ensembles more keen on keeping the MJO in an active, propagating state, which does lend itself to the better retention of HP across the UK in the 8-10 day period - albeit only weakly so. Longer-term, we need the ensembles venturing into phases 6-7 to be sniffing out the right trend, as this will set up the forcing needed to help keep HP where we'd like it during mid-late June and beyond. We continue to straddle the line between 2006 and 2007 in terms of similarities to the overall state of climatic forcing. The difference between a fantastic summer and a tragic one!

Sorry i did not get back to those who asked where I was last night. I left my phone in the car as I filmed lightning coming in from the SE towards the Isle of Wight as I was situated just east of Bournemouth and just west of IOW in a place called Milford on Sea. Lots of lightning but the storm actually missed me to the east by a couple of miles. Still got lots of strobe lightning a and a few bolts from it with moderate thunder. I then went in to full chase mode and chased it towards Salisbury but the lack of major fast route put pay to me catching it up before it died. My attention was now on the SE and London where storms had really kicked off and were pushing NW. I headed north towards my home land in the hope of intercepting them, which I eventually did around 100 miles north in and around Coventry/Warwick. These storms were pulsing up and down along a line pushing NW. At times there were frequent flashes, lots of IC bolts and some lovely close CG's. There was also torrential rain and hail which was awesome to drive through on the M69 when accompanied by bright flashes of lightning. I eventually stopped off at Leicester Forest East services where I filmed the storms moving away, but not before I got a close CG bolt on camera with ground shaking thunder. I have hours of footage to edit. However I will not be editing today as today offers more opportunity for chasing! I hope most of you got somewhat of a storm fix last night but if not then we do it all again today, but maybe in slightly different places. I am hoping my home may get something as it remained totally dry here last night. To be honest though I think the main risk is just to my south and west. Even so, no need for me to drive hundreds of miles today... 20 to 30 miles into the Midlands should do it.

For here at least this is turning into one of the best periods of weather for quite a few years. The temperature is not breaking records (max of 21C), it's the longevity of the dry weather that is striking (now 2 weeks since any noticeable rain) and the bountiful sunshine (bar the odd day when the haar has been stubborn). End result is everything is looking wonderfully verdant... And the garden is responding well - poppies best for many years... Though not a good year for Rhubarb as it's bolting like mad. Left this one though for the kids to wonder at, flowers are impressive!

Thought I'd share this, the the CAPE (energy in the atmosphere for convection), animated over the next 48 hours, as it's quite cool capevideo.mp4

ECM has UKMO's upper low across the UK at +144, but it's so weak that it only serves to trigger heavy downpours / thunderstorms rather than it bringing a spell of persistent rain. Enough sun still gets through to lift temps widely into the low-mid-20s. Every chance that low will end up staying to the west anyway as per GFS; for some mysterious reason, the models on our side of the pond have been underestimating the Scandinavian ridging time and time again in recent months. It wasn't that way in times past; GFS has the long record of Scandinavian mishaps - but the game seems to have changed drastically! The way the ridge keeps on coming back in the GFS 12z run is something to behold.

Ditto the GEFS 12z mean..the summery pattern does look like extending well into early june, perhaps nearer to mid june!..hope it goes on and on..and on!?️

Signs of very warm tropical maritime air circulating around the high next weekend. Cloud cover will be the only thing standing in the way of high 20s temps in SE or CS England if that happens (former if NW wind, latter if N or NE wind). Some of my highest maximums have occurred with a N wind. The way those ridges keep drifting back east after only a small venture west does bring to mind some of the legendary summers of past; it's the prime way to achieve an unusually dry summer with frequent warm to very warm, sometimes hot spells of weather. The ridges are perhaps a bit further north than usual on this occasion though. Indeed I wonder if the low Arctic sea ice is altering the pattern in favour of higher heights over Scandinavia than we'd otherwise be seeing. The MJO versus residual La Nina battle really is the critical factor this year as to whether we see the gently swaying ridge pattern persist for much of the summer or not. Though even if we do see things pan out in favour of persistence, some changes will inevitably occur, as weaker La Nina forcing reduces the strength of the subtropical ridge - but this can open the door to ridges sitting right across or just E/SE of the UK for longer periods without being challenged much.

EC clusters starting to come together post next weekend. Looking settled, and probably reasonably comfortable for temperatures, as a gentle north westerly flow in June can still be quite warm. Not out of the question that the surface flow will remain continental in the south. No genuine attempt at a Greenland High here.

Hope you guys in the south had fun with those severe thunderstorms last night Liking the latest models, especially the Ecm 00z which shows further very warm summery weather to come with more storms for the south but plenty of dry and sunny spells too.

0ver 62k lightning strikes over the past 24hrs

Been too busy to post recently, and another "it's glorious" post would hardly have added much anyway. It has been though. On Friday the day we took possession of our new house finally arrived. Not moved in yet, the benefit of being forced to rent for a few months means a 'relaxed' transition. I'll post some pics of the massive garden and impressive views at some point. At 220m asl I'm hoping come winter to be enjoying the days the weather forecasts say "... and will fall as snow over 200m". Long may this period of weather continue as I'm now looking forward to 10 weeks of summer holidays, although I'll be kept busy with the new house and garden. Since we're now on a private water supply a little rain now and again wouldn't go amiss though.

So the original storm that passed over London is now on the other side of me but what a show it was brilliant! As above eyes on what's coming next...

Few captures of the storm that came over north Dorset about an hour ago

Woweee just been sitting at the side of the London Eye watching the distant storm. Is it towards Aylesbury way? Not sure. Lightning is constant. Fabulous. What a treat I’m having this weekend!

Some delightful convective skies today

Output looking good tonight, here's the GFS 12z: At T192 the jet: It can go there as much as it likes ! And in the land of fantasy, Narnia and unicorns, here at the end of run: Go the red!

@BhamUpdates

Ooooooh! Nice tower building at the bottom of the garden

Very good Gfs 6z operational which is pretty much dominated by high pressure / ridging throughout the run.

An explosive sky last night, likened to strobe lighting by many in the London area. How to rate it all the morning after the night before? As I cast my bleary mind back over last night' events, the beauty and exceptional nature of the display boils down to the constant strobe lightning and constant rumbling thunder from high in the sky. If you are a fan of fork lightning and thunder rattling the China cupboard this was by no means a top 10 event. However, a third cell soon after midnight did produce many beautiful cloud to cloud forks and louder less frequent thunder. The real quality and high ranking of last night' effort was due to the constant ( and I can' emphasise that enough) nature of the sheet lightning and thunder, seen and heard nothing like it.

Amazing ECM this morning if its heat and some storms you are after- high pressure in charge and temps in the low to mid 20s - pressure slack enough at times to bring thunderstorms i would imagine.. On the other hand GFS, while lovely in the medium term does retrogress the pattern sufficiently to allow for a northerly to pull down , so nothing conclusive longer term... Be interesting if the background signals are supportive of a durable Greenland high..

Storm is giving a lovely show now. Got this through my window.

Hitting the sack now - hands down this is the most electrified series of storms I’ve ever seen in the UK - flashes at least twice a second from different parts of the sky. My videos however amazing don’t do it justice. Was saying to my sister in law who watched with me that tonight is something I’ll never probably see again here and rivals everything I saw in the US for lightning frequency. Best part about it is that’s so many others are seeing it too. Yay!

Gif of some lightning!

Latest strikemap:

Well, I'm nearly 67 years old, and I have NEVER seen and heard anything remotely like that in the UK (and possibly anywhere) before. Quite extraordinary - for the first SW London hit we had (as well as some pretty torrential rain) 35+ mins of intense activity from 11 pm or so, with continuous thunder and almost continuous lightning during the middle 15-20 mins. And then a shorter-lived action replay about an hour later - a mere 40 strikes a minute during the middle of that one.

Now this is some rain I’m under now. Getting quite frightening to be fair!!!

Sorry if this has been posted already - Estofex Lvl 2 and 1 for UK tomorrow

Look at the skyline !!!!!

I know I said it’s gone now but I might as well post this video as well.