egret

Hmm I suppose it depends where you live and what people are looking for ('working better'). Hopefully it is good for Wales/ Shropshire etc I agree that yesterday was good ( with increased activity due to prediction of T storms), however my personal feeling is that the SW input has gone quiet since the change with a number of regular posters now absent or rarely popping in. I remain to be convinced that weather on the S coast and SW peninsular really does have a great deal in common with the Midlands and N Wales. Good to see Lancia pop in yesterday however. Coincidentally I postmarked Paul just yesterday evening with an observation that SW members are now rather quiet.

A couple of brief showers here but considerable cumulus bubbling up looking North and North East, I would be surprised if Shaftesbury and Salisbury have not had some heavy showers. Went to take a photo and in the time it took to get my camera it had all changed and was not as dramatic so clearly lots of updraght.

Excellent summary Tamara and clearly explained, thanks! (heading off over to France for a break in a couple of weeks so hoping to acclimatise to some warmer weather beforehand) Have had several short sharp showers this morning and the last one had hail, one flash of lightning and three long rumbles of thunder - so that one will be heading your way from us on the 'sw border'

Just had a short sharp hail shower backed up with one lightning flash and three rumbles of thunder. Mapantz, have any mackerel or bass shown yet down your way?

Strange this morning - radar showed a band of fairly heavy rain passing westwards past us but we got virtually no rain, maybe we were just to the N of it. Has it caught you Mapantz? Perhaps it is coastal advection cloud running along the Ridgeway.

If I think weather is coming from an adjacent region, I simply take a peek at the posts in that region - simples and saves having to suddenly change your favourites bookmark just because it has become busy and you have been abitrarily moved into a different area! Also think the SW area goes too far N, we regularly note that weather changes N of the M4 so an overlap between S and N similar to that between (southern) E and W might be sensible.

I agree entirely - MoD is a scary place at times and is so often being pruned. Our Regional thread (and also the SE one) seem much friendlier and less intimidating places, but more particularly have greater relevance when trying to assess rate of change in weather conditions be it sun burning off mist , travel of thunderstorms or advance of weather fronts. To sift through such detailed info for the whole country would be tedious in the extreme.

Great photo of Corfe Castle - is that 'solarised'? Several sharp showers here today but nothing spectacular - just normal April stiuff. Thought I was going to get drenched at Ringstead walking the dogs this evening but it petered out as the sun went down. A cracking evening and birds in full song.

Well we managed to miss any real rain yesterday - just a very light shower mid afternoon. Surprising as it was positively steamy and we had very dark skies pressing in from the North and East. Classic west country weather this morning , woke up to moderate rain, mild and drizzly currently with not a breath of wind. I sense there is more to come but as the saying goes 'rain before 7 fine by 11' so dogs can wait for a bit and then get a decent walk later.

Woke up to pretty torrential rain and just looking at the radar it seems only the lucky ones will see sustained sunny spells today. Some places might end up with impressive daily rainfall totals due to large and slow moving showers.

The air has been heavy all day but no rain here.

Meto forecast is giving us heavy rain Sunday PM, but as you say not set in stone (although I have a feeling I would go with that low as but perhaps less deep - drizzly rather than heavy rain). GFS still showing the area of heavier rain hitting the Kent / E Sussex and moving on down to the Channel Isles. If it was winter I would be getting excited LoL

Yes its an annoying feature for the South Coast tourist businesses! A few miles nudge one way or another would make a big difference. Its a shame this couldn't have held off for a couple of days. Still heartening however that the low is moving westwards rather than NE.

Thats surprising - the radar showed it worse over Poole way

Sorry to hear about the asthma Lightningsprite, hope the air clears soon and gives you some relief. Do you have problem with pollen too? The (reported) levels of air pollution cannot be helping you, perhaps we should grateful that our prevailing wind is normally off the Atlantic.

Flat calm and very humid with scatterred outbursts of rain. Just had a couple of rumbles of thunder to add to the mix.

Emailed Meto severe weather alert for fog was issued at 4.37!

They did - at about 4.00 this morning. I wonder if 'now casting' improves their performance indicators? Oh - and did you catch anything last night? I was up in Suffolk a couple of weeks back and got loads of tiny codling - I just hope they don't all get netted out before the autumn as that seems to be what happens in recent years.

Radar currently showing meaty shower heading up towards IOW but no lightning detected. Looks like it will be more for the SE but you might get a shower triggered as air rises over Creech?

But I always prefer the white ones! LoL

Cyclonic, sorry to hear you have been unwell but good to hear you are getting better - hopefully this recent sunshine will also help!

Thick mist here first thing and quickly burned off to give a glorious morning. Sawn and chopped a load more firewood as we were getting low - the weather I love for such 'active' tasks!

Meto have just issued yellow alert for snow covering down to Oxfordshire and Wilts tomorrow so they are obviously not certain that Gloucester is its southward limit

I think most of us can happily accept differences in views, preferences, regional perspective and differences in style and ability. What I find difficult to stomach is the frequent sniping and disrespect displayed by certain posters (aimed either at individuals or organisations). The real danger is that the popularity contest becomes between this thread and similar threads on other sites. It would be a shame for NW to lose out due to the unhelpful posts of a few. We need to ensure that those who are prepared to take time to analyse model outputs in detail and share their thoughts are not deterred by such sniping. Questioning or pointing out factual errors is fine -the 'peer revioew' process in action. When properly explained such challenge helps improve our understanding. Respect of others is the prerequisite. There is a valid place for both lengthy and succinct posts. The lengthy ones serve to explain in detail just how conclusions are being arrived at and I hugely value the work of Gibby, JH and Tamara to name just three who take great care to present their reasoning in some detail. We have lost a number of highly respected and effective forecasters and commentators over the years and it appears that sniping and trolling lies at the root of their loss. Why should people choose to spend time and effort to contribute, only to suffer such treatment? Sadly I think 'sin bin time outs' and 'total bans' might be the only answer for the more serious offenders - particularly those who lack respect or constructive contribution. Just looking at the number of viewers at any one time shows the size of the 'silent majority' who presumably appreciate the contributions being posted here. Sorry to be off topic but this comment is specifically directed within the MOD thread - other threads seem to suffer less from the problem. We have plenty of humour in the S&SW regional thread, but all of it good natured. I shall shut up now (this is intended to be helpful, though doubtless others may dismiss it as a rant!) -oops, sorry Reef, just read your plea, delete this if you wish.

A reasonable number of strikes showing off Finisterre at the moment (showers following behind the main frontal cloud). I suspect these will die out over the Channel but the odd one might make it to the S/SE coastline in the morning. It will be worth keeping an eye on the radar.