Spikecollie

Some fabulous TCU about here and plenty of warm sunshine, and it's only 1030!

Signs of nicely building clouds already here. There were some sculptural skies yesterday. I'm off to Nuremberg tomorrow via Amsterdam, looking forward to some quality cloudspotting

We got a stunning storm yesterday evening with beautiful overhead lightning - here are the clouds as the storm approached:

Thunder over the hills here in Limousin - nice!

I notice Météo France are progging a breakdown with thundery showers and thunderstorms from Wednesday next week over there - looks like it could be an action packed start to our Easter break if it comes off, but I'm not sure it's exactly what we want...

I suppose you could say that the Autumn/Winter storm series actually started with the St. Jude's day storm in October (I don't think my other half will ever forget our delightful trip back from France in that one), followed by the intense squalls and thunderstorms of November 5th - crikey, when you look back it's been an amazing weather period.

A nice compilation there to remind us (as if we need reminding!) of what a battering we got. February's alphabet soup of storm names says it all...

What a nice day it turned out to be here, at least this morning. We had a gorgeous walk above Oxenhope and it was warm enough in the sun to take off our coats and roll up our sleeves - a real feeling of Spring warmth in the air.

I'm working in Nuremberg for a week in the middle of May, with hopefully a little sight-seeing time as well. I know it's way too far out to get a forecast (I'll ask more specifically nearer the time), but it's not a part of Germany I have visited before. Any ideas what the typical weather for mid-May is over there from anyone who has spent time there?

Those northern French storms look soooo nice...

Torrential rain here in Leeds now, office lights on, people running across the campus trying to outrun the blowing sheets of rain!

Something's happening in the general W/SW direction - the different detector networks seem to place the strikes a bit differently geographically.

Just caught the edge of a very heavy shower to the east here in Leeds. Nothing significant yet but some nice convection going on.

Here are some photos above northern France on Saturday evening. A hailstorm had just passed through and ou could see the curtain of white and some nice mammatus on the periphery of the cloud. There was a line of single cell CuNbs stretching to the coast (only the odd flash of lightning here and there - they are called "les giboulées de mars" in France and are spectacular but pretty benign electrically) and then some more into central onto NW UK but by then there was not enough light to take photos. The half light descent into MAN between the white stacks of towering cumulus was amazing. It was one of the most spectacular sunset evenings I have ever seen from up there - truly awe inspiring.

Nice one. Several of the stations over here in France have closed due to lack of snow. This will be a welcome boost.

I'm heading there this evening from Paris - I'll let you know what's out there! The rain is certainly pretty intense here in Dijon right now, enough to wake me up early. Never mind, I've got my caggy and I don't have to go outside much.

Yep, some nice clouds out there. Just started raining quite heavily here in Dijon but there's a layer of what I think is Nimbostratus (too high for stratus) obscuring my view of the more interesting clouds. It's a nice purpley, black out there, so something interesting should happen even if it's just very heavy rain.

METAR here in Dijon still confident that we're going to get at least minor fireworks: Probability 40% : Temporary from 21 at 13 UTC to 21 at 18 UTC Wind 15 kt from variable directions with gusts up to 25 kt Visibility 5000 m Scattered clouds at a height of5000 ft Scattered clouds at a height of6000 ft , Cumulonimbus. rain showers Probability 30% : Temporary from 22 at 00 UTC to 22 at 06 UTC Visibility 3000 m Broken clouds at a height of 500 ft Broken clouds at a height of 3000 ft , Cumulonimbus. light thunderstorm rain Certainly a different day today with the wind beginning to whistle and some high level clouds moving in. I've got my camera at the ready for tomorrow.

Some of the most decent CAPE and LI values for Saturday that we've seen in a while. By no means spectacular, but it might make for some happy cloud watching on my way back from France.

I'm over here in Dijon where it's already 14c and another lovely afternoon in prospect. Spring is hanging in here for another few days but it's all horribly downhill after Thursday, with some French forecasters progging some thundery activity for the weekend. In between working I think I'll enjoy the sunshine while I can.

Lucky you...Météo France are progging 16-18c quite widely after things settle down. Not sure what this will do to the avalanche risk, it very much depends which resort area you're headed too.

Me too! Anything has got to be better over there than February Les giboulées de mars can strike at any time though, but lets hope they'll stay nicely away

Oh no, not again! But then again aren't the models hinting that the jet stream is going back to where is was last week and intensifying once more?

Just drove through some insane rain and hail coming into Leeds, not sure if there was any thunder but a very intense storm

I'm not used to this new house yet and I'm not sure what all the noises are - are they just noises or bits blowing off