R Alto

Wild stormy skies moving in!

Watching sheet lightning to my South/ South West.

Temperature today reached 30.3C equalling yesterday's and 18th July which makes me suspicious but probably just a coincidence. I saw the smoke drifting your way @Mapantz, looking from Whitecliff. At first I thought it was Brownsea, that would had been a disaster, thankfully not. Still not good though.

Bits that stick with me. Late June, sun high in the sky, deep blue, easterly wind and waiting, hoping for the smallest chance of tiny isolated popcorn storms that were trundling around the channel for a couple of days. Didn't see a dicky bird, barely a cloud, but the idea that there were some exotic weather anomalies just out there instilled some magic into the air. I'm not sure on the date, I want to say 11th or 13th July? I had been camping at shell bay in Dorset. I was up early, so probably around 6am. A stunning thunderstorm drifted up from the South. Wild cumulus congestus beneath cirro stratus, like something from a Picasso painting towered above the landscape in all their chaotic glory. A dark round anvil swallowed the sky above. Heavy warmish rain and cloud to ground strikes ensued. Great cure for a hangover. Lastly and probably most representative of that summer was that by mid August, the brown tinder dry leaves that had fallen early to join the equally pale dead grass beneath.

I first went to Florida in July '92 and as a burgeoning storm addict I was in heaven! Enjoy your storms fellow netweather nuts

A second, lighter storm moved in 20 minutes later. It suddenly felt very warm again just before the rain. Here's a screenshot from the first storm. Sun coming out now and feeling cooler.

Big, very elevated, twisted alto status sky moving in off the channel. Also distant booms of thunder and a CG just now to my West!

Overnight low of 21.2C, currently 27.7C at 8.45am!

28.5C in the Wallisdown area, close to the Uni.

Cracking mid level instability this evening. The atmosphere looks and feels different now that the plume pushes in.

Monday 18th, 39.4C, somewhere in London

They certainly are, turning purple, blue and red in the last half hour.

Like scattered sheep or paper. I imagine that the Latin for Floccus refers to sheep? Probably..

Delicate Alto Floccus mark the passage of another high summer day.

That's what I was thinking too. Here's a screenshot of one those bolts.

Just had a series (every 1 or 2 minutes) of some of the brightest and loudest cloud to ground I've ever witnessed.

That was the weirdest start to a storm. Uniform alto status (did not look exciting) and no darkening to the horizon. Very still, then pockets of lightning almost overhead for 5 minutes before any rain.

These towers just to the East of Poole have suddenly become electrified.

Fingers crossed. The Purbecks are slowly disappearing behind the rain from my vantage point...

Yes that's what I thought, as you say its been loud on the ranges today!

The gunning range on the Purbecks is giving me false aural returns! Not that I'm expecting anything.

Lightning every 2 or 3 seconds to my West and South West. Some long peals of thunder now too.

Skys have improved dramatically, so much colour as well!

The air and the sky felt/looked ripe in the last hour or two. But the sky is flattening out a bit now. I think the French storms and cloud shield maybe be casting it's effect...

Hi Paul, very late to this thread but I thought you may still be interested in my account and photo. I was at home in Poole (Holes bay area) that day. I remember noticing an unusually detailed and patterned sky in the late afternoon, lite with a slightly orange hue. I had just turned 15 and whilst interested in the weather I didn't have my 'eye in' yet for the clouds, but it was probably tightly clustered bands of Altocumulus castellanus or Floccus. It was about 1 or 2 hour later, I was in the garden, it was very warm and cloudy. My dad pointed out the sky to the south. A very dark wedge of blue-black cloud had appeared above the roof tops to our south. It had a very clean leading edge which created a stark contrast to the layer of cloud above. The inky mass steadily moved North to fill the sky completely. At the same time the humidity increased dramatically making the air feel thick and oppressive. The cloud base was dark and visibly moving and rolling, bubbling downwards and back into the cloud base. It looked a lot like the clouds in the film Close encounters, but not moving as fast! I stood there a gasp and then bolted inside to grab the camera (a weather nut was born). This cloud passaged over us for probably 15 or 20 minutes. Soon after distant sheet lightning could be seen to the South. The rain began but only one heavy bust and then steady moderate rain for a couple of hours. The lightning was perhaps every 10/20 seconds apart and coming within a couple of miles at its closest. I remember seeing 2 distinct cells, one to the West and one to the East as it travelled away North. I've definitely seen more intense lightning storms here but this one will always stick with me for the dramatic entrance and nature of the clouds to which effect I have not seen again since. The change in temperature and humidity and the feeling of being in the presence of a seemingly almost living creature. I didn't know the date until recently, only that it was July/August 1991. But I have been reliably informed by @Summer8906 that it must be the 5th July as that was the only thundery breakdown of that window. I would be interested to hear yours or others account of this event if they exist on here? I can only find one photo at the moment but there are 2 or 3 more somewhere.