Supacell

A very active night of thunderstorms for southern parts, I was definitely happy I headed south to be a part of it. My evening started with confusion as I sat near to Maidstone in Kent. Most of the models were pinpointing Kent as a sweet spot but an MCS moving northwestwards from France looked likely to hit further west. After much pondering I decided to head south towards Hastings as opposed to the Kent coast. On reaching Hastings I could see distance flashes to the south, but if the flashes were to the south (and not south east) then I assumed they were going to miss Hastings and so headed westwards to end up settling in Eastbourne. From here I got to see a great show. There was little in the way of CG or IC lightning (although there was some) but lots and lots of strobe lightning out to sea and eventually right over the town. I did not capture any of the CG's I saw, and most of the IC's were directly overhead high up in the clouds. The lightning was accompanied by a constant elevated rumble of thunder along with the odd louder crash mixed in. It reminded me a bit of the Worthing storm last year in terms of lightning frequency and thunder, but did not match up to that storm in terms of wind and rain, although there was some heavy rain for a time. EDIT: Forgot to mention, some good cloud structure on the incoming storm too, which was easy to see with the very frequent lightning flashes. After staying in Eastbourne for probably and hour to 90 minutes I headed west further as lightning flashed to my west and south. I could see another storm was moving in from the Channel and looked likely to hit Brighton, and so I stopped as the storm moved close by. This one did not come overhead, it actually hit closer to Worthing I think, but was again producing a lot of lightning, and this time I could see and capture some of the IC's too as I had that bit of distance. As I was driving between the two places there was a period whereby I was in fog but with lightning flashing amongst it. An eerie experience that I have not witnessed often. As the storms rumbled away to the northwest I decided to start the journey back home. It was just after half 2 by this point and my sat nav expected me home by just before 6am. I would not end up making this as I was greeted on the way back by another thunderstorm, which was part of a line of storms that had developed and were moving from around Essex, through London and just north of the M4 corridor. I actually caught them near to the M25/M40 junction but was unable to find anywhere to stop and so just drove through them. The lightning in these storms was less frequent but I did see (not capture) a close CG and heard a huge bang of thunder. The rain was also absolutely torrential and had caused quite a lot of big puddles on the roads, making it rather hazardous to drive in. This was still not the end of it. As I continued my journey around the M25 I noticed more cells moving through London, this time a bit further north and these were also likely to hit me. I was able to get onto one moving into Watford. By now it was getting light but the lightning was still very visible, just the white/blue flashes were now replaced by bright pink flashes. This storm did not have as much lightning as the others, the energy appeared to be diminishing, but it did have some quite gusty winds on it as it moved through. I am home now and ready for some sleep! All in all it was an enjoyable night of storm chasing. It was the kind of storm chase I like, where the storms are not hard to find. There was so much activity last night that I nearly ran down two batteries on my camcorder! A great start to the season.

Made it to Kent, just outside Maidstone. Do i head south to Hastings or southeast to Folkestone... decisions decisions

Mark Parsons I may agree with you by tomorrow morning

Currently near to Milton Keynes but an accident on the M1 is likely to slow my journey a bit. I am now thinking if I can make it to Kent in time then that's where I'll head.

Looks like I'll be out chasing tonight. I'm not quite sure exactly where to place myself yet but certainly I will be heading south later this afternoon/early evening time. At the moment I'm torn between heading down to the Kent coastline, a bit further west on the East or West Sussex coastline or not travelling as far and stopping somewhere to the east of London. I did the stopping near London on the 18th May 2022 though and when the storms came in there was nowhere to view them from and I ended up with this and busy and complicated roads screwing me over (even at late evening). I'm therefore nervous about that option.

Josh Rubio Yes. Although where any storms are is open to a lot of doubt at the moment. Most models are placing them across the Midlands.

viking_smb If it stays UK side of the water then i'll probably drive down south for an overnight stay.

Shaunado MUCAPE isn't bad for Wednesday night into early hours of Thursday. Surface based CAPE is rather limited but these would be elevated storms so SBCAPE wouldn't matter. Expect the area of risk to shift around run to run. Hopefully it doesn't move so far east it stays over the continent. Deep layer shear looks in abundance too

Locking this now. New thread here: Storms and Convective discussion - April 2024

Good morning and Happy Easter to all. If we can say that the UK has a storm season then it likely runs from April 1st to September 30th, but the UK weather does not stick to any rules. This last week has seen thunderstorms with lightning displays, large hailstones and gusty winds along with some amazing mammatus displays. Thank you to all that shared your pictures. Let's hope this coming season offers up some of what we want to all of us. So here we go, it's April 1st but I am not going to offer up any April fools jokes . Today actually offers its own risk of some thundery weather, albeit a small one. Numerous heavy showers are likely to break out today across the southern half of the UK. These should develop readily once the sun gets out across Central and Southern England before expanding northwards through the Midlands and possibly as far north as Manchester. Amongst these could be the odd thundery one but will unlikely be organised with very little wind shear on offer. Anyway, keep on chatting and remember to stay on topic and treat each other and the forum with respect. Heres to a good season of 2024. Old thread here: Storms and Convective discussion - November 2023 onwards Chance of storms diminish tomorrow as the air turns much colder with a 50mph northeast wind bringing heavy snow from the east and up to 20-30cm expected across most of the UK.

Daniel_c150311 The GFS charts i looked at showed some CAPE briefly around and to the south of the M4. That coincided with a zone of wind convergence. This was likely what caused them.

Going to be looking this thread shortly and opening up a new one for April.

Thankfully decided not to bother chasing today. Some pretty looking cloudscapes but not enough storm activity to warrant it for me. A nice early start to the season though for some.

The storm risk may expand a bit further north tomorrow and so I'm contemplating getting out for my first chase of the year. If I see a storm it'll be the first time I've seen and chased a storm in March throughout my 20 years of storm chasing. Although the speed of them may suggest "chasing" would be impossible. It'll be a case of getting in the right place at the right time.

It's March so not expecting MCS's and spectacular electrical displays but some prospects for thunderstorms/thundery showers over the next few days. Tomorrow looks to be western areas mainly. From Thursday onwards the risk probably more widespread. I know we really don't need any more rain but still nice to see thundery weather in the forecast.