BA Baracus

Shower popped up just west of Greenock, Scotland.

Couple of random strikes, one in West Wales just north of Carmarthen, the other north of Dublin. They look oddly out of place, miles from the main band. More "fake" strikes? If so, what causes them to be picked up on NW radar?

More showers springing up over western Ireland. Be interesting to see their trajectory - they appear to be moving NNE but building further and further east.

Couple of lightning registered over western Ireland. Not sure if these are real as I've noticed a few false ones on the radar today.

Heavy rain now approaching southern Ireland. More interesting is a single shower that has appeared to the west of northern Ireland just out over the sea. Is this the first of many?

Watching the Europe wide radar on loop that rain near Brest is heading for the southern tip of Ireland. May just clip SW England on route. Is this the kick start to the storms that are meant to start moving NE later this evening? Looking on met office fax charts there is a trough(?) on the 1pm that does align with the rain. This looks like it will start to veer NE over Wales and west Midlands by 1am. Roastingly hot today. Not a cloud in the sky.

Small rumble of thunder and large rain drops on outskirts of storm near Huddersfield.

Been pouring down here for last 2 hours under that thin band of rain. It's just stopped over here and doesn't appear to be moving anywhere!

Very dark with lightning to the south of Leeds. Looks like the centre will miss the action but quite dramatic towards Wakefield / Pontefract way.

Huge snowflakes in Leeds centre now. Not really settling but a very pretty scene nonetheless!

The storm in USA is called Jonas. Will this be renamed in UK and Ireland when it hits next week?

Why are the met office warnings still so out of date? I would expect ice will be an issue on the roads in west and south Yorkshire.

Finally passed the 1cm mark. Going by the radar we may get an inch or two out of this event. Looks like it will last as the temperatures are looking low for the next few days.

All surfaces covered and coming down nicely. Not quite a cm yet but getting there.

Coming down quite nicely now. 1 band, 2 bands doesnt matter, its snowing!

Yes, this is it. No further bands to come.

Light dusting over everything here. Easily settling due to dry cold conditions. It does look to be dying so wouldn't expect much for those hopeful people in the south.

Been running the rain today HD app over and over to try and work out what will happen. I reckon it will be further east than expected, possibly as far as Leeds/wakefield/Doncaster. Has been sunny all day but now clouding over from the north west.

If this storm, or any other for that matter, have wind speeds within the realms of tropical storms or even hurricanes, do they receive a hurricane name or do they have to form further south in the tropics (hence the term tropical storm)? Category details taken from Wikipedia below. Abigail would appear to fall within the tropical storm classification for sustained wind speeds. Is this storm not classified as a tropical storm because it formed too far north? Hurricane Category Wind Speeds Five ≥70 m/s, ≥137 knots ≥157 mph, ≥252 km/h Four 58–70 m/s, 113–136 knots 130–156 mph, 209–251 km/h Three 50–58 m/s, 96–112 knots 111–129 mph, 178–208 km/h Two 43–49 m/s, 83–95 knots 96–110 mph, 154–177 km/h One 33–42 m/s, 64–82 knots 74–95 mph, 119–153 km/h Tropical storm 18–32 m/s, 34–63 knots 39–73 mph, 63–118 km/h Tropical depression ≤17 m/s, ≤33 knots ≤38 mph, ≤62 km/h

Best snow drifts in my lifetime were a couple of years ago in March when the drifts were many feet high. I went up to the local golf course with my son to jump into the snow filled bunkers. Quite an experience jumping into such huge piles of snow! Rubbish for sledging but great for snow "bombing". I also vividly remember a few years back (09/10 perhaps) when we had freezing rain and everything became covered in thick ice. Virtually impossible to walk and car doors frozen shut. The ice in that winter lasted for weeks as snow became compacted and refroze. There were also a couple of days where the maximum temperature was a chilly -6C. Never experienced cold like that before - actually hurt to breath.

Just had torrential rain here with distant rumbles. Still just too far west!

Just too far west so far. All the action east of Leeds. Had a shower, now sunny and hot again but more of a breeze.

Skies now much darker to the south.

This is the view south from here. Definitely something building.

Clear skies here and hot. Couple of distant rumbles from the south.