Evening thunder

Haven't noticed anything hear in Egham, though we are now on the edge of a shower.

Interesting and that's quite far from here, nice to have a report from another angle A bit of a late reply but thanks guys I had noticed a lowering to keep half an eye on, then a couple minutes later it had formed the suspicious shape in the photos. I wasn't completely sure as it was quite far away (these photos are at x3 zoom) and I could not confirm rotation though it looked as if it could have been rotating and looked a bit too 'smooth' to be ordinary scud I've now seen this thread on UKWW, at first I thought it was the same funnel I saw from a different direction, but this was 2 hours later at 17:30 after I had set off for uni, and puts my pics to shame.. it seems like there may have been multiple funnels and from different showers in this general area yesterday.. Maybe I should have driven to near Tiverton instead of back to uni! http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/index.php?/topic/103148-huge-funnel-cloud/

Funnel cloud? Taken several mins ago to the north, on the edge of a shower which presumably marks the sea breeze convergence, lasted 2-3 mins at a guess. Edit to add: My location is still in East Devon a few miles south of Ottery St Mary (am gunna be leaving to head back to uni soon though)

Had a bit of thunder yesterday evening to the north (after hearing some distant rumbles to the NW from the cell near Tiverton), saw a few faint flashes and then one powerful looking CG 2-3 miles away with interesting sounding thunder. Quite sunny here with a light sea breeze and 15.5c, cumulus congestus has been bubbling to the north for a bit but nothings formed a CB yet. Am travelling back to uni in Egham this afternoon so wonder what I'll see on the way.

While good storms can get going to the west and east of here, here every cumulus that bubbles up enough here hits some cap and spreads into a big sheet of strato/altocumulus. Could just about see a CB that made it in the far distance to the west.

I don't like it either, I liked the previous layout that was up until this month, but now it almost looks 'broken' to me, there's a 'you talked' we listened' news feature but not sure what public feedback they listened to.. It's takes more effort to navigate to pages now.

Doesn't look too bad for the south at least at first on the 18z with often sunshine and showers, and slightly above average maxima. ECM gets colder though. Thankfully such Greenland highs and things have no effect on summer as 1995 amongst I'm sure other examples showed.

Had a slightly interesting experience earlier. When I saw the shower near Tiverton had turned into a thunderstorm, I decided to drive to a spot I know in the Blackdown hills with a view out north to try and intercept/get close to it, though it was only a heavy shower when I got there. However I noticed a small area of rotation coming towards me, thought just local rotation due to converging/varying winds and have seen such before, but then I could hear wind getting closer in the trees nearby. as the rotation in the cloud base passed nearly overhead the wind picked up where I was for 10-20 seconds and passed by, and a few old/brown leaves were clearly spiraling upwards out of the trees towards the sky as it went... It was only about 20-30mph where I was and like an isolated gust of wind, but with nearly calm winds before and afterwards for quite a while. A bit like a (wide) dust devil going by but in a wooded area without any dust/hay to pick up. the rotation area didn't seem to form a funnel cloud, but the wind on the ground seemed clearly related to it and appeared to have rotation and some kind of vortex, though the area was wooded so hard to tell. Some interesting posts on UKWW suggesting it perhaps had supercell characteristics too, as well as good lightning near Tiverton, kind of wish I had got there before. Where does the definition of a tornado start, if there is one.. would that rotation on the ground associated with rotation above count even if it is as week as this with no clear funnel?

clearer blue skies today though - much better. I'm kinda glad I was out the country last week rather than near London

A min of -0.6c and max of 16.7c back home in East Devon yesterday, a range of 17.3c and the largest range so far this year. Today however had a far lower range there as fog and low cloud capped the max temp. to 9.9c. The largest ranges I've recorded so far are about 20.5c in months like March 2012 and July 2013, though surprisingly the biggest change was from the daily maxima to the subsequent night minima, when it dropped 21C, from 20.8c to -0.2c on the 28th-29th March 2012.

At home for the weekend and had some torrential rain about ah hour ago in this band of otherwise mainly heavy rain. Mostly cleared now with the rain eased to a steady moderate.

I wonder how much difference ones location in the country makes, obviously north-south will come into it but what about east-west? Great Yarmouth had sunset at 17:28 today, whereas at Lands End it was 18:01, over half an hour later. This could make a difference in someones perception, where someone living in Great Yarmouth may feel they'd like a little more light in the evening whereas if they lived in Cornwall they may feel happier with how the clocks are set.

Currently at 181mm back home according to the Davis VP2, so may get 200mm depending on heavy showers later and rain tomorrow but probably more likely to be around 190mm. This comes after 210mm in January and 146mm in December. Sadly due to being at uni I can't keep manual records, though do have a manual gauge (ChCoRaHS guage) collecting rainfall to measure when I go home just for reference, as hopefully minimal evaporation occurs from it in winter. I also use it to calibrate the Davis at times when I am home.

There has been for me at least, and more especially home in Devon, I've seen fog, frost (relatively limited admittedly, but so was last winter at home actually..), there was even wet snow falling any laying for the night in some relatively low parts of east Devon, which is more than can be said up here a uni (haven't even seen sleet here!). I have had 6 days of seeing lightning or hearing thunder, more than in the whole of 2010 or 2011. I remember a day in January with large hail in places from a thunderstorm tracking all the way from Lands End to Norfolk if I recall correctly, as well as another with an electrically active squall line tracking from NW Wales down to East Anglia and the SE. I got caught out in the end of it here with torrential rain/hail and wind bringing a few trees down, and a small tornado was reported not far from here in Chobham. All pretty unusual for January? There have been numerous lows and strong winds, breaking my stations highest wind gust recorded so far a few times, and the rainfall totals have been interesting of course. Despite all this weather (most other types apart from cold/snow) It hasn't been dull here, with the Met Office anomaly maps showing much of central/southern areas having above average sunshine in December and January. There has been less of this up here at uni but it hasn't been absent, and admittedly looking at the stats if I lived in some places further north/east, I may have found less interest and the persistent average/mild temps and more 'normally' wet weather more tedious. I have also had a couple mornings walking in sparkling frost with clear blue sky above and shallow mist draped over the fields when I have been at home from uni i.e over the Christmas Holidays. This aint anywhere near a perfect winter for me.. the lack of snow/frost between limited weather systems and the limited temperature variance have both been negative points, though the changeable weather has partly made up for it with many other weather types thrown at us. Today was another nice sunny start (actually feeling springlike with warmth in the sun, then followed by nice cumulonimbus cloud forms with sharp showers around here. Seems to have been several days with CB's bubbling up inland recently even though it's only February. There hasn't been a lack of sun around here though: December anomaly map: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/pub/data/weather/uk/climate/anomacts/2013/12/2013_12_Sunshine_Anomaly_1981-2010.gif I suppose it was locally slightly below average around the Reading area. January anomaly map: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/pub/data/weather/uk/climate/anomacts/2014/1/2014_1_Sunshine_Anomaly_1981-2010.gif February also looking above average for the SE: http://www.climate-uk.com/page2.html More north/western parts of the country don't look to have fared so well though. Last winter/March was duller down here and I'd suggest it was more boring with more continuous cold cloudy weather. Admittedly missing the main snowy week on a field trip doesn't help my perception.

In terms of snow/frost, this winter is one of the worst... Though we have had a lower January min and more air frosts up to the end of January back home in Devon this year compared to last year! (Feb has corrected that though with less and that was just a local effect due to the valley frost hollow effect), and there has probably more visable frost then as last winter's frosts were often cloudy or with drier air.. In terms of weather interest, and overall, some other winter is the worst, not sure exactly which one as no single winter sticks out in my relatively short memory, but perhaps 2006/7 or 2007/8 though they did have a few decent frosts and perhaps other interesting events. I don't remember too much interesting stuff for me in 2011/12 for me apart from low minima in early February (-7.6c but not near my record of -14.0c in December 2010), and strong winds on the 3rd/5th January. I did see 2 inches of snow in the Blackdown Hills however and I doubt that's especially close to my worst winter.

Do you have a source for this? most of what I've seen recently is more balanced and reasoned stuff sometimes in response to the forecasts/nonsense the press spin off, sometimes trying to make it sound like the Met Office agree with the article.

If this secondary feature develops/tracks in the wrong place it could give a lot of rain to the SW.. Although most rain is probably more likely to track west of there thankfully as it's further west even on the UKMO, taking the most intense rain up the Irish Sea. It would still be pretty wet for some further north though. I remember a secondary wave developed which was only picked up a day or two out on the 21st November 2012 bringing major flooding to my home area of east Devon with rainfall approaching 3 inches (3 days before another major flood event). I've seen a few things like that around with people wakeboarding on flooded areas. One way to have fun in the current situation.

Nice to see pictures from back home (well a few miles away). That 2nd pic looks like the sand at low tide has been washed away as you usually can't see all the bedrock there, just outcrops of it slightly along (east) from that photo and also further west. Though I remember some of it exposed last winter, and it must have got covered up again by spring and summer.

Looking at the observations it's definitely not strong enough for a red warning IMO, they are quite rare and for the strongest events we have, this although a notable storm (i.e amber be prepared) is nowhere near the strongest we can get (what would they issue then if they did red now) http://www.xcweather.co.uk/ Not near what NW Wales and parts of Ireland had on Wednesday Pretty windy here at uni but did have windier in October and perhaps other times like at Christmas when not here, also very windy at home (1mph short of the record on the 4th feb), though some other stations around home and Exeter Airport have had the strongest gusts this winter.

Interesting-ish radar echo heading towards Reading or just to the west. Quite windy up here at uni but not like at home, some stations around home (east Devon) have recorded the highest gusts this winter.. a vantage vue near home somehow had 70mph apparently! Only 50mph on my station and we had higher on the 4th with a SSE wind as we seem to get that direction stronger than S or SSW for some reason.

The rise of the River Thames does seem to be slowing or leveling off around here at least: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/136496.aspx?stationId=7172 This is just downstream of Datchet and suggests levels in the river at least haven't risen much in morning daylight hours which contrasts slightly to BBC reporting, but maybe it's flowing/seeping from the river to somewhere in the village and causing levels to still rise there? Based on the gauging stations thankfully I don't think the river will rise too much higher before tomorrow (though still could creep up a bit especially downstream), but then some rain tomorrow and more later on Wednesday looks like preventing/reversing any slight fall that could have started by then.. and then probably more significant rain Friday into Saturday.

Funny how that is (correctly) attributed to the weather and we don't get everyone blaming the EA and saying it is due to the Thames not being dredged or something.. Of course that would be silly especially as weirs/sluices/locks would cause flooding before any sediment build up, but I don't want to tempt fate. Oh wait.. just heard some guy on News 24 suggesting it should be made deeper and wider.. umm well that will work well with various weirs/locks etc that would have to be bulldozed, not to mention riverside properties, bridges, and widening turning the rivers image into muddy banks causing a crash in the local property market and ruining ecology.. why are some people so dumb sometimes and can't except that floods happen on floodplains sometimes And news always say about 'stopping something like this happening in the future' well of course it will happen again, the Thames has a history of floods, some higher than now, as many rivers do. Possibly the wrong thread.. oops

The Met Office forecasts for my home location have downgraded the winds rather. Now gusts in the 40's rather than 61mph which was showing a couple days ago, so less strong than Tuesday evening's/Wednesdays storm but that was from SSE and was the strongest since December 2006. We are more sheltered from the SW/WSW there where tomorrows wind is coming from though. At least it seems to be sunny reasonably often between the rain bands and showers, at least up here at uni.

It could be worse according to the EURO4 model.. We could have got what Brittany looks like getting: Widely over 75mm in the next 24 hours.. Indeed Meteo France look to have a red warning out, and rivers on high flood alert. Still there does look to be some areas/lines of very heavy showery rain this evening, bringing totals up to 30-40mm+ in some places.. Southern England the wettest part of the country in the next 48 hours with 2 inches+ in places, can't be good.. (though not as wet as Brittany still)

In a way I'm not surprised if that's true, this storm has definitely been worse than anything else this winter on that stretch of coast