SNOW_JOKE

I'm 690ft in elevation but I couldn't quite tell what the actual cloud-base was due to the rain, just to throw into the mix was the added moisture from the goyt forest that was being 'pulled' upwards and was pooling into the valley. But the cloud-base was definitely hugging the tops of the hills here as there's a few farms near to the summits and their floodlights had gone from view. The lightning seemed to come in pulses as initially I saw it coming from the west towards Macclesfield direction and it quietened down for around 10 minutes, then the lightning began flickering locally every few minutes for around 35mins. Not the type of storm where you're expecting a bolt to come every couple of seconds, but where you're anticipating the next place it's going to come from after 2 or 3 minutes of waiting.

Manchester METAR had the cloud-base last night at 800ft, could be just amplification of the thunder carrying it further? Although the lightning was a little strange here in that it wasn't visible in the usual type where you can see the trail, it was more the quick-bright flash type of lightning.

A good hour of thundery rain for us here in the Peaks, certainly caught me out by surprise when I was closing the upstairs curtains at half-11.

Certainly can't complain about not getting anything decent here for this year after that blighter of a storm, it wasn't quite a storm in the sense that it was more thundery rain. But quite a few local strikes that got the neighbours waking up and wondering what was going on. Managed to capture one lightning-flash on the camera but will have to edit-through in the morning as it was hit and miss where to look here.

More lightning-flashes to my west now.

Hopefully it'll keep sparking-away as it crosses the Peaks, already seen two lightning-flashes unexpectedly tonight but obviously more will be a bonus.

Just spotted it from out the window here, wasn't expecting that at all as I was closing the curtains and next thing I see a flash thinking to myself someone was outside taking pictures :O was this forecast?

Good clear skies outside tonight albeit chilly with just 5'c forecast for the rural early morning hours, wrapping up in 4 layers to spot the last of the Perseid meteors for this year.

It's surprisingly humid today in the NW, with temps reaching almost 20'c and humidity of 90%. Showers are inbound but they haven't turned thundery yet.

Is it me or is the city of Dresden now without power?

Warsaw livestream on Youtube for any storms passing that way in the next few hours

I won't be too surprised if the Allianz Arena gets struck by lightning sometime during this match, it's a few miles out from the city and the tallest thing around placed on a hill.

I think Liverpool are playing at Munich on ITV4 currently.