Convective / Storm Discussion Thread - 27th Feb onwards

[UKSupercell]

2 hours ago, Flash bang flash bang etc said:

I feel your pain. I found it hard to make out a lot of the lightning because the really prolific stuff was going on on the far side (over France) and the storm cloud itself prevented any view of even the flashes.

There was A LOT of Sheet lightning, and to see crawlers you would have needed to be in the right place - and to see them without having to shelter from the rain in the car you would have needed to be in exactly the right place at the right time.

i found a nice spot at Climping Beach - but just as I was enjoying the deep booms rolling in from the sea an RV with about 50 lights on the front rolled up and left its engine running completely ruining the ambience for everyone there. Thanks.

Either way, Guildford area has completely missed out on all events this weekend so Netweather please don't generalise and say 'more' storms for everyone.

Definate dissapointment for me today because I have actually been trying to chase storms and they are just not happening.

Had I been in the UK on Friday night I would have been down in Hants (possibly further west) and had a great show. Instead I was in Italy where all week we got NOTHING. Granted it was a nice holiday, but as you can imagine I'm a little disheartened to be consistently in the wrong place when storms kick-off.

Last night watching the storm do an almost 45° turn to the east right in front of me was honestly a kick in the balls.

Did see A COUPLE of very, very nice forks (3 in fact) - but don't be fooled by people except those on the tip of Kent that it was anything other than a huge thundery rain event.

I don't know if I'll even bother for the next plume if it's gonna always be like this.

Yeah, I did see some absolutely immense anvil crawlers, even later in the night when I'd all but given up. They were reasonably far east though and I didn't get anything on my camera, though I'll have to check my Dashcam as may have got lucky. 

I sympathise though pal, it appears the forecasting models found it such a difficult event to forecast last night, but they got it wrong in terms of location. We're all use to the damned old "Kent Clipper" and last night was another happy occasion for those lucky so and so's in Folkestone, Margate and Dover. 

[Chris K]

First strikes appeared down near Exeter

[Ben Sainsbury]

There we have our first strike! (of hopefully many)

We should see more showers continue to develop as instability spreads eastwards.

[Allseasons-Si]

7 minutes ago, Muffelchen said:

Looking lively near Exeter. Will it produce sferics?

 

Popping off now.

Edited May 29, 2017 by Allseasons-si

[Flash bang flash bang etc]

Clear patch appearing from Southampton area to the south and west. The appears to be moving in a NE direction (similar to the movement of last night's cells) so I am hoping this will give some sunny breaks for Hants and possibly the west of surrey this avo. I'm catching up on house stuff today so if something homegrown did kick off later I'd only be able to go 5-10 miles from where I am now, but I think it's still all to play for provided this French grey murk shifts sooner rather than later...

[Stormhog]

Managed to get a few shots at Pevensey last night, although the rain hit and forced me under cover before the lightning came close enough to catch the spectacular crawlers that followed.

[Steve Shears]

46 minutes ago, Martin Auld said:

I'm curious, do you guys prefer a thunderstorm in the daytime or when it's pitch black in the middle of the night? Personally I like watching them at night.

 

For me, the daytime ones offer extra photographic challenges so make the chasing worthwhile which can lead to all sorts of funny stories.

Night shots are fairly easy to sort out but the day ones require work - finding a great spot to get cloud formations (if your close to them they usually look rather murky in the UK), as well as the strike itself which can be hard to snap if you don't have some detector rig.

[Allseasons-Si]

@Stormhog

Nice shots there,similar to what i was seing on the Brighton cam last night

 

[Methuselah]

Evening storms for me; especially those that start when it's still light, but end after nightfall!

[UKSupercell]

3 hours ago, Supacell said:

I've just woken up after not going to bed until 6am, as this is the time I got home from my storm chase last night.

It was an evening of mixed feelings. At one point as I arrived at the M25, I was excited seeing a strong MCS moving over the channel and heading NNE towards the SE. I was heading eastwards into Essex and it looked as though I was set to be right underneath it. To then see it decide to turn more NE and hug the East Sussex and Kent coastline made me feel utterly disappointed. My problem was I had forgotten my cash card and knew I only had enough petrol to get about as far as the Dartford Tunnel, any further and I would not get home. I came off the motorway and parked up near to Tilbury getting a bit of video of some very distant lightning from the south.

After a bit I got fed up of standing in the rain to film the odd flash of lightning that was about 20 miles away and sat in my car pondering the time and money I had just wasted. Just then a big crawler lightning lit up the sky to my south-west and was followed by the first audible thunder. For the next hour I stayed put and watched the show around me. There was not much lightning, probably one a minute at best, but when it did happen it was bright and sometimes flashed multiple times. There was the odd impressive IC bolt thrown in too. Winds had also increased but were making it cold for standing outside, it appeared to be cold outflow from the storm. As the storm moved away I began heading home, it was probably close to 3am by now. Driving through West Tilbury I saw the most incredible IC crawler followed by a massive CG bolt. The thing pulsed and went on for about 3 seconds. I will have captured something as I was filming on my dash cam, but the bolt was to the right of the car so no chance I caught that.

Considering what should of been I think what happened was disappointing, and if only I had not forgotten my cash card and had therefore been able to get further SE. I know though that it could have been so much worse, and it felt almost as if the slim pickings I did see were a consellation prize but a prize none the less. Yes ok, I have spent a lot of money and had a whole night on the road, but absolutely sod all happened in Derbyshire again. I do have some video to get through and edit today though once I have woken up properly, I just hope it's all worked, as this is the next heart in mouth moment when you are out filming storms, did it actually record properly?

The question now is, when actually will anything happen in Derbyshire again??

And there was me thinking I had it bad last night! Sorry to hear pal. I've seen a lot of Kent Clippers that to be fair, have shifted a NNE direction and managed to put on a light show for the Essex coast too, but perhaps not last night it seems. Glad to hear you got some on your dash cam, likewise, and I'll be trawling through my 3 hours odd footage from my drive last night, as there will definitely be lightning on there. 

I persistently ask myself, "when will anything happen in south Bucks again, but just give it time. We're not even into June so we have another 3 to 4 months of thunderstorms. Things are only going started! My concern is that I've just got a job that requires me to travel throughout the country, and while I'm over the moon, I just know that I'll be elsewhere on business when a huge storm hits south Bucks! I believe there's a song by Sinatra, which goes "That's life!" which undoubtedly applies to many of us right now....

 

These lyrics really do hit home!!! Haha

[Allseasons-Si]

There does seem to be a CZ down there and into south/mid Wales.

[snowrye]

Well I got back indoors around 2.00am,spent a couple hours on facebook live,standing in the monsoon rains,on the sea wall at camber,unbelievable lightning,constant flashes,and some booming thunder overhead,1st time ive ever gone storm chasing and it was epic

[Thunderstruck]

I'm calling it a bust today already, but after last night and the overhead storm on Saturday morning, I'm ok with that. 

[sparky1972]

Good afternoon everyone, well we had nothing in the way of storms last night and we are certainly not going to get any today, a very chilly feeling 15c curently with light patchy rain, but with the start of summer a few days away now there is plenty of time.

[Ciderwithrosie]

1 hour ago, Allseasons-si said:

Some cells have blown up in the last ten minutes west of Exeter

Yes, a friend of mine in Tiverton said it's bucketiing down and a strike recorded near crediton half an hour ago . ,ore coming up from Brittany but it's a real lottery today . I have big black clouds all around me but not a drop of rain . Great fun . 

[Eye to the sky]

Afternoon all,it's currently cool and dull here just north of Derby.But if that cell that's currently over Birmingham continues to grow things could get interesting here in an hour or so.Had no thunder at all here so far this year,could we possibly get some today?!.

[UKSupercell]

Just going through my dash cam footage at present....already got 5 decent forked lightning flashes captured and half way through. Will put each clip into one video and upload to YouTube. 

[Supacell]

22 minutes ago, Eye to the sky said:

Afternoon all,it's currently cool and dull here just north of Derby.But if that cell that's currently over Birmingham continues to grow things could get interesting here in an hour or so.Had no thunder at all here so far this year,could we possibly get some today?!.

I'm watching this line of showers too. I'd be surprised to get thunder with there having been no sign of the sun but then some charts do model some CAPE this afternoon and evening.

Edited May 29, 2017 by Supacell
Correcting predictive text errors

[Polar Maritime]

Light rain here now with thick fog clinging to the hills. Temp 12c..

Edited May 29, 2017 by Polar Maritime

[Flash bang flash bang etc]

13 minutes ago, Polar Maritime said:

Light rain here now with thick fog clinging to the hills. Temp 12c..

Expect an incoming supercell soon

[Windblade]

Woken up last night at 2am by distant thunder (left the window a jar so anything that did come my way would wake me up). Storm got closer and we had 4 or 5 IC blue flashes and loud rumbles although nothing came directly over. Had moderate rain to go with it. I went back to sleep listening to it as the flahes were at least two minutes apart. Very relaxing but hardly what was forecasted. Looking on the radar screenshots from last night it looks like we just about got the very last tip of the decaying imports.

So, this weekend I've had a few rumbles saturday morning and a few rumbles with blue IC lightning last night. Hope the next few months are more active, although it's worth noting I've already seen more action so far this year than the whole of 2016 which was dismal.

Edited May 29, 2017 by Windblade

[Cheshire Freeze]

Something perhaps starting to develop across Wales down in towards the SW?

[Allseasons-Si]

3 minutes ago, CreweCold said:

Something perhaps starting to develop across Wales down in towards the SW?

Yes Crewe,this is my focal point of interest for here,i am free today and may chase later if things kick off,just making a spag-bol then i will decide later on what to do

[NO LONGER POSTING]

Lots of showers popping off over NW France.. 

Never mind, they will end up in Belgium 

[The PIT]

All we needed was some warmth. Sadly didn't happen nice to see some had storms yesterday but another fat zero here for the weekend.