So who's idea was it for that rainstorm this morning ?

I thought I was going to get away with a clean car for once

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Lets be careful out there !

What rainstorm? Cowley has been dry all day

No rain here either but plenty to our south and west.

A large area of intense thunderstorms over Biscay and north west France caught everyone out when they began crossing the English Channel during the night reaching the South Coast around 5am this morning. They are slowly moving north/northwest.

This development was totally unpredicted.

There are quite widespread reports of torrential rain and frequent lightning, with the worst of the conditions initially around the Isle of Wight/Solent/Portsmouth area. These storms are expected to affect Hampshire/Dorset/Somerset as they move north and west.

The easternmost report for thunder I have seen so far was from Eastbourne, and the northernmost report of rain was from the Heathrow/Staines/Thorpe area early this morning. No doubt thats what Kremm encountered ?

Im keeping an eye on the radar though as at the moment an area of sharp showers to the south of London seem to be heading our way. I don't know if these showers are accompanied by any thunder/lightning at this time.

If conditions warrant I will try and regularly update here, and in the meantime please feel free to post your own observations and reports.

Moley

From 05:30 to 06:00, all the way to Surrey it rained.

13:05 and it's raining here now (Surrey)

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Lets be careful out there !

Thanks for the report Kremm. That area of showers to the south of London seem extremely reluctant to track any further north at the moment. The thundery outbreaks seem to be much further west now, Dorset/Somerset as I mentioned earlier. Nothing reported locally though the atmosphere definately has that 'stormy' feeling about it here.

There is widespread agreement on the weather websites that todays events took even the most respected forecasters by suprise. The conditions were just not conducive for the thunderstorms to survive and cross The Channel but they did. This falls into the 'very unusual' category according to most experts.

I don't make a habit of criticising the Met Office, but where they have fallen down badly today in my opinion, is that it took them until 10.31 this morning to issue a severe weather warning for the affected areas. Thats some 5-6 hours AFTER the event. I can accept the fact they didn't forecast it earlier given how unusual it was, but once it was KNOWN what was happening, and precisely where, they should have issued warnings far earlier.

Rant over, and please continue to post whats happening where you are. I feed live updates into the various weather websites, and its a useful source of information.

Thanks as always. Moley

Eventually stopped raining at 14:00 and we now have white fluffy bits and it looks like it might have stopped.

On my PC I've got the Met Office weather gadget and that showed the rain quite well as it tracked across the IOW and up through Hampshire/Surrey.
Now showing rain just south of Bristol and a narrow band from Gloucester to London (NW to SE).

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Lets be careful out there !

See what you have done now Pam ?? It's been sunny all week and today ??..........

Just started raining here now Kremm. Nothing of note though, which is a shame because I do enjoy a good thunderstorm and some locations had some quite spectacular displays earlier today.

Moley

You said you didn't have any so I sent it over

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Lets be careful out there !

Sowrry........

We had a short shower a couple of hours ago, but now have full sun!

It sounds as though the cloud cover is rapidly clearing from the south in our region then. Latest reports from the South Coast say they have clear blue skies, buts its raining here in Northwood.

Meanwhile another crop of thunderstorms have broken out over Northern France this afternoon, and are heading across the English Channel. Most likely heading towards the West Country later this evening.

Hopefully we should see a return to sunnier conditions here in London and The South East this weekend.

Moley