I was woken just after 4am this morning by a very distant rumble of thunder so got up for tea and toast, and to watch the 'storm'. I should have stayed in bed. 4 or 5 faint flashes of lightning, 2 further barely audible rumbles of thunder and 3 minutes of 'rainfall' that just about dampened the pavement. Warm though, it hasn't fallen below 21c here overnight.

Elsewhere around the country it sounds as though all hell has let loose with widespread and often violent thunderstorms being reported.

Iv'e seen literally dozens of accounts many of which are reporting similar conditions. Near constant lightning, deafening thunder and torrential rain. In many places these conditions have persisted for several hours, other places have had several storms in succession with short breaks in between. Many people are saying these are some of the worst storms they have seen.

Amongst the worst hit areas are Kent and Essex in our region. Further afield parts of Wiltshire, Bristol and Avon, Shropshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. These are just some of the areas covered by frequent reports overnight. Sussex seems to have escaped completely, along with Surrey, Hampshire and most of the London area.

I'm really not too sure what to expect for the rest of today for London and The South East to be honest, given that conditions were absolutely ripe overnight, yet very little ( if anything ) happened for most of us. More storms are expected throughout the day, but I won't even try and hazard a guess as to where and when.........sorry.

Moley.

Given the severity of what you've posted I'm surprised it didn't get onto the BBC main news page.

(no doubt it will be by now just to prove me wrong)

_________________
Lets be careful out there !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23415544

Moley

While the overnight storms continue to rage on 'oop norf' those of us in London and the South East now need to look to our south as a possible MCS** has developed over the Bay of Biscay, and is moving roughly north east into northern France. This system will probably just meander into the Benelux countries, OR it MAY eventually wind it's way into our region later today.

It's worth keeping an eye on.

Moley

** MCS: Mesocale Convective System, a brief description here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoscale_ ... ive_system

Latest information @ 10:30am Tuesday July 23rd 2013.

Daytime heating in London and The South East ( currently 25c/77f here ) has already triggered one or two thunderstorms in our region, somewhere between Reading and Heathrow. The Met Office radar is predicting a fairly active spell of weather heading into London from a south westerly direction around 3-4pm this afternoon.

Moley

About half an hour ago (11:00) down here in Surrey we had a very close and therefore very loud thunderclap followed by 10 minutes of serious torrential.

All sunny now

_________________
Lets be careful out there !

I was watching that 'storm' on radar and following live reports of it's progress. It promised much and delivered little here in Northwood. 2 visible lightning strikes, about a dozen rumbles of thunder and 5 minutes of mediocre rainfall. Again barely enough to dampen the pavement outside. During the half hour it took to pass by the temperature fell from 26c ( 79f ) to 22c ( 72f ) and now the sun is back out expect to see the temperature rocket again.

Moley

the rain in Cowley lasted for 15 minutes maximum. One of our neighbours was working in Iver during the quick storm and it was torrential over there and he had to stop work and shelter (he's a car mechanic) We have half a cupful of rain in our water barrel

Thanks for the reports folks, always appreciated.

Well nothing much happened for most of our region this afternoon but further north a potent thunderstorm caused problems in Nottinghamshire, and Nottingham in particular, for the 2nd time in less than 24 hours. Experts are pretty much agreeing that this storm fell into the 'Supercell' ** category, and whilst not unknown, they are rare in this country.

All this storm activity was supposed to usher in a spell of much cooler and unsettled weather, but even that is looking unlikely now. Raf Northolt reached 30.3c this afternoon, making this the 9th occasion in the last 11 days where the temperature has exceeded 30c somewhere in the UK. It's also the 18th day in a row where the temperature has exceeded 28c.

It may cool down slightly in the next few days, but another plume of very warm and humid air is now being predicted to arrive from the near continent as we approach next weekend, bringing with it another threat of widespread thunderstorms for some locations.

Thanks as always for reading and posting. Moley

**Supercell: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercell

Heathrow 27.1c today so temperatures remain above average for the time of year.

Lack of oxygen thought to be responsible for fish losses in this article, which also includes some footage of the Nottingham flooding :

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... untry.html

The Met Office are putting out some early advisories for potential severe weather in The South East/East Anglia this weekend.

Just a quick update from me. Moley.