I would like to make it clear that the weather is just something I have a particular interest in and it's a hobby of mine. My meteorological knowledge and understanding wouldn't fill the back of a postage stamp to be honest, though I am always trying to learn more.

All I try and do is gather as much information as I can from a number of weather related websites, then try and interpret that as best I can and make a rough prediction here.

This weekend is looking quite promising but beyond that there are growing signs of a potentially thundery breakdown in our region as we head into next week. Personally I would be quite happy with that, but I happen to like thunderstorms whilst realising a lot of folk don't.

Whatever the weather, thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

Moley

Thanks Moley & Co(ast)

Same from me - you have been more accurate that the Met office on many occasions

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Lets be careful out there !

Thanks Jon, Kremmen and everyone else who takes the time and trouble to read and/or post on this topic.

I haven't got all the facts to hand but it seems temperatures did indeed reach or exceed 24c in some parts of our region over the last 2-3 days with Sunday being an absolute beauty in terms of blue skies and sunshine here in north west London.

Monday saw a noticeable rise in humidity as a trough to our west interacted with the warm air flow off the near continent. A very reliable weather station in nearby Watford reported 25.7c this afternoon, and I have seen an as yet unconfirmed report that Heathrow recorded 26.3c.

It takes a a number of ingredients to fall in place to trigger thunderstorms, and the those ingredients all fell into place over a large part of Wales this afternoon ( Monday ), with some widespread thunderstorms being reported from that region. Storms were also quite widely reported from parts of the West Country, and later this evening the storms are affecting north west England and Scotland.

A further outbreak of elevated thunderstorms are trying to make their way across the English Channel from northern France as I type, so Coast may well see some activity down on the Sussex coast later in the night. It's still not clear how far north and east these will spread but there is a slight risk of the occasional thunderstorm affecting us here in the London overnight and into Tuesday.

It looks like being a fairly unsettled week for our region, with temperatures falling back to around 19-22c and always the risk of some heavy showers interrupting sunny spells.

Have a good week whatever the weather.

Moley

Appreciate the compliments folks but overall I think the Met Office do a pretty decent job, then again they should with all the knowledge and equipment at their disposal. As regular readers of this topic will know I am reluctant to criticize the Met Office but they scored an epic fail today.

As I mentioned in an earlier post there was a chance of thunderstorms pretty much anywhere in London and The South East this week and the Met Office issued a warning earlier to cover our region for today. ( Thursday ).

For some inexplicable reason they removed the warnings earlier this morning when it was quite apparent to anyone who takes more than a passing interest in the weather that a whole batch of thunderstorms were making a bee-line towards us. A simple look at the rainfall radar and lightning detector sites freely available to the general public would have confirmed that.

Within an hour or so of the Met Office warnings being removed, the thunderstorms exploded into life across the region. Here in north west London I witnessed 4 separate notable thunderstorms in the space of 2 hours. Frequent cloud to ground lightning strikes, booming thunder, torrential rain and hail and localised flooding all occurred within 5 miles of my location, and many other locations in the South East. There is a video out there of The Shard receiving a direct hit during all this mayhem**.

Thunderstorms are notoriously difficult to predict ahead of time, almost on a par with predicting snow here in the UK, but this morning was a different kettle of fish. Amateurs were picking up on the threat and reporting it as the Met Office chose to remove the warnings. That's poor to be honest.

Moan over. Thanks as always for reading and posting. Moley


**Video of The Shard receiving a direct hit :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVqsLU3LQyE

I was in London yesterday when that storm passed over. It was like a lunar eclipse it went so dark. I was at Holborn Viaduct so not too far away.

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Lets be careful out there !

Finally got a few flashes and bangs yesterday thanks Moley - you gotta love those storms!

Looking like a wet start to the next BH weekend which is shame as I wanted to go to the Heathfield Show for a browse but don't fancy trying to get out of the fields afterwards on the end of a rope tied to a muddy tractor....

I think there will be rain showers right the way through the weekend, with a few, heavy at times. There looks to be a clear spot later Sunday afternoon into Monday before it all starts again.

Happy weekend folks!!

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Looking for the Summer

It was quite spectacular out here in the north west suburbs Kremmen. It's been a few years since I witnessed an outbreak of thunderstorms like that practically on my doorstep. I did my best to get out and do some filming but it was impossible to battle through traffic and find a suitable spot to park up and have a good view.

Hello Coast.

My friends down in Hastings ( Fairlight ) are going to the Heathfield Show on Saturday though I have tried to tell them the weather may not be ideal.

On the plus side, I will hopefully be heading down there to house-sit for them later next week and I'm looking forward to 2 weeks on the sunny South Coast. I hope to make a trip to Birling Gap while I'm in the area to see how that part of the coastline has changed in recent months.

If you fancy a beer give me a shout.

Have a good weekend folks. Moley

With slack low pressure close by it does look likely that London and The South East will see a few more days of unsettled weather with occasional heavy and possibly thundery showers.

There are some tentative signs that high pressure will start to build as we head in to June though, so fingers crossed for a gradual improvement.

Moley.