Now, my Mrs says that on our local weather forecast this evening (I missed it, as I was marshalling at Leicester Speedway tonight) that theres an outside chance that one of them there thunderstorms from down south making it to Leicester around 5am-6am in the morning?
Any truth in this??
Cheers
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So there I was enjoying my Sunday evening and almost letting this one slip under my radar

The first clue came from some straggly convective clouds drifting around somewhat aimlessly. The air is very close and warm.

Here she comes.... so much for a good night's sleep

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Looks ferocious on radar

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Some thunder and lightning and the first rain in 24 days!

Lightning seen to the South this far North in Somerset.

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Fb update from a friend talking about torrential rain and lightning - Devon way.

Just come back from my parent's house near Romsey. They are on a hill and I had a great view of the lightning away to the SW and could even hear some low rumblings of thunder. The sunset showed up the tops of the cb anvils very nicely. The lightning was quite pink. This is what warm summer evenings are all about. Fantastic stuff.

Not far off three flashes per minute visible here.

Very little noise though - the faintest murmurs is all. The storms are not liking the arrival on land at all. Imagine if this had occured 6 hours earlier... potential exists tomorrow and Tuesday

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As radar shows, dry in Pompey. No bangs or flashes here.... of course  Dorset and Wilts seems to be the main areas for tonight.

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Hearing more rumbles here now.

Still clear skies to my north, in fact I saw a breif shooting star as I gazed north and tried to figure out whether there's a faint suggestion of noctilucent clouds or not

By the looks of the radar, the strongest remaining feature is now passing to my west. A vague, decaying mass is on it's way through here - hardly a bolt of lightning to be seen from that one.

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All over now for here. We had lots of lightening and distant rumbles of thunder. Only light to moderate rain for a time. The storm seemed to fizzle out here as it approached the coast. I'm hoping tomorrow will be better for some decent storm action.

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East Dorset, thanks to butler son on NW:

 

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Cracking picture

Would love a storm here and a good downpour for a time this week, then continued dry sunny weather from next weekend please

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Thunder and lightning here for the past 30mins now.

WOW where did that spring from? I was up at 4am, checked the radar for anything, and now this ! Looks great ! Well jell !

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That will be the sunlit illuminated distant anvil top on the NW horizon I can see from Folkestone 100 miles away 

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It's starting to clear now and rumbles are becoming more distant.

Just 0.2mm of rainfall here but a station about 1 mile north of me recorded 8mm within 10mins, so a very localised rainfall event!

Morning George yes only the briefist of light showers barely wetting the ground first rain in over two weeks. Thunder fading now.

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ESTOFEX have extensive warnings out today with the vast majority oif the UK under a Level 1 alert. There is an extensive discussion on the site that is worth a read. I like this bit:-

Probably the least severe risk exists with the first thunderstorms, which evolve before noon as this activity is still slightly elevated with forecast soundings showing a weakening cap between 800 and 900 hPa. Still, 500 to 1000 J/kg elevated CAPE likely result in an isolated large hail and strong wind gust event. The later severe risk could become bimodal: existing WAA thunderstorms move to the N ahead of the uncapped CAPE/thetae-plume over S/C-UK and remain elevated with an isolated severe risk. The southernmost storms however could start to build into the weakly capped and very unstable air mass to the south (over S/C-UK) and could become severe due to MLCAPE now approaching 1000 to 1500 J/kg and more surface based activity due to a weakening cap. Other thunderstorm clusters, which evolve during the afternoon and evening hours over S-UK will also contain an enhanced severe risk due to large hail and strong to isolated severe wind gusts. The heavy to isolated excessive rainfall risk also increases during that time frame. 

There is a convective cell to my SW, I can see it from here over north Cheshire.

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Wow, sounds like a stunning evening! 

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Here's hoping WE get to see some of that later on down the line. While trying to be as level headed as possible about it all, I don't want to experience yet another crushing disappointment if nothing happens over here.

But we are well overdue such a storm.

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The only upside to the overcast, cool start here is it may dampen the chances if convection.

Enjoy your storms, those that like them.

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Big storms tonight for most of England and Wales and well into tomorrow to.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/brack0.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/brack0a.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/brack1.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/brack1a.gif

 

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The Estofex is a great read :-)