Check this out! Squall arriving at Luton Town FC - Crazy stuff:0)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIRxFVohq-Q&feature=youtube_gdata_player&noredirect=1 

Reports from Maidstone of a main door blowing in at a children's play centre, no one hurt. My phone hasn't rung, so looks like no serious lightning strikes in the area.

Just thinking - it was almost 10 years ago to the day (28th) when we had that nationwide thundersnow event! Shame there's no snow on the back of this one

Darren mentioned that on my facebook page earlier. Now that was a special day!

Had very gusty winds and heavy rain starting around 5 pm and lasting for about 20 minutes (didn't notice hail), but only occasional thunder and not close-up. It then went much quiter and colder afterwards with rain gently petering out.

Curdly looking clouds with waves at the base were observed before the squall-line (I think was Sc cas), and winds backed to the S before turning WNW.

A very impressive squall line by our standards. Other half said the thunder was some of the loudest she'd heard and was right overheard. I think most people managed to get something out of this which was good.

The hail pictures were impressive too and those winds really tore up some trees and branches in a short space.

Glad I bought this topic back onto page 1 early this morning then!

The main action was further south than I had anticipated first thing though, but as I mentioned earlier on it became a very orgaised convective line with some strike rates that would not look out of place in the more intense summer outbreaks. Kudos to those who caugth some action today (heavy rain & bog standard squall line here, unfo).

The squall line moved through here around mid afternoon - lightning every 15 secs or so at it's peak. The whole event lasted around half an hour or so  

Only recently got  back home from work, so a late report from me on this afternoon's epic storm!!   Never in my life have I seen anything so intense in Winter before!  A thunderstorm hit us at around 2.30pm, with the sky darkening pretty intensely. Increasing amounts of thunder were heard, then the sudden, intense deluge of rain which was being blown horizontally by strong gusts. Easily the heaviest January rain I've ever seen in Gainsborough, that's for over 30 years.

 During the peak of the storm, there were some impressive multiple lightning flashes which were followed immediately by crashing thunder. So some very close lightning strikes here.  

One chap I spoke to this evening said that it was like the kind of rainfall you only see abroad - that gives some perspective on the event.  

Someone posted earlier saying the reason for such strong storms was the temperature gradient around the front, but surely even that wouldn't account for the amazing rainfall intensities we've seen today, especially considering it's only January?

I think this is what you're looking for... 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontogenesis

Just had a look back through my records to find previous thunder events that occured here in January , finding two previous events.  And something very intriguing has become apparent:

January 13th, 1984.   Some thundery rain overnight.

January 27th, 1994.   Thunderstorm with hail.

January 25th, 2014.   Thunderstorm with intense rain.

If you also add in the 2004 thundersnow event (which didn't affect us here),  it seems there's something about years that end in "4" that produce January thunder events!

A late report. We were driving from Cambridge towards Bedford yesteday just before 4pm when the squall hit. The sky had been getting very dark indeed ahead of us and we could see lightning flickering so I had an idea what was coming, but the suddeness of the deluge was remarkable - it was like driving into a waterfall, and the wipers evan on max couldn't cope and as I was literally driving blind I had to pull over. There was intense flash and gunshot thunder as a CG struck somewhere nearby off to our right. The temperature on the car thermo dropped from 6c to 3C in about a minute, and there were bigs blobs of sleet on the windscreen. In character it was very reminiscent of the famous January 2004 thundersnow event - if only the temp yesterday had been a few degrees colder it would have been a truly awesome event.

Heavy rain/hail shower here in Arborfield at the moment.

Brief hailstorm in Evesham

A late report from me too because I missed this thread yesterday, but your report sounds like mine Andy.

I was at work in Mansfield and it was dry, mild and sunny until 2pm when it suddenly got very dark and the heavens opened.  We had torrential rain, hail and very frequent crashes of thunder and lightning.  The best storm I've seen for a long time and probably the longest lasting.  I was thinking it would clear up long before I finished work at 3pm but it carried on until 2.45pm, then the rain eased to moderate but it was noticably colder.