Very dark here with constant thunder which has developed very quickly to my south.

The charts were great for the Midlands. I'm sat by the M5 close to Birmingham and the cells looked to be heading up the M5 on a direct path. As the storm approached the montrous cloudscape was impressive with lightning far in the distance (the type you see in America approaching).

However when it arrived, aside from going dark as night nearly...the actual event seemed somewhat restrained. The rain came down heavy and there was at points a fair bit of lightning but it was high up and the thunder itself lacked the booms of some storms. It was also very calm in terms of wind which was unusual. Glad I saw it...but the charts made it look a bigger beast than the reality.

Looks like Portsmouth and the Southampton area are seeing some action I'd have thought.

Saw some lightning in the early hours this morning plus a few claps of thunder but it was a bit further away,rained heavy for a time,looks like its over the portsmouth area at the moment,does still look threatning here but dont think we will get any more for a bit.

Regular flashes and bangs for the last 20 minutes. 

Look at http://www.theweatheroutlook.com/twodata/uk-lightning-strikes.aspx to see how rapidly this storm cell has developed in the last hour - also a similar one off (and now on) Brighton. But the weather gods are being even-handed; both Chichester and Brighton missed the early-morning (5am) cell that gave Worthing a downpour.

It was sunny when I got up at 6.30 am, but heavy rain and some good thunder and lightning now.

First narrow band of showery rain is about an hour away but sky has gone milky.
Dry warm and sunny so far.

thunderstorm in the fordingbridge area about 8.45 a.m. nothing exceptional.

hi been up all night well until 5am lol I got woken up at 9.20am by three claps of thunder but the rain was something else something like a monsoon . I was woundering if these storms, some of us are having. Are all there will be today or with the heat of the day will there be more by the evening. thank you

Clare Balding just said the rain would arrive at Epsom at 2pm. Not sure who is feeding her this info

 We will get it in the next hour though it doesnt look very severe. Certainly nothing worthy of the hysterical press coverage

Might have got one crack of thunder out of this waking me at 8:45am. Other than that, a total failiure for Reading, with brief bouts of heavy rain and nothing much more 

With the summer shaping up in favour of this sort of setup occuring relatively often (relative to hardly ever...), I hope this turns out to be a false dawn!

A brief storm in last hour - standard fare to be honest.
Probably it for today here but inland can hope for homegrowns this afternoon.

It's hazy sunshine here again now but the recent thunder storm moved in very quickly and judging by the sky, I'm not expecting this dry spell to last very long.

Heavy rain with a rumble of thunder.  Max. rr/hr 46.0mm, 2.6mm total

A recent downpour here with some rumbles of thunder.  

Was that it? At least the race day will pass off quite nicely now. Those in midlands may get better from the home grown stuff later

High-based activity here earlier this morning; a few distant deep ground-shaking rumbles and a few flashes - the closest being from a powerful CG around a mile away to the west - the flash lit the room up! Probably a positive bolt  very loud thunder from that. Just a couple of mm rainfall. General high overcast here now not helping the surface heating atm ...

Heavy rain here.

That storm earlier on passed just to the west of here but fast moving.

10 minute downpour about half hour ago, trying to brighten up now..... That it for the SE for today?

http://www.raintoday.co.uk/