I think we were quite fortunate last night. The cell exploded out of nowhere on the radar over Brighton and the brightest white echo passed exactly over Reigate on its way north. Extremely intense rain (no hail that I could see though) but the rainfall was still localised but the light show was in full swing. That started to kick off in amazing style as the cell reached Gatwick and then as passed over us and on over the hills to the north. I was looking at lightningmaps.org at the live sferics and the rate was amazing. 

The cell that was over Bournemouth at the time seemed to have the edge at that time but I still count myself lucky to have been treated to that show.

Anywhere on the web where last nights lightning strikes can be played back?

I saw and heard the downpour last night.  then went back to sleep. my wife told me about thunder and lightning this morning...... 

Plenty of rain here last night. Feels like the tropics out there still. Very warm here in the East.

25c already in Mildenhall.

30c/32c must be possible in the East later.

Posted this here as heatwave thread appears to be locked still.

It's unlocked now, sorry for the delay... was up late last night 

Looking back at satellite and radar sequences for 22:00 to 01:00 last night that I captured on video, it seems that coastal convergence gave things an extra kick over Bournemouth, allowing some surface-based convection to initiate along with the elevated convection. The result was a briefly supercellular storm or at least a severe storm cell, which hung on until somewhere near Salisbury, at which point the surface support dwindled and it broke down into a still very electrically active elevated MCS.

That breaking down period led to a phenomenal cloudburst right in my back yard, rain rates far beyond anything I've ever seen - even footage of tropical downpours looks less extreme!

I now have some 40 minutes of dark, noisy footage to look through, but did make a note of when the storm peaked, which will help  

Just 8.2mm here in one hour. According to Netweather's accumulation radar that looks about right. Parts of Christchurch looks to have had around 2-5mm, so quite a sharp drop-off to the East.

It does seem apparent that those to the north and west of me have recorded a lot more than the 18-22mm that the radar accumulation graphic suggests.

Reviewing local station reports, it looks like the storm dropped around 25 mm in the space of an hour, 30 mm across two hours.

To be honest I expected more, but of course such turbulent rain can cause the gauges some problems.

The offical report from Hurn for 11pm is entertaining - 'rain shower(s) or intermittent rain, violent'.

It's that last word that makes all the difference! Interestingly there was also a wind gust not far off 50 mph reported.

Heavy rain and some thunder and lightning here in Aberdeen currently.

Some of the rain is very bevy (and shows up well on the radar!)

With two thunderstorms in three days I'm wondering if we have used up our quota until the 2020s 

A particularly severe thunderstorm here in the early hours; it started off with long, almost continuous dull rumbles, with lightnings every few seconds, then ended with few loud cracks & torrential rain, before it suddenly moved away. 

Torrential thunderstorms here after 2:10am last night with tropical rain, intense lighting and very loud thunder, sudden bangs, cracks the lot.

Close CG strikes knocked the power out on our estate for a short while during the height of the storms.

A good night with the first direct hit of the year here.

Roll on the next round please.

22mms of rain in total which was surprising as I expected a lot more than that!

Worth the long wait eh, Duane? Thunderstorm overhead here briefly around 1.15am and a great lightning display from that massive area of storms that skirted by here just to the east. A notable feature about this event here was the high easterly winds - enhanced in part by the nearby hills to the east and surface outflow from that mass of storms nearby! Winds were already into the 30's mph here before the storms arrived! An epic night

Oh and just 8mm of rain here!

Somehow or other we managed to miss  everything.   A massive area of highly  electrified storms   passed  about 10 miles  to the west and gave  almost continuous lightning  and a  continuous low "growl" for a time.  There were  more isolated storms at a greater distance away passing  to our east -  giving a more sporadic display from the other side of the house. Nothing overhead and no rain at all.

Indeed

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3149227/Spectacular-display-overnight-lightning-puts-pause-heatwave.html

Had a fairly brief but very intense period of rain last night, enough to wake me up but the rain was louder than the thunder. I think there was probably some hail in there too.

Farnborough only recorded 2mm though, and everything was bone dry again by about 10am. Won't have made any difference to the dry grass etc.

Glad my camping trip to Dorset wasn't this weekend, that lot over Poole way would probably have destroyed my tent!

Didn't think anything would happen last night despite being told that its 1hr away, then 30 mins away. Then right on cue a little cell popped up in Brighton and rapidly moved through to Gatwick where I was perched on top of a multi-storey car park.

It certainly gained in strength as it got overhead. I'd liked to have been further north as it seemed to explode as it tracked towards London. Lots and lots of CC but a good few CG's (some of which were particularly close). Lucky enough to capture one on camera!

Gatwick Lightning Looking North towards Reigate

My mum is in Odstock hospital at the moment just south of Salisbury. Went to visit this afternoon and heard some stories of an incredible storm last night. The description of the rainfall was exactly as you say above - like nothing people had seen before.

The hospital itself, which is on relatively high ground in a rural area, received two separate direct lightning strikes one of which tore a hole in the roof of one of the wards and knocked out the power.

http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/13371210.Nightclub_and_homes_hit_with_flooding_in_thunderstorm/?ref=mr&lp=1

Chichester is obviously in a rain shadow from the Isle of Wight. Storms all around us but bone dry here and not even a distant rumble to be heard.

I was counting on some rain at least to help out with the late summer bedding