This is rapidly becoming one of the most noteworthy if local thunder events of recent years around here. From 16:00 hrs thunder began and has continued more on than off until now and it's still going. Mendip area has been clobbered by torrential rain and lightning and after a brief lull it's back building yet again.
Originally Posted by: GIBBY
11 July 2012
Stuck for 3-4 hours or so under the central line of a local convergence zone that brought one after another of violent thunderstorms. The line spawned approx from just west of stokes bay to Selsey, and sign waved a little allowing the storms to occasionally clip the IOW and towns such Horndean, and Cowplain to the north of Portsmouth. This left my location being either clipped from the north, south, or hit directly.
My location at the time was near southsea seafront and I was several floors up with a good view of the surrounding area. My location was under continuess rain for the whole time, but some of the storm cores where severely intense with rain. The local gosport station was recording rain rates over 160mm and hour at times!!!
I witnessed the cores come in one after another and the best way to describe them was a wall of dense fog obscuring everything under it as it approached, I watched a building some 400-500 meters away vaninsh in some of the cores... These cores were pure rain!!! And lasted 5-10 minutes a time.
That afternoon locally 4-6 inches of rain fell.. The common was ankle deep in water, and the council mobile pump units were in action none stop clearing the roads that had become lagoons and rivers.
The thunder lightning was notable but not that memorable as we get worse, however quite a few properties got struck. It was the very localised intense rain that went on for quite a few hours that was memorable.