1.5km res Arome rain and CAPE charts are quite impressive for this pm. All online now here

http://www.theweatheroutlook.com/twodata/arome.aspx

Been raining on and off throughout 2nd half of night, heavy at times, plus heard couple of deep rolling thunder between 0600-0700 hours. A huge anvil stretching from channel Islands to Denmark and Brussels to Cumbria too.

Thanks Brian! 

Thanks Brian. Looks like a lot of potential energy around this afternoon, although perhaps signs that the main thrust of storms may pass slightly west of my location.

Still, we had at least 3 waves of thunderstorms overnight with a lots of rain, and quite frequent lightning at times - can't complain too much!

I'll post some pics of yesterday evening's skyscapes later.

In a conference with the Met today it is clear that there are two areas of concern, one with the Biscay threat but also the threat of home grown storms that could develop from 2 onwards.

There's a wave of 3 storms in parallel just about to leave northern France heading towards Dorset/Hampshire eastwards, with others on tow behind and developing.

http://www.lightningmaps.org/#y=49.785;x=-3.9214;z=6;t=2;m=sat;r=0;s=0;o=0;b=;n=0;d=2;dl=2;dc=0;

So muggy out there. Just waiting for the atmosphere to go bang.
That first line of activity appears to have disappeared as soon as it left the French mainland. Radar says rain now moving into southern coastal counties. Things could change and develop very quickly.

As dark as dusk here in Maidstone. 23c / 19c. All very weird.

Most electrical activity is still over France. Look's like being boring thundery rain/showers, with most of if any electrical for the far south and east. Though as you say it could all change and very quickly.

Heavy shower with a crack of thunder, but as I thought it's turned out to be thundery rain/showers with little electrical activity.

Tstorm.  Several cracks of thunder.  Rain not too heavy at present.

Strange set up; lots of lightning but only occasional claps of thunder 

Just had a brief but heavy power shower from a passing cell, the sun's come back out again now.

All in all, including last night's thundery stuff, I have had 19.2 mm of rain since my last station reset at 11 pm last night.

Wow! Around 4 strikes per second recorded at Saint Quentin! Must be one scary beast and puts the thunderstorm that just passed here in its place. Still, a few close flashes and booming thunder is not to be snifffed at...

Torrential rain but nothing electrical. 11.2mm in the last 15 mins.

Cycled through some fairly biblical rainfall about 17:30ish on way back from Sevenoaks, with a few rumbles of thunder reasonably close by. Quite a lot of flash flooding in evidence through the lanes with extensive runoff from the fields.