Thunderstorm coming our way in mid Suffolk. The whole western horizon is a mass of lightning flashes

Another Met Office warning for some eastern areas this afternoon, stretching as far south as Kent this time:

Heavy showers and isolated thunderstorms are likely to develop across some eastern parts of England during Sunday afternoon.

The public should be aware that localised downpours could lead to temporary surface water flooding, such impacts
perhaps most likely where heavy thundery showers have occurred during the previous 24 hours. 


Chief Forecaster's assessment:

Rain will clear from the east this morning, but as the cloud thins and breaks to allow some sunshine, so heavy showers
and isolated thunderstorms are likely to develop for the afternoon, some of which may be slow-moving with the potential
for a few places to see around 20 mm of rain within an hour. Showers should die out more rapidly this evening than
on Saturday evening.

From ESTOFEX:

...southeastern UK, Netherlands...

Storms will move rather slowly and some local elevated precipitation sums may arise.

Also, the absence of flow and vertical shear is beneficial for development of spout-type tornadoes, but 00Z soundings looked

quite stable with dry layers in the low to mid levels, so no level 1 area was issued at this point.

I watched yesterday's develop from about 4.00 near Rochester, the rumbles started from about 6 and lasted about an hour but I was always on the very edge of it, friends drove from Minster to Isle of Grain and said was the worse drive in rain they have ever experienced.

 EDIT: Real heavy shower just started, popped up from nowhere.

An impressive cell has developed to the NNW in the last 30 minutes very quickly. It's fired up strong enough to start producing some thunder recently. Another cell appears to developing due west meaning that there is the chance of something decent within the next hour.

A brief thunderstorm here this afternoon, plus lots of heavy rain.

A quick catch up from the arse end of Kent...

A few rumbles last night, a few sharp showers around lunchtime today. Ramsgate/Sandwich copped it earlier, with reports of flash flooding in Sandwich.

Winds seem to have veered slightly, and cells now seem to be generating as they leave the SE Essex coast, heading towards the North Kent coast. Watching that monster heading towards Dover/Folkeston at the moment too :-O

Also, reports of a small funnel cloud nr Westgate-on-Sea (just west of Margate)

So impressive JB..its the sort of thing you see in Florida. IDJ..get a decent photo please !

Our North Sea import is overhead now, but nothing of note tbh, except all lights flashed a few mins ago, complete with temp loss of digital TV. No thunder, and TV is now back, albeit with a less than perfect reception...just in time for the World Cup! meh.

Folkestone/Hythe must getting hammered abouit now too?

Your wish is my command, Steve.



Just had a power outage which only lasted for a minute or two, but had upset my PC (did that repair restart thing which took the best part of 30 minutes before I could use the computer again).

I took this photo as the cell was heading towards Dover thus bypassing Folkestone in the process - or so I thought as it changed its mind and headed southwards and slammed into Folkestone anyway and I got to see a small number of close strokes. These isolated small scaled slow moving "popcorn" cells are a devil to follow and forecast accurately!

It's now just dark and overcast with moderate rain (EDIT: Now heavy).

Thanks Ian..lovely photo... the glaciation and speed of development was most impressive. We've done well this year for thundery showers. Another 15mm in the guage today nearly 60mm for the month means that the lawn is a lovely dark green colour.

Calm now with clearing skies to the west. 

Very nice picture! 

The storms have now gone over UK for time being. Looking at this site, http://www.blitzortung.org/Webpages/index.php?lang=en, there are currently (23.12 hrs 13/07/2014) scattered storms over parts of Europe, including E Ukraine and Black Sea, plus parts of Scandinavia and NW Africa.

I also notice storms in unusual area - Norwegian Sea, between Iceland and Jan Mayen, where the sea is normally too cold for cumulonimbus (like the type UK had today). Are these high level storms? I'd be most interested.

BTW, some nice storms over parts of America at the moment. See, http://www.lightningmaps.org/realtime?lang=en.

Nice assessment. No wonder he's the Chief.

Malcolm
Wakefield & Gothenburg, SWE

Once again, I fail to see why the Meto feel obliged to put a warning out on Tuesday, for an event on Saturday.  I repeat, summers in the UK are often typified by warm/very warm/hot weather, that breaks down into Thundery activity.  Leave the warnings to nearer the event, when details are more predictable.

I agree, a family member has already cancelled a trip out on Saturday to the Midlands because she thinks the weather will be too bad after seeing warnings. I've already told her not to take any notice just yet but some people never learn!

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/brack2a.gif

Saturday is looking a bit lively.

Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

To be fair, the yellow warning is classed as an advisory, and is worded as such. "Be aware that bad weather might affect your planned activites", not "cancel everything and prepare the fall-out shelter". The text on the advisory contains a lot of "possible", "may", "might" s etc. and clearly states that the advisory will be updated in the next few days. Seems fair enough IMO. If I had a BBQ planned for Saturday (as many might be given that warmer weather is on the way) I would like to know that there might be some bad weather around, and I would keep tabs on the updated warnings each day this week.

Well I'll be a little less diplomatic than Ben in saying I believe the MetO advisories are justified because they are worded in such a way as to placate not only Mr 'why werent we warned' Angry but also Miss 'so where is the snow' Moan.

The advisory is not an instruction to cancel everything and anyone taking it as such needs educating about the purpose of these advance statements. I fear however that the general public, raised on a diet of hyperbole and sensationalism from the gutter toilet papers, often misinterpret well-meaning advice and guidance to be an actual forecast. 

I think the problem is the Met Office put a large yellow blob over areas where they think it will be affected, to some people like my relative it means every single place in that yellow area! as not everyone understands meteorology. It would been better if they worded it like this: "not every where in the yellow advisory will get a thunderstorm, please do not cancel normal activities but be cautious and check the radar and latest forecasts nationally and regionally as Saturday comes closer" 

The other problem is these thunderstorms can be incredibly hit and miss - a couple of miles from a torrential downpour it can be bone dry, I don't think a situation like that warrants cancelling a trip many days beforehand. But like I said some people don't learn or fully understand meteorology in that way.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/brack1a.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/brack2.gif

Classic.