I half woke up when the first really big crash came, but nodded back off. Similar happened some point (maybe soon) after, but a little more awake. Then the loudest crack of thunder I've ever heard simultaneously accompanied a bright flash. So near I heard the crackle build to the full crescendo.

Woke me, Mrs S & our youngest up. And, reading the estate's WhatsApp group this morning, half the estate, too.

Really impressive - but, as I was still sleep-bleary, a bit unsettling. We got one more clap a few mins later but a fair bit away, then a very distant rumble.

I went back to sleep to the sound of rain hammering down.

Great. You get the nice weather (i.e. not damned humid), then you get the pay-off for our insufferable humidity down here! Always happens. 😂

Down here there were a few spots of rain but nothing more. The remaining convection is dying away and, as yet, no sign of this afternoon's potential trouble. The dewpoint's still 18.7, and that implies a lot of moisture available should anything develop.

The MetO text forecast still uses its unusual language, mind you:

Today:

A cloudy start with some showers, these gradually easing. Bright or sunny spells developing, before heavy showers and thunderstorms, possibly severe, develop into the afternoon. Hot and very humid. Maximum temperature 30 °C.

...and the convective risk remains through tomorrow, too...

Friday:

Any mist or fog patches soon clearing to a bright start. Sunny spells with scattered showers, possibly heavy with a risk of thunder. Maximum temperature 30 °C.

The radar suggests otherwise with a tiny almost invisible blip in the middle of Lyme Bay and a heavier affair over the Brecon National Park in Wales which is of course another country. I suppose they can still form today but I have my doubts they will, yet again. Love to be wrong though. A little rain would not go amiss for the garden.

Actual conditions, very high cloud , hot sunshine, and all PPN evaporating before it got to ground.

You couldnt make it up

Edit: Saying that, something has literally just popped up to the west of here.

But dry here.

That's just about where I am just now in the far SE corner of Gloucestershire.

I can confirm it's been a very lively afternoon with frequent torrential downpours and lots of thunder.

Great fun, no watering required tonight, and two of the three water butts are full up. 

Yes, Chris Fawkes showed the convergence line on the lunchtime weather. Nothing here at all apart from distant towering clouds.

Those rumbles of thunder are becoming louder over time with very heavy and torrential rain now also falling.

In addition to that, the radar maps show a line of very bright and intense echoes just to my west with quite a lot of lightning strikes.