Okay the heaven opened.. not a lot of lightning but some serious cloud bursts and flooding.

This is a proper plume type storm not your typical April showers.

It's still 17.8C.

Serious rain just started in Chichester (2010 hrs), and a few distant rumbles. Looking forward to a few flashes of lightning. Radar rain echoes heaviest just east of Portsmouth at this time (>32 mm/hr).

For northern England, this has all the hallmarks of previous disappointments - the time when things were supposed to kick off has passed and it's unlikely anything will happen now.

I'm not expecting any rain here until tomorrow.

With these being elevated storms then timing with regard to insolation is not as important, but I suspect for the north it will be Cumbria into southern and eastern Scotland rather than central areas of N. England at most risk. 

Well that's what a thunderstorm should be, all flashing and lots of noise. I think the storm we have just had was the best I've seen in years, mostly all fork lightning and lots of it. If that storm is building then some are going to have quite a show further north.

The centre of the storm was quite violent with heavy rain and strong winds, also the temperature dropped off markedly and enough for me to put a coat on. Behind the storm the temperature has returned to what it was, warm and humid. A real classic that one.

Edit, forgot to say during the storm we had a brief power cut and the noise from the thunder set off plenty of car alarms.

 

With these being elevated storms then timing with regard to insolation is not as important, but I suspect for the north it will be Cumbria into southern and eastern Scotland rather than central areas of N. England at most risk. 

At least we've got the first bust of the year out of the way. Plenty more to come too I suspect. 

 

At least we've got the first bust of the year out of the way. Plenty more to come too I suspect. 

Good to see someone at the MetO is awake and updating the warnings:

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/warnings#?date=2018-04-21

Well once again, forecasts suggested my area might be a favoured spot for storms and yet again like last year it is slowly turning into another bust. 

Well once again, forecasts suggested my area might be a favoured spot for storms and yet again like last year it is slowly turning into another bust. 

"At risk" rather than favoured I would have thought, same as my location. A warning does not equal fruition. 

 

"At risk" rather than favoured I would have thought, same as my location. A warning does not equal fruition. 

No I was referring to more detailed convective forecasts not severe weather warnings. 

 

No I was referring to more detailed convective forecasts not severe weather warnings. 

 

I don't know any reputable agency that has favoured any location on a detailed convective forecast? Unless you are referring to the Other Side, in which case caveat emptor.

Live action here http://www.camsecure.co.uk/portsmouth_harbour_webcam.html

Phenomenal lightning storm; thunder continuous, heavy rain, lightning every 10 seconds or so. 5th May 1989.

 

I don't know any reputable agency that has favoured any location on a detailed convective forecast? Unless you are referring to the Other Side, in which case caveat emptor.

I presume Kev is referring to convectiveweather.co.uk and NetWeather's Nick Finnis who specialises in storm forecasts. I don't know if either had a 'favoured' location but both had a moderate chance for severe weather across northern England - which still isn't a certainty that anything will happen but I think a bit of disappointment is understandable, especially in an era where thunder days are falling for no apparent reason. 

https://www.lightningmaps.org/?lang=en#m=sat;r=0;t=3;s=0;o=0;b=;n=0;z=13;d=2;dl=2;dc=0;y=50.9711;x=-1.3465;

Lightning now nearly continuous! Unbelievable! Flashing constantly- more than summer! Nearest strike was about 200m away.