I was woken by some very large raindrops landing, sometime around 5am. It’s really unusual because with a thatched roof we virtually never hear rain.  I think it only lasted a few minutes and the radar showed we were at the bottom edge of the band that moved ENE.

13mm rain so far , torrential. 

Clouds looked impressive with the Cb and Ac cas con cloud bases looking very high, but there were occasional ragged low clouds (St fra, Cu fra) with patchy hill fog to the W.

The storms were that of medium level/elevated type. They feed on overheated lower troposphere rather than by direct surface heating, c.f, the storms on 18 May, and remain lively even if the surface is cold! 

Yeah, we had some impressive thunder, including one almost overhead.

The dog - almost 8 - has never been bothered by thunder previously (and we've had a few really loud cracks since she's been with us - including one that shattered the aerial, guttering and fascia of a house round the corner from here), but she was trembling last night.

The rain gave everywhere a freshening up.

5mm's only, but a nice display nevertheless.🌩️

Thanks for that explanation. The ones here that missed me began over the Channel just south of Purbeck at about 10pm. They formed very fast within half an hour perhaps or less to my east and then went north. I half expected something as the ACC became prominent about 7pm and there was a warning from the Met Office. I was, though disappointed they were too far east for these kinds of pictures in the local paper. At 2am there was a cell firing almost constantly about 50 miles to my north.

https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/26144623.lightning-seen-across-dorset-thunderstorms-hit-uk/ 

The best storm I've watched was one over the Pacific when there was a full moon. It was a more or less static cell going up like a huge tower. The moon lit the cumulus, which was then lit by the lightning inside the cloud at intervals with the occasional forked bit. No camera at the time but fascinating to watch. Probably about forty miles away.

https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/west-coast-main-line-disruption-after-lightning-storms-overnight 

https://youtu.be/w7j0CHKcyd4