The storm that passed over the London area last night had more cloud to cloud
lightning , in fact more lightning full stop, than I've ever seen before in
this country. There was probably on average 1 bolt per second but strangely
almost no cloud to ground lightning. Was there something unusual about this
storm?

--
Spud

On 19/07/2017 10:22, d wrote:
The storm that passed over the London area last night had more cloud to cloud
lightning , in fact more lightning full stop, than I've ever seen before in
this country. There was probably on average 1 bolt per second but strangely
almost no cloud to ground lightning. Was there something unusual about this
storm?

Here (east Hampshire) there was only one really good flash, and that was
horizontal. Quite near, too - one second flash-bang.

--

John

www.weather.johnwnice.co.uk

On Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 5:22:17 AM UTC-4, wrote:
The storm that passed over the London area last night had more cloud to cloud
lightning , in fact more lightning full stop, than I've ever seen before in
this country. There was probably on average 1 bolt per second but strangely
almost no cloud to ground lightning. Was there something unusual about this
storm?

--
Spud

========

This was a plume event with an elevated mixed layer coming northwards, and thus the storms (at least the initial rounds) were elevated and these have a preponderance of CC lightning over CG lightning. An upper trough destabilized the medium levels and medium-level lapse rates were steep with plentiful CAPE.


Stephen
Indianapolis IN

On Wednesday, 19 July 2017 10:22:17 UTC+1, wrote:
The storm that passed over the London area last night had more cloud to cloud
lightning , in fact more lightning full stop, than I've ever seen before in
this country. There was probably on average 1 bolt per second but strangely
almost no cloud to ground lightning. Was there something unusual about this
storm?

--
Spud

It was a middle-level storm, as explained by Stephen. The resulting c-c discharges always seen to give more light than c-g strokes but less sound. I'd put this display (for c-c lightning)second after 12-13 June 1964 which almost turned night into day and completely obliterated reception on Long Wave.
If there is a c-g discharge from one of these storms it can be a big one. One learns that not all lightning flashes are equal and the one that struck on the morning of 28 Aug 1958 was a monster. A blinding flash, a simultaneous thunderous bang, I thought it had struck the front garden. Not a bit of it; it was 150 yd away, knocked a heavy branch off a large tree and "bounced across the road" according to witnesses. The tree was later cut down.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.