On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 14:02:46 GMT, "John Beauchamp"
wrote:

"Dave Ludlow" wrote in message
news
I was awoken at 5 am BST this morning by distant thunder but it wasn't
long before flashes of lightning started out to my West and soon, the
South too. By 5:30 BST, a few flashes and cracks of thunder were very
close to my location but I had the impression that the worst of it
"skipped" from the Isle of Wight to the South Downs a few miles to my
North, as often seems to happen.

The thunder had essentially ceased by 6 am and from checking the radar
imagery, I expected the (initially moderate to heavy) rain to stop
soon afterwards. But as Nick pointed out in another thread, it
continued for most of the morning - at moderate then light intensity;
very strange. Thanks to David for explaining why, in that same
thread..

It was dry initially, so I was able to check that my rain guage was
empty. I have recorded a total rainfall for the event of 14.2 mm.

Dave Ludlow
Fareham (West)

Here on Portsdown Hill, a few miles east of Dave we had 44mm between 5:30 &
6.00.

Thanks for that John, I've just had a look at the AVbrief radar image
archive and I can see the intense echo in exactly your location on the
5:30 and 5:45 images. They indicate 32mm/h (i.e. off the scale) and
it confirms my thoughts, the worst of it skipped over me - onto
Portsdown Hill as it happens!

Parts of the South West and Central Isle of Wight are showing 32mm/h
for a couple of hours on and off, between about 5 AM and 7 AM BST this
morning and I expect to hear about higher rainfall totals than your 44
mm when the Environment Agency/climatalogical figures are available
for the Island.and Solent area.in general.

I will save all the relevant radar imagery for analysis later this
evening. In the meantime, I hope the Met Office will publish any
additional rainfall data they have, particularly for the Isle of
Wight.

--
Dave
Fareham (West)