"Nigel Morgan" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 03 Aug 2004 18:56:28 GMT, Norman Lynagh

inspired by Deep Thought wrote:

Prolonged thunderstorm here from about 1430 to 1730 BST. Thunder almost
continuous throughout the period with lots of lightning. Although my
field of view is quite limited because of trees, C-G flashes were
visible every couple of minutes throughout the storm. The rain was
nothing exceptional being mostly moderate with occasional bursts of
heavy and a few brief downpours. Rainfall during the storm totalled 21
mm. It was the most notable TS here for some years. Had it occurred at
night it would have been a very spectacular "son et lumiere"


It was impressive in St Albans as well with a total of 24.1mm of rain
falling over a similar time period; today has been largely sunny and
everything has dried out rapidly. Since the soil here is glacial gravel it
acts like a soakaway which can affect plants in the garden which can suffer
from the dry conditions. Even plants used to a Mediterranean climate can
struggle.

Alan