On Jun 26, 10:46 am, "Martin Rowley"
wrote:
... well, that was fun! Several posters over the recent years have
said how we don't seem to get the 'classic' ex-France storms turning
up in the wee small hours etc., etc. Well, 'with one bound', the storm
last night corrected our woeful rainfall total this month and with the
high humidity, we've also brought the mean minimum up too.

Thunder first heard (distant) ~2350Z, long, rumbling low-frequency,
and from then until ~0130Z (2.30am/BST) vivid sheet & isol CG
lightning with the thunder getting louder/nearer (peak ~ 0030Z),
before trailing off - however, the discharges were never very
frequent, somewhere around 1 discharge/5 minutes at peak.

As the thunder tailed off, the rain, moderate only to that point,
turned heavy and moderate/heavy rain (often only heavy) lasted until
~0430Z, then eased to light or moderate, then finally ceased around
0830Z.

Total rainfall here (non-standard conditions) 25.8 mm: Hurn (nearby)
total of 27.2 mm (to 06Z, but not much after that).

Monthly total here now a healthy 52 mm (Hurn 53 mm), ~94% of the
1971-2000 average.

Martin.

Wasn't too far from you last night, in Worth Matravers, Isle of
Purbeck. At 2200 (all times BST), was still semi-light and some high
and threatening looking cumulus appeared to the south over the sea. By
2215, this had developed into a cb anvil quite rapidly. Nothing of
note then until 2300, seems this was developing in-situ and rather
oddly, over the sea rather than being imported from France. Then
several flashes of lightning to the S or SE, generally coming closer,
and thunder heard from about 2315. Rain started just after the first
lightning was visible. Then travelled back to Southampton - it looked
like the storm was to the E, over Bournemouth and (I imagined) moving
northwards, but, no rain after that except for a brief spell in the
Ferndown area. These storms must have had quite an easterly component
to them, indeed the radar seems to suggest a SE - NW track. Further
east, lightning was visible on the southern horizon around 0000 to
0100 BST from the New Forest / Southampton area. Was expecting a storm
to break here (Southampton) at perhaps 0200 BST but nothing, unless I
slept through it - was just rain by the time it got here. The radar
seems to suggest development of an occluding frontal system with a
"tail" on the rain band.

Nick