On Nov 29, 9:23*am, "Nigel Paice" wrote:
"Nick" wrote in message

...



Really nasty spell of rain down here in the Southampton area between
3.30pm and 8.10pm. Very heavy in places, almost of summer thunderstorm
intensity. Was rather caught out by it too: checked the Met Office
website before I went out which suggested central southern England
still dry at 6pm, meaning that it'd be dry until well after sunset.
What actually happened though was it started raining at 3.30, and
became quite seriously heavy by 4.30 - still perhaps two hours before
it was due to arrive! The forecasts today also seemed to suggest only
the SW at risk during daylight hours. Moved in very quickly as well,
still significant blue sky at 1pm and blue sky visible low in the east
as late as 3pm.

Stopped for a while until about 9, though seems to have started again
now, albeit much lighter.

Nick

I was hoping the rain would be held back by one hour to enable
the Romsey 'Winter' Carnival from 6 to 7pm to be completed in
the dry but no, half of the Atlantic Ocean was dumped onto the
town centre during that period!

Sorry to hear that. No need to put 'winter' in quotes btw - last
night's conditions are probably pretty typical (apart from the
heaviness of the rain) for a contemporary central Southern England
winter! Despite still being meteorological autumn, the mildness of
modern winters, combined with the lowish temperatures currently, means
that most of Jan and Feb will probably be less 'wintry' than now -
particularly when you factor in the time of sunset.

Nick