Great Western Coffee Shop

Hope that the railway doesn't end up in the firing line for these: there's a lot of energy in the atmosphere.

Swindon's made the first move as the urban area seems to have cooked up its very own thunderstorm.

Mark

https://www.lightningmaps.org/#m=ses;t=3;s=0;o=0;b=;ts=0;z=11;y=51.5848;x=-1.8794;d=2;dl=2;dc=0; (https://www.lightningmaps.org/#m=ses;t=3;s=0;o=0;b=;ts=0;z=11;y=51.5848;x=-1.8794;d=2;dl=2;dc=0;)

Very localised in Swindon.  Someone barely a mile away from me had thunder and torrential rain.  Nothing here for another hour.

Also looks to triggered four power cuts across the town.

There is a cracking thunderstorm over Melksham now, with hailstones like golf balls also belting down. ::)

We're just down the road in Whitley, and yes, it woke me up at about 1:50. But it was 'just' heavy rain I think and a pretty impressive light show. Only distant thunder; wouldn't like to have been in the middle of it. I left the house early this morning; my wife texted me to say she had heard about the hail from a friend in Melksham, and was going to go out and check the cars later. Certainly lots of greenery on the pavements as I got closer to the station.

Melksham News report https://melkshamnews.com/giant-hailstones-cause-damage-across-melksham/

The problem with hail is that the growth of hailstones isn't self-limiting in the same way as e.g. raindrops and the (vaguely controlled) upper size limit is on a completely different part of the weight-scale. The nature of the UK's weather has changed with conditions emerging that results in the likelihood of hailstorms delivering 'Unreasonable'-sized hailstones. This poses a challenge for anything that's not previously been tested in this way.

Mark

**Unreasonable from the point of view of e.g. a greenhouse, flat roof, car body, unprotected head etc etc.

For West Reading over the past few days there've been thunderstorm warnings with low percentage chances, but these have been progressively reduced.  This morning there was just a little evidence of a light overnight shower.

I wouldn't mind some steady overnight rain as my front lawn has almost recovered from last year's dry weather but I can see it becoming a disgrace again if we have another dry summer.


Meanwhile over in Kent there are problems with the water supply. (https://www.kentonline.co.uk/whitstable/news/homes-still-without-water-as-heatwave-disruption-continues-a-340800/)

My wife tells me she's been hearing how extensive the damage is to people's property (in Melksham, 2 miles from us), and it's Act of God so not covered by insurance. Someone has been given a £3k quote to remove 60 dents from their car's roof :o

June 22nd: just about a month later than the storms that prompted this thread, reports of an area of thunderstorms making their way up into and through Cornwall - and may be through Bristol around 6pm.

Mark

https://www.lightningmaps.org/ (https://www.lightningmaps.org/)

Thanks for your post, Mark.

I have expanded the heading of this topic accordingly, and I will now 'batten down the hatches', lest our new arrival (a kitten, actually looking rather like a tiger cub) is phased by the noise and flickering.

Seems to be about the size of half a county and producing ~150 strikes per minute and I think yr kitten will be hearing rumbles now as it's landed one near Yatton.

Mark

It's upped the strike rate to ~450 per minute and the associated area of heavy rain has somewhat grown. I'm off to check a couple of drains for obstructions.

Mark

Yes, we now have some thunder and serious rain here in Nailsea as I type.  ;D

Now some serious thunder and some very serious rain here in Nailsea. ::)

I don’t think I’m going to have to water my veg patch this evening,water butts are filling up nicely.

Arrived in Bath sending a big push ahead of it from the downdraught beneath it, and continuous rumbling from high overhead. Now very dark, chucking it down, poor visibility, thrashing the trees, but suspiciously little lighting - on the incoming edge of that for the moment.

Mark

Yes, we, too, had very little lightning - just almost continuous thunder.

The thunderstorm has now passed on - but the noise of thunder has now been replaced by that of the police helicopter hovering overhead.

CfN. ::)

Yup, continuous high stuff until a couple of minutes ago, and if it likes it can go back up to the top of the clouds.

Mark

The helicopter?  :o

Photo from Bluesky of a close call east of Bath. Waiting to find out if that faint trace of something more in the foreground is the lightning path-not-taken, an artefact, or a hair on the negative.

Mark

https://bsky.app/profile/antinbath.bsky.social/post/3movg3sa74c22 (https://bsky.app/profile/antinbath.bsky.social/post/3movg3sa74c22)

Here in West Dorset the rain does its usual thing, avoiding the area between Lyme, Beaminster and Eggardon Hill.

Overview from Bath from last night is that there were a lot of instances of flash flooding, often in places you'd not expect to see it - in the roads and roundabout at the top of Wellsway wouldn't be the first place that would come to mind as susceptible, and downhill roads then vulnerable to water flows, and where it was already damaged, removing the road surface. Also, instances of water escaping from overstretched drainage and then bursting road surfaces from beneath, and flooding of properties from the flash flooding on the roads and from roof drainage that blocked. Not a good evening to have a valley gutter. Fallen trees too including one that injured someone. I've not been out and about but I expect there's a lot of clearing up to be done. If the railways escaped then so much the better, this unforecasted event probed vulnerabilities and found more than a few.

Mark

We left Melksham for Downend (Bristol) yesterday evening at about 6.30, during the storm. It was chucking it down, with loads of water on the roads, and a small lake on the A4 just before the Bathford/Batheaston roundabout. There was a long queue coming the other way on the dual carriageway; there might have been something blocking the A363 down to Bradford as well.

Coming back just after 10.00 it was all clear.