In a tent, in a forest, in thunder and lightening.

[GingerWrath]

We are booked into a site for a the weekend. I have just seen the forecast for where we are going is thunderstorms on friday...

I have told DH we are still going. Am I mental?

OYBBK- so do the caravans protect you from lightning in the way cars do? What if they're supported by aluminium pipes thingies?

winny, If a caravan is made out of metal then it would be a good faraday cage. I've no idea how effective a modern caravan would be I'm afraid, being a mix of materials. I'd probably disconnect the aerial though.... - just debating it with dh at the moment...... if we conclude anything i'll let you know.

I wouldnt worry about the connection to the ground, after all lightning has made it a long way through the air before it strikes something, a jump from the object it strikes to the ground isnt a hard jump for it to make.

We used to camp overseas every year when I was growing up and were in some cracking storms. In heavy rain Dad would make us dig trenches around the pit I remember sitting in the car in one storm (probably lightning I guess).

Before I was born my family were camping in France and their tent got hit by a tornado They lost the tent and everything, drove home the next day and kept seeing bits of their stuff strewn across the landscape.

Alma - your families holidays were well hardcore!

Ok, we are camping in the North of England, NOT tornado alley!

TORRO forecast for today Gingerwrath

'fraid I'm off the pc now for the night. will have a look at fridays forecast tomorrow morning.

The thing with waiting to see how bad it is going to get is by the time it gets bad if will be hoofing it down and everyone and everything will get soaked in the transfer, then the car turns into a sauna.

I have only had to sleep the whole night in the car twice though.

Three years ago we were in a horrific storm in Norfolk, both us and the family we were with spent the night in our respective cars, in the morning our Monty was fine but the other families tent was in the hedge and their gazebo thing had just blown clean away, we never did find it.

Thank you OYBBK, not my area of the UK thankfully!

LOL Kitten at your prayers being answered by a piano blanket.

OYBBK - my parents were quite stubborn!

hmm, just had a quick look at Friday. The stormy weather is associated with a low pressure going across the country. At the moment it does look like Friday day time is going to be pretty unsettled - windy and heavy rain (and possibly thundery in parts). It all depends on how quickly the low pressure moves through as to Friday Friday night which at the moment looks to be probably be more peaceful than the day time.
I'm keeping an eye on whether the winds will pick up at the back end of the low (Saturday looks quite gusty)

Will update properly later.

Many's the night our family of 5 spent the night in the Maxi. We had one of these inflatable igloos. I remember coming back to the campsite after dinner out one night and finding it deflated, and another night the day's extreme heat had made the air inside the poles expand and it burst with a tremendous bang.

Sorry, gone off on a tangent. Extreme camping weather always brings back memories.

The last outing saw us completely deluged on packing down camp day. DD and I were lovely and toasty and dry in the car whilst DH got soaked to the bone trying to pack the tent into it's bag. 2 days later queue sunshine and pitching a wet tent in a too small garden to dry it out!

This was also the trip DD decided she gets car sick in quite a spectacular fashion, the car still faintly whiffs and gets fresh magic trees regularly!

After todays wild sunshine and showers (perhaps stormy and haily at times), much of the uk settles down for the weekend. Hooray!

Yay thank you OYBBK What about the North East?

You would say the NE wouldnt you!!! probably the most unsettled part over the weekend. Not terrible; sunshine and showers, but some of the showers could be quite stormy still tomorrow afternoon and tonight could be pretty wet. Sorry!

Oh well thanks anyway OYBBK,

move down here, its lovely we are under a tornado watch here today.

Tornadoes? In Britain?! Well I never did.

Kitten, thanks so much for updates. I've been stalking following your reports. We're off to East Sussex, so should be ok-ish then?

MisSal - it looks pretty good for you :) maybe just the odd shower but nothing to worry about at all.

i have been looking at campsites in Cumbria for the hols but it is very hard to get motivated to book when the rain is so hard on the conservatory roof you can barely hear the radio - and we have three dogs so that's extra sogginess right there!

Thanks. Will drink a toast on you around the campfire this weekend!

BadKitten - any idea what sort of a summer the uk is in for?

Gingerwrath, most do very little damage but we do average 33 a year in the UK. The occasional one like the Kensal rise torndao can be relatively destructive.