Didn’t realise we had a weather section here! I know none of the terminology, but thought I’d share yesterday’s experience here.
The day was boiling hot with a very occasional waft of wind. Phone app said 32 feels like 34, but I swear it was hotter.
I live fairly rurally (about 5 mile inland from Frinton coast in Essex) so no buildings to impede view of the sky. Around 19:00, sky to the left was clear blue, but to the right and from behind it started to darken. Could hear thunder in the distance, but couldn’t see lightning. I sat on the lawn for about 20 minutes fascinated. To the right kept getting darker and to the left stayed clear. Areas of the greenery in garden where lit up with a golden glow that looked beautiful.
Still no lightning at this point and the air was so still. All of a sudden birds started going nuts and taking off from trees. Then this really weird wind suddenly swooped in, with leaves tumbling down into the garden. Felt a couple of fat drops of rain and within a minute the heavens opened - it was like a monsoon that was blowing sideways.
The lightning then started and within 10 minutes the power went in the house. It kicked back in after about 30 seconds. The lightning continued and it was coming from all around, couldn’t decide which direction to look in. Huge sheet lightning flashing behind clouds and various forks across the sky.
My house is old and will often shake if thunder overhead. You know the thunder that sounds like a quick giant boom/clap. This thunder through the storm was a long, continuous rumble instead. Didn’t seem to shake the house, but a couple of lightning instances made the windows vibrate - I could be mistaken in my differentiation though.
The power went out at around 20:30 for just over an hour. The lightning continued until around 22:00. I started the whole thing when I was sitting in the garden thinking “this is so cool and quite stunning” (was really scared of storms as a kid and so impress myself nowadays!). Ended up feeling a bit nervous and wanting it all to go away!
And that’s my stormy story! Lovely sunshine today, temperature of 24 at the moment which feels lovely.