Thunderstorm watch summer 2019

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Seems a bit silly having multiple threads going when it might be quite a lively summer. It looks lively again this week anyhow.

We have met office thunderstorm warnings for the next three days.
www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/warnings-and-advice/uk-warnings#?date=2019-06-23

Tomorrow storm potential looks to be areas away from the SE, including northern England and the Midlands, but I'm also keeping an eye on the SE for tomorrow night. By mid week the storm potential really grows though and by Wednesday we could have some really cracking storms.

Thunderstorms are notoriously difficult to forecast. Not only whether they will happen, but where they will happen. I'll see if I can find the link to the excellent met office tweet about that earlier this week.

It's all being driven by very hot air being drawn up from Africa, through mainland Europe, which could see temps close to 40C. We could see temperatures touching 30C by Thursday. It's going to be humid and uncomfortable I'm afraid.

www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/warnings-and-advice/uk-warnings#?date=2019-07-30 Met office warnings have been extended eastwards. Main risk is for surface flash flooding.

Netweather's Storm Forecast

Looks like we're in for a thundery few days.

So I was just reading the weather warnings on the met office site and came across their advice for staying safe in a thunderstorm. It includes "unplug all non-essential appliances, including the television" and "avoid using taps and sinks" amongst other things. I seem to remember things being unplugged when I was a kid, but does anyone really follow this advice any more? How seriously should I take it?

Unplugging the tv used to be a standard but that was when everyone’s tv was plugged into the areal.

My mum used to cover all the mirrors and put the scissors in drawers.

Hmmm well my TV is still plugged into an aerial plus the advice on the website suggests it's due to possible power surges. Why put scissors away, I wonder?

Adesign, I'd take it quite seriously. A nearby strike took everyone's telly and computers out some years ago on my street. I'd unplugged and we were the only one not to lose equipment. There have been a few musketeers with similar experiences, including one this week.

Because we also used to get power dips on our local electricity supply I now have a UPS that my vital equipment is plugged in to.

Lots of lightning strikes showing up on lightningmaps at the moment.

I think OYBBK meant 'mumsnetters' and not 'musketeers' in her post ^ there!

oops!!!

Musketeers 😂😂😂

Ok I shall heed the advice. Also confused by musketeers... was wondering if it was some sort of secret weather-watching society!

Copying my post from 26th July:

"There's a little trail of thunderstorms.

And one of those storms was right over us. There was a flash of lightning & at exactly the same time the loudest clap of thunder I have ever heard. I really thought the house had been struck. Fortunately we hadn't been struck but a house about 50yards away was struck through the roof by the lightning. Massive hole in roof, smoke pouring out. The fire brigade were here in moments & all was put out swiftly & all the occupants are OK. Neighbour who is a builder has rigged up a tarpaulin over the hole for now.

It was really terrifying - my heart rate shot up to insane levels for a moment or two when the thunderclap went off.

It took out our router - just got a new one rigged up. Several neighbours have had their (landline) phones buggered by it & quite a few TVs have been frazzled."

Many of those TVs were not on & none of them were rigged to an aerial - all got signals via a dish.

Our router was plugged in via a surge protector - which will cope with an electricty surge but not a strike like the one we had.

Nest time there is thunder in the area I will be unplugging everythig.

'Next' not nest - fat fingers!!

Ok - I'm convinced! Thanks everyone for the info.

Thunderstorm warnings for Sunday. Unfortunately placed.

Oh no, it really needs to stay dry round there.

Rumbles around Edinburgh.

Thank goodness we took the hit instead of Whaley bridge.

We have a regular evening murmuration. The jackdaws all fly over and congregate on the local store, then fly off to woodland outside the city. I watched the first in range strike on lightningmaps, just as they were on the roof, and pretty much the moment the ring hit us, even though it was barely audible, they all took off and flew away! Noisily!

We had some rumbles in Lancashire too.

More warnings for today, tomorrow and on a slightly different theme, warnings for gales and heavy rain (and potentially thunderstorms on Friday/Saturday.

www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/warnings-and-advice/uk-warnings#?date=2019-08-07&id=f0a4d8d0-f163-42f4-a2d7-4773ea8b887d