Storms?

For about a week now it has been very hot indeed for us. Today could be the hottest June day ever. Please someone tell the president of the USA. No, global warming is not a Chinese hoax. Just look at the real data.

Tomorrow, the weather could break with a return to more usual June weather here in the UK. With heavy thunder and lightning, maybe tomorrow will not be a good day to play radios? I shall be watching the maps.

See https://www.lightningmaps.org/?lang=en#y=52.9182;x=-3.2938;z=5;t=3;m=sat;r=0;s=0;o=0;b=0.00;n=0;d=2;dl=2;dc=0;

Lightning risk?

For the first time this year we are threatened with lightning. If you want to check where the storms are in the UK check out this map.  If the storms get close, I shall disconnect rigs and antennas as a precaution.

Rain, hail, thunder - will we ever see the sun?

At the moment it is hailing here. I will probably disconnect all antennas, PC and rigs until the storm has passed over and moved away. We had a few settled days last week. Maybe that was our summer? We usually see thunder and lightning in late July and August. June is rare.

See www.lightningmaps.org .

UPDATE 1500z:  The storm seems to be moving away now, although I can still hear thunder. I shall wait until all danger is well gone before reconnecting antennas, rigs and PC.

Thunderstorms coming?

We have a forecast of thunderstorms in the next few days. I shall be watching the weather carefully and only connecting the rigs, antennas and PC if there is no risk at all. The next few days may be quiet ones here!

Missing the bad storms tonight?

According to the latest BBC weather for our region, we should again miss the thunder and lightning here overnight with the storms tracking east of us and on into the North Sea. I will leave my 10m and 6m beacons running overnight but will probably go QRT at breakfast time.

See http://www.blitzortung.org/Webpages/index.php?lang=en&page_0=12 .

Lightning?

The weather forecast is for thunder and lightning moving up from France during tomorrow. This will mean disconnecting the 10m and 6m rigs. I'll do that in a minute.

Thunderstorms - missing us?

At the moment, it looks like the worst of the thunder and lightning is missing us and passing up through the east of East Anglia, UK.

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See http://www.blitzortung.org/Webpages/index.php?lang=en&page_0=12 .

No storms?

According to the lightning map, the nearest storm is over Boston in Lincolnshire some 90 miles away. There are no very recent strikes. I'll keep an eye on which way it is moving, but things here look benign, for now.

Will leave the gear on 6m for the time being unless things change. That storm map is a very useful guide to what is brewing up and heading this way.

UPDATE 1255z: Can hear distant thunder, although nearest storm is now Attleborough, Norfolk some 60 miles east of this location.

8.97kHz noise levels

DK7FC has delayed further DX tests on 8.97kHz because of thunderstorms in Germany. Stefan comments that the noise levels appear to be rising as thunderstorm activity increases as we move towards summer. He is wondering if further VLF DX tests should be postponed until the autumn when the noise will lower again. You can check UK thunderstorm activity on the Nowcast website.