We had been watching the potential for a chase in northern France for a week and with cape forecasts literately off the scale and lifting indices to -8°C the potential was there for particularly severe pulse storms. The UK Storm Chasers hit the road and were encouraged by Estofex’s forecast of 4cm hail and storm severity of ranking 1. Leaving Poole at 11:19am (just to be accurate) due to morning commitments we caught the 11:45 ferry to Cherbourg. The crossing was tediously slow (due to the lack of internet on the ferry) but the weather was sunny and increasingly humid. Arriving at Cherbourg harbour at 17:45 (local time) our spirits were awakened with internet on our mobile phones and we were delighted to see an image showing lightning strike rates up to 40 per minute is a squall line feature.

Initially we set our sights on Le Mans which was at the western edge of the squall line where further cells were predicted to develop, but after an hour on the road an internet update showed us that the line had moved further east so we changed course to Rouen. On the way to Rouen it had to be said that the most extreme weather we could find was a few spots of rain (not even enough to warrant windscreen wipers!). On reaching Rouen everything had decayed and we were left looking at overcast skies knowing that the only chance of seeing lightning was in northing Spain. With the fury of yet another clear air but (actually this wasn’t even clear air, it was flipping cloudy!) we decided to cut our losses and make the best of a somewhat bad situation and visit Paris (a mere 100 miles to our SE).

After wandering around the illuminated Eiffel tower in the dead of night we attempted to head home via the channel tunnel rather than catching our pre booked ferry back to Poole the following morning. We did however underestimate the French’s cunning in not displaying any directions to escape the winding streets of central Paris. Finally an hour later we found the A1 north to Calais.  We aimed to catch the 3:20am train with 260km’s to cover in2 hours we put peddle to the metal and thundered on our way. Arriving at Calais at 3:10 we were informed that we had missed our 3:20am train (which was still sitting 50m ahead of us) and that we had to wait for the 4:20am train (just our luck!).

From there everything worked without a hitch, when we say “a hitch” actually our car squeaked so much that other passengers thought we were in distress, lol. Although expensive, the train was extremely fast getting us to Folkestone international terminal at 3:50am local time. Now bleary eyed and with the sky lightening we experienced more weather in the form of torrential rain on the way home that we had for the whole of the previous day. Finally arriving at Winchester at 6:00am we checked the charts and although really tempted for a chase in Wales we decided to call it a day.

Now that is what you call a clear air bust.