The UK Storm Chasers had been monitoring the synoptic evolution as warm moist air was being advected into the southern part of the UK at the same time cool dry air was streaming southwards from northern Scotland into England. Widespread thunderstorms broke out in the afternoon across southern England and caused flash flooding in Bristol. Unfortunately the UK Storm Chasers had commitments until 6pm and so even though the atmosphere was primed to explode the earliest they could get on the road was 7 that evening.

After setting off our progress was hampered even further by the closure of the Newbury bypass which force us to hack across Salisbury plain. At which point the thunderstorms had merged into a squall with frequent lightning being detected across its length (click HERE to Estofex's see their report). On reaching the M4 we flew west and punched the core of a decaying line of showers at sunset. At this point the squall line was losing intensity due to the diminishing surface heating. However, with one last brave attempt to see a storm the UK Storm Chasers battled north on the M5 to try and catch a mesoscale feature developing behind the squall line. For the next hour and a half we drove through torrential rain finally calling it a day a Birmingham services only to find out that 6 hours previously a tornado had ripped through a housing estate in Dudley damaging over 40 properties!