I hated driving but had to get home

[tonicha]

Berlimey

Glad you got home safely Lissie xx

[debih]

Unbelievable. Here in the Midlands we have had very few storms and very little rain over, even though we were threatened with it.

Its odd - usually when the rest of the country is having lovely weather we have a big cloud over us but this year we seem to be getting the best of it.

[debih]

Even more unbelievable - I've just been looking at the local paper online and it is showing a photo of a street in Chesterfield under water from flash floods from all the rain they had the other day. We had none.

They are about 9 miles away from us!

[TheOstrich]

Driving through that certainly no joke, Lissie - glad you got home OK.

Where we used to live in South Somerset / West Dorset was very susceptible to flash flooding, often thanks to the neighbouring fields being higher than the roads, and water literally running off them down the banks. In the years we lived there, I can recall at least two very bad journeys between work and home when the roads were almost impassible. One time the approach road to Horn Tunnel (the tunnel where that couple were tragically killed a few years back after the portal collapsed on their car) was totally submerged with stranded cars dotted all over the place, and I had to execute a 12 point turn in the carriageway and turn back; the second time was one evening, motoring up the Lyme Regis - Crewkerne road for a couple of miles at about 10 miles an hour with a "bow-wake", praying (a) that there were not going to be any sudden troughs in the road and (b) that the car in front of us would also keep on going and not stall, because if I'd have been forced to stop, I doubt I'd have got underway again ....

Locally, we had two minor and one major thunderstorm here over the weekend. The latter, on Saturday afternoon, swept in around 4:00 ..... I was at a local soccer match, Chelmsley Town, not too far from home. The referee kept them playing (as the rain wasn't too intense) which I did find a bit surprising as usually if there's lightning about, the game gets halted (in fact, four or five matches being played to the east of where I was (including Nuneaton and Rugby) were abandoned!). I was under the clubhouse eaves with the rest of the 40-strong crowd at the height of it, and we had a incredible view of the forked lightening across the sky, including a couple of bolts that I think might have been ground-strikes just to the north of us.

Typical British weather - the game actually finished in brilliant sunshine!

Yes, Debih - not too far to the east of you, lightning strikes from "my storm" took out the signalling on the Sheffield - Chesterfield - Derby railway line on Saturday afternoon, causing massive delays!

[JoM]

:o



Its odd - usually when the rest of the country is having lovely weather we have a big cloud over us but this year we seem to be getting the best of it.

You forget that my mother in law isn't in the area any more Deb

[meriad]

Jo