It has been a rather turbulent afternoon for some while for others, tranquil. It all depends upon whether you found yourself under one of the many big, heavy, thundery downpours which packed quite a punch. Gusty winds, hail, localised flooding rains which produced landslides, there was even funnel clouds spotted this afternoon too.

Check out the above and below radar maps captured from earlier. Notice the lines of storms and the brighter colours indicating the intense rains.

It’s all thanks to a low spinning to the northwest of Scotland, higher pressure further south and with daytime heating, the instability was there. Did you notice those beautiful, towering cumulonimbus clouds today? You always know there’s good, strong upward motion in the atmosphere when you see these and these of course can produce dramatic lightning displays as well as the downpours, strong wind and hail.

Relative warmth at the surface and cold air driven over top by the low, create the instability to produce these storms. The greatly the vertical temperature difference, the greater the rate of upward motion. Varying winds with height create the spin needed for funnel clouds to form and these occured today across Scotland, perhaps Ireland or other parts of the UK too.

The coming days continue on the cooler, unsettled theme with the low sticking around and likely to support a strong west wind tomorrow. Expect more heavy showers to develop.

By late in the week, a new Atlantic low will push in from the west bringing more organised rain and stronger winds.