August 12th: Evening Anvils and Rainbow, New Forest

August has been an unsettled month this year, with frequent spells of rain. However, until today there has been very little convective weather around, with no thunder in my home vicinity since April. No thunder again today, but some photogenic heavy showers nonetheless, coinciding with the evening sun which provide perfect lightning conditions for a time. The first shots show a heavy shower approaching from the west. It did produce a sferic or two over Dorset, but I didn't see or hear anything:

As the shower moved overhead it slowly died out, allowing the sun to create a very bright rainbow as it moved away:

I managed to catch a lucky shot of a jet passing through the bow:

To the NE, a couple of impressive anvils were being lit by the low sun:

Another shower was approaching from the west:

Meanwhile, to the east, the low sun was casting a great colour onto a developing line of cu:

I thought the raindrops looked quite cool on the car roof:

The shower to the west was casting 'anti-crepuscular rays ' to the east. You don't get to see them very often:

This is what was creating the rays, as it neared sunset:

A final shot of a sunlit anvil as the sun set: