April 21st: Hailstorm and Anvils - Farley Mount, Hampshire

Well, this day wasn't shaping up to be very interesting in Hampshire right up until late afternoon. As forecasts mentioned a trough moving through from the west I headed to Farley Mount, near Winchester, too get a better view. I arrived with perfect timing - a cell was developing right overhead:

I was about to move position to photograph it moving away, but it was much more intense than I expected. Just heavy rain at first:

But then it unleashed a torrent of hail, up to 15mm across. Probably the best hail I've seen since April 2008. I videoed most of it, but the result can be seen below. The 'C' on Canon is 10mm across:

It gave quite a covering in places:

More cells were developing to back edge as it moved away. 2 loud rumbles of thunder ocurred around this time:

Lots of surface runoff after the deluge:

Another hail shower in the distance:

The original cell was still intense:

There were some great views from the top of the hill:

This small shower caught me be suprise - I was too busy loking east! The Sun stayed out, allowing for some typical April scenes:

The same shower moving away to the East:

I headed back to the New Forest for the end of the day. Here's the view of the trough in the distance:

And a small shower gave a final rainbow to end the day: