Tonights Thunderstorms In Scotland.

I didn't look behind the blinds. Wish I had now.

Those photos are great.

to be honest, i'm kinda scared. the wind is making the house shake. of course, the upstairs neighbor having sex does that too.

My sister-in-law, who lives half a mile away from us, phoned to say "can you hear that thunder where you are?"

However, I did also see fork lightning half a dozen times in six months living in Sydney. RAWR.

riiight. so that must have been something entirely different that was booming away in the sky for several hours and soaking me on my way home etc.

:)

about the southside being especially safe from/the westend-city centre being especially hit by God's wrath

I wasn't suggesting anything about the actual real weather conditions that I believe you probably experienced too!!!!

My favourite thunderstorm was one I experienced in a restaurant in Washington, DC. The staff opened the windows and turned off the lights so we could watch the lightning for a while. It was fun.

oic. sorry!

i left work at about 8.30pm and walked from cowcaddens to central station amid thunder and flashes and a light, refreshing rain. i was listening to the human league, then the new futureheads album, and felt overjoyed to be alive. a glorious few minutes of pure happiness.

the rain seemed to stop when i was on the bus. just as i was getting off at battlefield, there was a gigantic explosion of thunder and the skies opened. i got off the bus, hid under a bus shelter for a minute or two, then decided to risk it.

i live five minutes from the bus stop. by the time i got home, i looked like i'd spent a night in the clyde. i nearly took a picture, but i thought that would be sad. "drowned rat" wouldn't do it justice.

the drains were all choked, so i had to jump over massive puddles in the road. it was almost fun.

today i feel like i have a cold coming on.

It annoyed me a bit when the weather girl this morning was going on about what a sunny day it had been yesterday. Who cares? We had Donna Blitzen to visit. Way more exciting.

and
BBC Scotland's news website has been inundated with readers' views, pictures and videos of Thursday's thunderstorm.

"Incredible, fantastic, wonderful, scary and breathtaking," were some of the descriptions of nature's power.

Readers spoke of lightning striking next to them and hitting lampposts and tower blocks across Glasgow.

Others told how they were plunged into darkness and soaked by flash flooding - while one reader was "confined" to his local pub by the storm.

Others were caught outside as the storm raged.

Ross Chandler, from Clydebank, said: "I was out with my friend and fork lightning hit the ground no more than 50ft away.

"We were nearly blown off our feet."

Lightning strike

Bob Steel, from Glasgow, said: "Amazing, I saw a lightning strike take out a full block of house lights in Parkhall, Clydebank."

In East Kilbride, power was cut to tower blocks for about 90 minutes.

Lightning by Alistair Horton
A genuinely breathtaking display of awesome power - thank you Mother Nature
Paul McCue
Glasgow

Other readers told how they had to wade though water and witnessed rain pouring into Glasgow Central Station's low level.

Bobbi Moni, from Glasgow's southside, was among a number of five-a-side footballers caught outside in the storm.

He said: "One chap who was climbing the fence to retrieve the ball was thrown to the ground by a bolt of lightning.

"It hit the floodlight attached to that particular section of metal fencing.

"The worst that happened was his shell suit appeared to have melted."

James McCartan, from Paisley, told how a supermarket car park in Springburn was "plunged into darkness" by a "massive" fork of lightning.

He added: "Another bolt struck the flats at Townhead.

"There was quite a crowd gathering to see the show, either that or they didn't want to get wet."

'Simply amazing'

Many readers said they witnessed fork lightning for the first time and described the storm as "intense" and the "best" or "worst" they had witnessed.

James Kinghorn, from Corkerhill, Glasgow, described the storm as "an audio and visual treat".

Brian McGuire, from Paisley, watched the storm with his five-year-old son.

He said: "We were in awe at the sheer power of nature."

Lightning by John Grierson
Spectacular, I experienced sheer unadulterated ecstasy - simply breathtaking, fierce and intense
Jill Ferguson
Glasgow

Angela Suttie, from Glasgow, said: "This was the most major storm I have witnessed in years, massive fork lightning and thunder that you could feel indoors."

Colin Sales, from Paisley, said: "It was probably the most violent storm I've witnessed in this country.

"There were some scary moments when the thunder actually made my windows rattle."

Helen Mann, from Stranraer, said: "The crashes and bangs were so loud it felt as if the earth was splitting apart.

"My little dog hid further and further into her blanket - it was scary."

Donald Campbell, from Glasgow, said his cat "loved it".

He said: "She spent all evening up at the windows, occasionally diving to a different one to get a better view."

Peter Gonnella, from Glasgow, summed up the feelings of many readers when he described the storm as "simply amazing".

'Spanish Plume'

BBC Scotland weather forecaster Gail McCrane said of the storm: "This doesn't happen terribly often as there needs to be several things happening at the one time.

Lightning behind tower blocks (Picture by Andrew Murray)
Lightning lit up the night sky across the west of Scotland

"A combination of three factors led to the severe thunderstorms.

"Firstly, warm thundery air originating in Spain - Spanish Plume - pushed northwards and brought showers to western Scotland, some of these heavy.

"The showers occurred at the same time as maximum heating, this caused them to lift higher into the atmosphere and increased their intensity.

"A cold front from the Atlantic ran into the warm, thundery air, making the whole thing unstable.

"It acted as the final trigger leading to several hours of thunder and lighting."

More showers are predicted for Saturday afternoon and their could be the odd rumble of thunder mixed in.

"It will be nothing like that of Thursday night," said Gail.

Spanish plume? That sounds like one of the water rides at a butlins!

His condition was described as "stable" but still under observation.

Best quote of the above article: "The worst that happened was his shell suit appeared to have melted."