Jack ) wrote:
Jon O'Rourke wrote:

I remember one occasion talking to Norwich ATC who had observed lightning to
their SE. IIRC the nearest sferics were near Amsterdam.

As a youngster living in Great Yarmouth on the Norfolk coast, I would
often see thunderstorms way out to the east. Many, many years later as
a commercial pilot, I would frequently have to dodge around storms some
40 kms off the Dutch coast. This seemed to be a favoured area for
storm development, especially at night. With more understanding, I
would now presume that one of the contributory factors is a land breeze
convergence.

I remember seeing distant lightning to the west through much of the
night from Cardiff airport many years ago. I found out later in the
night that the nearest storms were running down the Irish Sea close to
the east coast of Ireland.