All week, the morning has started blue and wonderful. But sometime between 8 and 10 o'clock the first cumulus clouds appear and by early afternoon the thunder has started. Sometimes the thunder groans all all afternoon with only a small amount of rain. Other times, the storm starts very quickly, with hail, gust-fronts, lightning and heavy rain. Often, by late afternoon, the sky is blue again. The critical thing in predicting how soon and how badly it overdevelops seems to be 'how early do the first cumulus clouds appear'.
This all affects more than flying. When the thunderstorms are at their strongest, there are frequent little power-cuts; this affects internet connectivity and my work. And... the TV reception (via satellite) doesn't work in thunderstorms, so no world cup!
Another result of all this afternoon rain is that the path up the hill is wet the following morning. When you walk up, you are in this layer of warm, humid air; not very pleasant.
I managed to sneak in one small but interesting flight one day this week, when the cumulus clouds developed a little later. I got some height off launch and used it to cruise around over the town and the lake.
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