Lightningmaps was my essential “peak” time viewing from around midnight through to 3am local. I would see (unmissable) the lightning flash from inside my tent, then within a second, it’s exact location would appear on the website map on my phone screen. I watched as the intense concentration of lightning strikes slowly edged East and North from Shropshire and Stoke-on-Trent. I figured I had time to abandon the MS S2S attempt, disconnect the antenna and lie it on the ground, disconnect the rig from the feeder cable (using some dry fabric between my fingers and connectors!) and arrange the inside of my tent so that I was insulated from the ground by as many dry, non-conducting layers as possible (FWIW - every little helps…!). I didn’t have time to break camp and get off the hill.
I cracked open a can of Brewdog Dead Pony Club ale for a little calming refreshment! The eye of the storm appeared to home in on the summit of Shining Tor - where I was - according to lightningmaps. Then it appeared to stay put, rather than continue to edge slowly eastwards. At this point, there were frequent blinding flashes, seemingly at ground level, and seemingly not far outside my tent! This was in addition to the >1 per second lightning flashes continuing overhead. Earlier, there had been little or no noise from thunder (many reports of the “silent lightning” have circulated today), but by this point there were frequent huge explosion-sounding bangs. It was as though I was in the middle of a bombing raid or warzone.
With the Brewdog ale all consumed at the height of the storm around 0130 BST, I now had no option but to resort to phoning my XYL. Marianne would normally be furious to have been disturbed at this late hour, but I knew she had been up unusually late stormwatching anyway. Anyway, she chatted calmly with me for about half-an-hour, which I really appreciated, except for all the times she burst out laughing hearing my terrified reaction to the latest flash or bang.
At this point, I must place on record that I had monitored the forecast for Shining Tor on the Met Office website frequently throughout the preceding day. I am confident that I have become good at interpreting the Met Office forecasts over the years, and it did look very much like a summit campover was going to be safe. But there you go.
After the call with Marianne, the rain started to come down, more and more heavily. Unlike storms I’ve experienced throughout my life though, this did not coincide with a decrease in the frequency of thunder and lightning - well not for over half-an-hour anyway. Eventually, after 2am, the frequency of the flashes and bangs did start to slowly decrease, and at last, the lightningmaps started to look a little less congested between Macclesfield and Buxton!
I kept watch on this until about 3am, by which it was just heavy rain, and no more sound and light show! All the activity on lightningmaps was now clear of the Peak District and over in South and East Yorkshire. I felt able to drift off to sleep, and I got a decent three hours in.
As for the activations…
Tuesday 11th August 2020
2m FM: 4 QSOs
70cm FM: 22 QSOs
70cm SSB: 77 QSOs
70cm CW: 1 QSO
Total: 104 QSOs - DXCCs: G, GW, GI, GD, GM, PA
Wednesday 12th August 2020:
2m MSK144: 2 QSOs (MS sked with DP9X on DM/NS-008 was not successful - but I did RX for SWL section)
2m FM: 35 QSOs.
Total 37 QSOs.
Plenty of non-contest QSOs over the two activations, so VHF-UHF is alive and well - even if my nerves aren’t…
