Thunder storms tonight - 35mm rain at 23:00hrs - orange alert !

High winds, heavy rainfall and thunderstorms forecast for the Corrèze and between Argentat and Egletons 35mm rain to fall in 3 hours  !!!

Take care and fill up your cuves   ! If you can, protect your tomato plants against the rain...

The warning is from 19:00 tonight until 09:00hrs tomorrow morning.

Hmmm... see what you mean. Been following my local forecast for west Creuse and it shows just a but of normal rain, perhaps 15mm in 24hrs.. did the same for Argentat and between 1000 and 0300 described as torrential... 45mm !!!

Stay safe everyone

Well Myriam you are right !! Is amazing to watch :-) but hope everyone is ok

Arrived here in west Creuse just before midnight but the bulk of it went south of me again. Did get a decent amount of rain though, so the garden is happy.

Hope everyone else got through without major problems.

Hi Folks
Wonderful lightning display, all water butts full and will not have to water the garden for a day or two. Dogs hiding in the bottom of our wardrobes during the night, only coming out this morning for the usual early morning cuddle. Must admit didn't get much sleep either.
Simmo in a very wet Correze.

Parts of the storm were centred over La Celle Dunoise. From about 11pm we could see lightening and hear thunder but then around 12.30am there were three large lighting flashes followed immediately by extremely loud thunder and then it moved away. The rain was torrential. Thankfully the open air jazz music event had finished and all electrical equipment was safe.

Torrential rain last night here in the western end of the Creuse again - not complaining tho' as it was cool enough for a decent night's sleep! And the dogs don't bat a collective eye at storms.
Electricity keeps shutting off every time we get a hint of thunder/lightening, and we've had to pay out for satellite broadband because the Orange box doesn't work half the time! (we work over the internet so it's vital for us to have it available all the time).

we had nothing until early this morning
when the rain started
about 26mm in 12 hours

Not normally scared of thunder, but this was really frightning! I thought we were struck by lightning, but luckily we escaped, perhaps because we're next to the church. However, from then on until today the whole village did not have telephone or internet for two days. Glad to be back in touch with the world again.

Glad you are fine :-)) was pretty scary !! Did you get my pm ?

Just seen and answered your PM, Spitfire.

Goodnight all.

We got hit last Tuesday night, we had surge protection but not on the phone line so one live box and an x box are no more. A week without phone or internet was strange but very pleasant, mind there there have been several trips to McDonalds and accommodating friends. To top it all in on my way to the garage to try and get the electric back on I fell and put my hand through a window pane in the door. Not a good week. Surge protection now installed on phone line! Thankfully no storms predicted this week. The live box has been replaced, does anyone know if the x box is likely to be covered on insurance, I will pop down to the agent later but wondered if anyone had made a successful similar claim before.

Hi Noodles
Yep we were knocked out a few years back and it cost over 400 euro's to sort. Our Credit agricole insurance covered everything and we had our sat dish replaced along with cables ,LNB's and boxes. We now have surge boxes on everything and touch wood we have had no problems. Still trying to find a surge box/device for the love of my life, because when she kicks off it's worse than a hurricane and typhoon combined.
Hope you have not injured yourself to badly or cut any tendons so be carefull. we leave solar power torches in every room so if we do get a power cut we have a light immediatly to hand so to speak(no Pun intended) Mind you if anything goes pear shape she usually sends me to sort it.
Simmo in the Correze.

Thanks for that Simmo, yes we have added a lot more surge protection, my hand is healing well, it would probably have benefitted from stitches but I have doctor phobia so have managed without. i normally get all the candles ready but it came out of nowhere , a very faint rumbling and then boom   Will pop in to the insurance brokers later thanks  

Take care with your hand, noodles! Perhaps time to change your GP? There are some very good ones about, honest...

Have you all thought of putting your lightning strike/surge protection in the fuse box? One device to cover all your sockets and a further one via which the telephone supply goes, therefore covering all your 'phone/internet points. It may not be 'obligatoire' in the Limousin, but it is highly recommended. Possibly have a word with your friendly electrician.

Hi Le Dolly can you explain a little more, we have a "trip box " on our electrics with a little green button that pops out and cuts the circuit when there is an excess load or sometimes in storms, the electrics were installed about 10 years ago...or is there something different? Thanks in advance for the advice:flower: 

noodles wrote:Hi Le Dolly can you explain a little more, we have a "trip box " on our electrics with a little green button that pops out and cuts the circuit when there is an excess load or sometimes in storms, the electrics were installed about 10 years ago...or is there something different?  Thanks in advance for  the advice:flower: 

The "trip box" to which you refer is possibly (or not) a 'délesteur' which is designed to share out the incoming supply over the load applied, in a simpler form, if you have a lot of appliances (load) running at once, particularly electric heating, it will automatically switch off heaters or appliances in turn to try and balance your needs. An explanation is available here: http://entraidelec.com/article-86-Le-delesteur.html
 For lightening/surge protection, a 'parafoudre ou parasurtenseur' is fitted as the first device in the tableau, with the intention that any strike that is likely to cause one an upset, goes straight to earth and protects everything else. Parafoudre's come in various flavours, but personally, I prefer the ones that use a sacrificial cartridge, so that when/if the strike does hit, one just replaces the cartridge and not the whole shebang. See here for an explanation: http://entraidelec.com/article-64-Le-parafoudre.html  
 A parafoudre is also available to protect the 'phone line and associated devices, but with the proviso that they should be fitted within 500mm of the main earth incomer (or another earth point is installed). In a modern installation that meets 'La norme NFC-15 100' a Coffret de Communication would be in situ and the téléphone parafoudre would be placed there.

Hi Noodles
yep it's Simmo again. I forgot to say you need surge plugs for any electrical goods you have as they almost all have chips in them now and these get damaged very quickly in any lightning strike or power surge. you need them on -
Washing machines
Fridges
Freezers
Dryer s
HiFi systems
TVs
Storage Heaters
Computers
Phones
in fact any high valued electrical items. At night when the lights are out in our place with all the green surge plug LED lights glowing green it looks like NASA mission control.
Simmo in the Correze.