Carl46Wrexham

Nasty squall line just passed through....lots of surface water flooding. Temperature dropped to 13.9c at the peak of the rainfall. Strong and gusty winds of earlier are now completely gone.

What are your memories? I'll never forget it. Travelling with my wife and my two kids who were 4 and 2 at the time, from North Wales down to Butlins Minehead. Getting caught in the absolute chaos of the jams on the M5 motorway. Lane 1 completely submerged by flood water. Somehow got off the motorway junction 10 or 11 round Gloucester. So many flooded roads. A journey that should have took 5 hours, eventually took 12 and a half hours. I know many people had it worse but it was bad enough. Never seen rain as heavy or as long lasting as that day. Pretty sure there was thunder and lightning at odd times as well.

Met office app says no...euro4 says no. So...maybe next time.

Our time will come. Been a while since we had a good one though. August 22, 2015 to be exact.

Hmmm...are you not happy with it then? Send it back and demand a refund

By the looks of met office radar you'll be getting another cell moving just west of you shortly. More flickering and grumbling maybe?

I know I'm not in an area down for storms but shower just gone through intensified big time. Looking East:

I'm pretty sure there was a day in the second half of June 1995 when there was an unusual occurance. The day was a hot one but was made memorable by a sudden cold surge. No rain, very little cloud accompanied the surge but the wind suddenly got up with a big drop in temperature...a fall in excess of 10c in Manchester where I was living at the time.

Looking SE:

Suddenly had a crazy image of Lionel Ritchie doing another Walkers Crisps ad....

Something tells me there's crisp convection over Yorkshire.

It was looking so promising earlier on. As soon as the wind shifted NW'ly a voice in my head said "that's the end of that then".

Another wind direction shift. Now NW'ly. Currently still dry...but no proper sun for some time.

Moving E-NE and intensifying weakening again...

....and is sticking rigidly to its guns about nothing for the Midlands and eastwards. Euro4 sitting in its armchair with its arms folded and shaking its head going "nope...nope...I see more than what you see..nope"

Much more in the way of cloud now with a change of wind direction SE to SW.

Sky to my north :

You're still at 50% risk as I type this. Yours truly currently at <5%. I'll take a distant rumbler though if it comes to it. Better than nothing.

Met office app (don't know how much stall you set by it) shows you having a 50% chance of thunderstorm 2-3pm

Line of cumulus to the west (moving W-E fairly quickly) - apart from that...not much to see.

Think we are in the breeding ground areas. Places east of us I suspect might do very well.

The storms of July 3rd/4th 2001 would have to be a serious contender as well. Thundery trough drifted eastwards into hot and humid air resulting in spectacular lightning in the west of the UK with strike rates recorded in excess of 80 per minute. There is a satellite photo of the UK from John Mason's site showing the big cells in the west of the UK with associated clearly visible anvil shadows.

Going back to my original post....just think about it a moment....near continuous thunder and lightning for 24 hours, Crazy. It amazes me how difficult information on this particular event is to find online given the severity and long lasting nature of the said event.

16.9c please.

Which would you choose? I would have to go for the severe thunderstorms event of July 1st/2nd 1968. By all written accounts (was only 3 at the time so don't really remember anything of the event) an area of the UK stretching in a line from Devon up to Merseyside along the England/Wales border experienced almost continuous thunder and lightning for 24 hours!!! Hailstones measuring 7x6cm recorded at Cardiff Airport. Daytime darkness and widespread red rain from Saharan dust. Cloud tops recorded as being in excess of 42,000 feet. Would be quite an experience to relive this event.