IanR

Its a valid theory, but ...I was around in the 70's and 80's and we stll had lots of atlantic infuenced summers, but we still got regular storms in the summer . and its not selective memory as I remember recording the number days between storms, if two weeks went by without a storm in June, July or August it would have been considerd unusuall ! and the timing of the fronts coming from the atlantic to hit the warm air seemed to occur late evening say about 8 o clock on many occasions giving a good dusk display,This just does not happen much now. We are talking once every two or three years not every two weeks for this type of evening storm to happen, if you are in luck that is, No doubt about it , thundery activity has dramatically reduced here over the years

Just what does it take now, everytime I hear the word thunder in a forcast I just dismiss it straight away, something has changed in the climate regarding storms but nobody can explain it, I certainly can't

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2093264/Forget-global-warming--Cycle-25-need-worry-NASA-scientists-right-Thames-freezing-again.html

I am probably older than you and there were even more storms in the seventies , if a storm was forcast after a hot spell in the north west it was almost garaunteed but ocassionaly didnt happen , Well you know the situation now the complete opposite, and its not selective memory Baffling

It certainly wont include here thats for sure

Yes , I want that too, Perfect summer for me... lots of warm sunny weather but frequent interruptions from thundery lows from the south, just to stop any tedium,. if only we could have that pattern till late september,' sigh'

To be fair the east and south east have always been more prone to thunder, since day one, but this year seems to be taking the p**s even when thunder showers are forcast for here and not there , they still happen over that way anyway and not here

Even when thunder is forcast for the north and west only, its still the east that get them, stop stealing

I would rather see green landcape than snow,if it happens to be waterlogged then yes, still prefer it. That may be a difficult opinion to accept from snow lovers,but I find it hard to accept how some would like it to be cold and raw all year.

Thunderstorms by a large margin, there is nothing more exciting than seeing a cumolonimbus coming in from a distance and hearing the growls, and then the natures firwork display,specially at dusk, wish I lived in florida I loved snow as a kid but find it a pain in the ass now, and it looks ugly when it inevitabably goes grey and slushy and stays around like an unwelocme presence I find a good thunderstorm uplifting Snow can get depressing for me , once you have seen white you want colour back

I think that was the problem here and many other places yesterday, despite being just in the orange risk zone it was just cool and overcast all day, although heavy downpours did arrive late evening but no thunder and lightning

5c at the moment, very gusty winds .driving rain, now the trees have some leaves on they are swaying badly and making loud hissing sounds, everbody is moaning , but being a weather enthusiast I am loving this, going to get wrapped up and have a look at some local flooding

Happy you got a storm fix

The one in St Helens and Wigan on Thursaday seem to just develop in situ, there was not that much electric activity but one CG bolt was very close and explosive sounding which tripped the lights off for a few seconds, at least we are on the right side of the year now for storms,ie going into the summer months

I think I should count myself lucky to have seen a grand total of one flash and two rumbles today,

Yes had a close CG strike from that , I saw it in the corner of my eye through the window at work , the power went off for a few seconds, window shaking thunder prompty followed then apart from another more distant rumble nothing else apart from a bout of heavy rain. Not bad for these parts

Looks intersting for here,but... I know I sound like a stuck record but the wigan storm sheild will put a dampner on anything, bet the east gets the cream of the storms again . Seen it all before

I didnt get suckerd in , as soon a I saw the word vicious, I just lauged , yeah right I thought, Of course if you consider a cold, wet and windy day vicious thats ok.

Thats because you are classed as North West England, those three words will scare off any storms within a 100 mile radius we really are the most storm deprived area of them all ,at least we do not need to worry about ever being struck by lightening

Actually when Labour goverments are power we do seem to get nearly as many storms as the south east up here, it really does seem like that Bloody tories

Same here , not expeting any thunder here , I have learned to realise its very difficult if not impossible to storms to occur here in westerlies thesedays despite what the charts or forcasts say, the local weather forcasts have mentioned thunder in their forcasts everyday for the last week, I just laugh it off. However it never used to be like this , in the seventies and eighties it was fairly common for thundery showers to happen here in these setups I am sure it wasnt selective memory, when the forcast mentioned thunder there seemed a much better chance of catching a thunder shower, Something HAS changed

More chance of seeing flying pigs than a thunderstorm here

this report of a loud bang around the south midlands, could it just be a positive CG strike, these are very powerful beast, there is a red blob on the radar indicating a cell in that area very boring here as usual, didnt expect much from this wind direction in spring, bloody Irish sea

yes it seem to have come from nowwhere just gone dark to my northwest and we are getting heavy hail now, looks possibly thundery,

agreed, the local forcast mentioned thunder in the showers, err no chance here with the wind from the Irish sea at this time of the year, just one or two moderate showers around just before lunch, you can see the Cb activity to the east however and the more stable small fuffly convective cloud toward the west