LetItSnow!

Frequent lighting though the rain has moderated. Did record for a bit but lighting has now gone behind some trees. I think I may have captured a strike on camera though. If anyone wants to watch me ramble amongst thunder then I’ll upload the video as well as screenshots.

It wasn’t my eyes as the first big flicker just peered through the low cloud. I can hear the rumbles and the breeze is picking up . The childhood fear in me always comes out when a storm is approaching. I’m not actually afraid but it’s like a leftover of it, I get butterflies and a dry mouth and a bit shakey. Going to start recording soon. rumbles turning to a constant low roar.

I don’t know if it’s my eyes playing tricks on me but I feel like I can see flickers through the low cloud. Almost like the clouds are glitching.

Big blob of purple advancing its way towards me… I can already hear the tune from Jaws playing.

Becoming very breezy and an ominous feel. It’s a strange feeling though because of it being early in the year it actually feels quite cold. If I was just woken up and hadn’t read a forecast I’d just assume it was a breezy westerly pattern and wouldn’t have assumed it was so volatile.

My suspicions seem to be supported by the next radar frame. I think an area of severe storms is advancing its way towards C. London. And as I was typing this a big flash in the sky and some drops of rain starting… It’s about to go BOOM. I can feel it. The animals in the park have just gone mad. I think something might be developing overhead ?

Eagle Eye Unrelated to the storms but those are some groovy solar lights.

There seems to be an explosion of organised activity moving into the Thames Estuary and its aiming for my area. I wonder if this is a developing area of supercells like across Sussex and Surrey or whether it’ll die out over here again. Got the feeling it’s the former since cells are starting to form to the south. Is it C. London’s turn…?

Just heard a rumble from the mini cell to my south.

Azazel Now we know where the rumbles are coming from at least. Eastern edge firing into life with some vivid colours around the Oxted area.

Saving these screen captures for future reference. Intense stuff. Lucky they’re not slower moving as if they were there would be some very severe flooding risks. Reminds me of the storms around the Portsmouth area on April 20, 2018 which were similarly intense and early in the season.

Incredible rainfall rates across Sussex at the moment. Rarely do you see such a mass amount of purples. Off the scale. I tried looking at traffic cameras down that way. This one at the M23 feels quite apt, whether it’s a poor image or fog I’m not sure, but the rain is so heavy it’s basically a cloud/sheet of rain. Crawley about to get absolutely trashed.

Stepped away for a bit and I see reinvigoration after it went a bit quiet on the northern edge. Your pictures are great guys. Will be sure to take some if anything local pops up

Storms seem to be losing all their juice as they head up towards London at the moment.

Zak M Was just about to post that. While the lightning is understandably the most interesting factor to most, the rainfall rates are off the scale. If any places see prolonged rainfall of this type on already saturated ground we could be looking at some very bad flash flooding. Some places could be extremely sodden tonight!

They're growing bigger and more intense and moving in my direction.

Biblical rainfall around Canterbury on the radar. Must be a right walloping under that.

Tiny shower just developed overhead unexpectedly. I knew I could smell petrichor.

Shower developing near East Grinstead. Wonder if this will turn into anything.

Seeming to be on the borderline of the juicy area here tonight. I’ll be okay if we miss anything though I feel like there’ll be some light shows visible at the very least.

Harry's House Cool and wet summers usually are actually. It’s a misconception that heat is needed to go bang.

A Face like Thunder 1927 ranks as one of the wettest years on record with an average of 1108.2mm. It seems many years in the 1920s had mild winters and poor summers. The grotty weather that has blighted the UK at times in the 2020s seems to mirror that of the 1920s, though much warmer. After that cold December and blizzard the rest of the winter that followed was very wet and mild and another poor summer followed in 1928. The 1920s in terms of UK weather sounded very grey… 1922-1928 was a very wet period.

Summers such as 1954, 1988 and 2012 are frequently mentioned when talking about poor UK summers, but one that seems to have been forgotten in the history books is the summer of 1927, a very wet and generally cool summer. June 1927 was a very wet and cold month with a C.E.T. of 12.6C and EWP of 101.3mm. It was the wettest June since 1912 and there wouldn't be one wetter until 1958. Whilst it was a cold June for the C.E.T. series, it was even colder across Scotland where it was remarked as one of the coldest Junes in recorded history. Edinburgh saw its coldest June since records began in 1764, meanwhile the Channel Islands were around half a degree below average. It was dull everywhere except parts of Scotland. The first ten days are generally described as being cool and unsettled with frequent thunderstorms. The 7th was particularly wet with falls of around 40mm across NI. Sleet fell in Ushaw Moore, County Durham on the 8th. There was a brief spell of settled weather from the 11th to the 15th which gave the best conditons of the month, though cool uppers meant there was some exceptionally cold nights in the north. The temperature fell to -3C at Castleton, Yorkshire the night of the 14th into the 15th. In stark contrast, Greenwich saw the highest temperature of the entire month on the 16th as the ridge repositioned itself and 29C was recorded. The rest of June 1927 deteriorated even further and there were gales and heavy rain on most days. Gales of between 50-60mph on the 21st. Further severe thunderstorms peppered the country in the final ten days, particularly the 25th and 26th where the latter day saw large hail in the Thames Valley region. July 1927 is described as a very cloudy and humid month with mild nights but cool days and with violent thunderstorms. It has a C.E.T. of 15.9C. It was a warm month across Scotland but near-normal elsewhere. Rainfall generally tended to be above normal but there was large regional variation with parts of the south-east seeing over double the normal amount but around Great Yarmouth totals were around 70% and in the extreme north there was less than a third. It has an EWP of 96.0mm, the driest of the three months. Unsettled and thundery conditions prevailed for the first ten days with severe thunderstorms. Severe thunderstorms on the 5th caused crop damage and lightning damage to buildings in the north of England. A large mass of torrential thundery rain hit the SE on the 6th into the 7th with particular flooding in the Dover area. Yet more intense storms on the 11th, this time focused on the Capital. The 11th brought daytime darkness to London (similar sounding event to 6 August 1981) as 1.5 inches of rain fell in 12 minutes in Balham, London. This was a day after the warmest day of the month, a meagre 28C in Calshot, Hampsire on the 10th. Considerable flooding damage was also reported across Staffordshire and Oldham. Fine weather prevailed for a time mid-month but the final ten days renewed the unsettled weather though of a considerably less volatile nature. That said, there was further flooding on the 21st across Ashton-under-Lyne, Sunderland, Glasgow and Greenock. July 1927 sounds like a pre-AGW version of a standard summer month of the past ten years, lots of winds from a S and W quadrant, lots of cloud and a humid feel. August 1927 is described as a thoroughly unsettled month. It has a C.E.T. of 15.6 and an EWP of 139.5mm. A report from Halstead, Essex writes: "The month was remarkable for the long spell of wet weather which lasted almost without a break from the 5th to the 25th". Totland Bay on the Isle of Wight recorded its most humid August on record with a mean relative humidty of 84%. The mean wind direction was south-westerly and it was very dull away from the far north and NI. Only in the far north and north-west of Scotland was there a deficiency of rainfall. The month actually started fine bar some heavy rain in the south-east on the 1st. High pressure built and the 2nd to the 5th was mainly warm, dry and fine and the warmest temperature of the month was on the 5th with 27C at Cullompton, Devon. Thunderstorms broke out due to rapidly weakening pressure into the 5th and 6th and this marked the start of 2-3 weeks of exceptionally wet and cloudy weather. Exceptionally heavy rain across northern England and Scotland on the 8th with intense rain storms causing flooding in the Perthshire and Lothian regions. It was an extremely thundery month, particularly across Scotland with around 21 days of thunder on average. Four times the normal August rainfall fell in the Midlands from the 14th to the 20th alone. There was a reprieve of the worst conditions in the south after about the 23rd and little rain fell across the south-east after this as pressure rose, but it stayed unsettled in the north. Chilly on the 25th with the temperature dipping to -1C at Braemar. The summery charts at the end of September may have you believing that like can happen many times, a nice September followed a poor summer - however, it actually got worse! September 1927 was exceptionally wet, cold and very dull with a C.E.T. of 12.5C and an EWP of 154.0mm. Reports from this month include: Malvern: "The month was noteworthy for lack of sunshine, excess of rainfall and humidity above the average". Eastbourne: "The total sunshine duration for the month is the second lowest total for September in 40 years, the lowest September total on record being 114-9 hours in 1905". Many reports from across the country remark about flooded ground, no doubt due to the persistent heavy rainfall through the summer. Similarly to August, the month began fine with the 2nd being the warmest day of the month with 24C at multiple stations across the east and south-east. "The thunderstorm which visited south and south-east Scotland on the morning of the 7th was the worst in severity experienced for many years it was accompanied by torrential rain which caused extensive flooding, particularly in the Lothians and border counties". "Southern and eastern England experienced a period of recurring heavy rains from September 13th to 15th. The largest daily totals occurred between the mornings of September 14th and 15th and in most places were well above an inch. Amongst the largest measurements were 63mm at Brighton, 61mm at Portsmouth, 59mm at Grayshott and 58mm at Long Sutton. In many places, e.g., Norwich, Yarmouth, Marlborough, Brighton, Southsea, Bognor and Lowestoft, the total rainfall for the three days September 13th, 14th and 15th was well in excess of the normal for the month. Snow fell on the Cairngorms on the 17th; Deerness and Llandudno had each one day on which snow or sleet fell". Exceptionally heavy falls occurred over widespread areas in the east on the 22nd and in the west on the 28th. Amongst the largest measurements were 83mm. at Stonehaven, 78mm. at Boghall and Abroath, and 72mm. at Montrose on the 22nd and 62mm. at Greenock on the 28th. At Edinburgh (Blackford Hill) where the total for the month was 201mm. (or more than four times the normal), September was the wettest month on record since August 1877 and the wettest September since 1785. A gust of 70 m.p.h. was recorded at Dunfanaghy (Donegal) during the gale on the night of September 8th-9th. During the gale which affected the south-west of England on the 29th, the wind in a gust attained a velocity of 66 m.p.h. at Pendennis and 65 m.p.h. at Scilly (St. Mary's). -2C was recorded at St. Albans on the 27th as high pressure built in after northerly winds. After a very poor summer, the first half of October 1927 was high pressure dominated and apart from morning fog, was mild and sunny with temperatures as high as 22C by the 7th. Typical! The summer of 1927 is the 9th wettest summer on record for the UK as a whole. It ranks 2nd in terms of "wet days" meaning days where at least 1mm fell, indicating that while there may have been less severe floods than summers like 2007, it was more persistently wet.

I’ll be keeping a close eye on rainfall this month as April has kept the ongoing wetter than average conditions since July last year. I already spoke about it a couple weeks ago but we’ve already surpassed 1960-1961 and 2000-2001 in terms of length and appear to now be the second longest ever spell of wetter than average months behind January 1872 through to January 1873, 13 months. We’d need to keep wetter than average weather through to August 2024 to beat it. A thundery start to May with troughs around the place making sure we’re not off to a dry start… Now we see if high pressure comes in and if it does, will it hold? Fascinating times. In a perverse sense I want it to be beat. All eyes on rainfall this May.

feels like it’s been ages since a proper thundery attack from the south / southeast. i don’t know what the odds will be here in central london of getting anything direct. it’ll be a night of model watching no doubt.