In recent years? Lincolnshire and the Newcastle area. Even parts of Scotland have done well. Usually, we do very well for thunderstorms, but since 2011, we've done really poorly. 2012 was the first year where we didn't have an overhead storm at all.
Prior to 2011, I remember some really cracking storms in and around Leeds, including the storm of September 2006, which may have been a supercell, but I am not certain. Many more spring to mind, but the dates are fuzzy. Leeds and the area can benefit from orographic uplifting.
Last year broke the storm curse, but we didn't do as well as I had hoped - we mostly missed out on the July storms, with a little bit of lightning largely hidden by the low-level cloud and fog. The late-August storm was a cracker though!
Let's hope 2014 is a great year for storms, but I'm hoping the areas that have done well do not do well this year, because I am selfish.
I also live in Leeds, and remember 2012 was quite disappointing, even though the rest of the country seemed to have a record year for storms!
Last year did take a while to get going, but we had a spanish plume in late July after the heatwave, which brought an interesting thunderstorm, although, like you said, it was mainly obscured by fog. There was also a spectacular storm in early august, which whilst it didn't go over us, it produced some quite vivid heat lightning. October was an interesting month, with a possibly supercellular storm on the 25th, which brought some spectacular C-G's, and torrential rain. November saw a squall line on the 2nd, closing the storm season!
This year has been very active south and west of the pennines, especially on the 22nd May, and 7th June, but these storms seem to have missed us. Fingers crossed for a more active summer!
Thunderstorm and lightning capital of the UK?
in Storms & Severe Weather
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I also live in Leeds, and remember 2012 was quite disappointing, even though the rest of the country seemed to have a record year for storms!
Last year did take a while to get going, but we had a spanish plume in late July after the heatwave, which brought an interesting thunderstorm, although, like you said, it was mainly obscured by fog. There was also a spectacular storm in early august, which whilst it didn't go over us, it produced some quite vivid heat lightning. October was an interesting month, with a possibly supercellular storm on the 25th, which brought some spectacular C-G's, and torrential rain. November saw a squall line on the 2nd, closing the storm season!
This year has been very active south and west of the pennines, especially on the 22nd May, and 7th June, but these storms seem to have missed us. Fingers crossed for a more active summer!