[Best storm you've ever seen in the UK]

On 29/05/2020 at 01:44, James1979 said:

This has probably been done many a time on here before but being a massive fan of thunderstorms (and very starved again of late and indeed the last decade overall), I'd be interested to know, what is your favourite/best storm you've ever seen in the UK?  

As a child of the 80's I tend to think of that era and the early 90's as very thundery - it was quite normal back in Essex to have regular storms in summer (especially overnight), and on 24th June 1994 I saw the very best storm I have ever witnessed - if someone had said you'll never see anything like it again I would have been shocked (excuse pun!) but all these years later I still relive that storm in my mind and pray that I'll see something like it again as nothing comes close. 

I recall sitting in the garden after school, enjoying the sunshine and warmth (27c per my old records at the time) and it started clouding over - it reminded me of an approaching warm front at the time but clearly that was the anvil spreading across way in advance of the storm.  Before I knew it, in the distance all I could see was continuous bolts and forks of lightning across the horizon - even then I was passionate about storms and lightning but this was something different to anything I'd seen before and my heart started racing and I felt quite fearful!  As the storm drew nearer, the background was filled with the sound of continuous rumbling, growling and booming which grew louder and louder, whilst all the time the sky grew darker, punctuated every second or 2 with bright flashes.  Then within no time it was so dark the street lights came on and the clouds were glowing bright green - I now know that is often a sign of hail but we had no hail, what we did have was so much CG lightning every second or 2 and thunder that never had an end, just a constant booming all around and explosions when the lightning hit close by.  Every window I ran to front and back of the house had bolts tearing down in front of me - I was so excited but so terrified and I recall hearing my heart beat so loud in my ears it was crazy!  We then had a good 30 mins of just the most intense lightning I've ever seen before it gradually subsided.  I've had very close strikes since which were terrifying but that storm was so consistently raining down lighting in close proximity and so frequent that it has to be the best I've seen in the UK. Oh for something similar again sometime soon!!

I remember that storm well - it was the day we moved into our first flat.  I remember the sky going a green colour before the storm too - it was certainly one of the most spectacular I've seen - especially as we were driving through the Essex countryside in the middle of it.   Another spectacular storm I remember from my childhood in Essex was the "Dunmow Hailstorm" of 26th May 1985.  Started with ~2cm hail, which increased in size over several tranches up to about tennis-ball size. Recorded in the TORRO database here: https://www.torro.org.uk/research/hail/events

[Storms and Convective discussion - 16th June 2021 onwards]

Thought the storm over Chelmsford had died out, but in the last 10-15 minutes seems to have revived with frequent lightning and near constant thunder.

[What are the worst thunderstorms you have experienced in the UK?]

May 1985 - Severe thunderstorm with tennis-ball sized hail across much of Essex (known locally as the Dunmow hailstorm).  I was a kid at the time on a Scout camp when the first ~1 inch hailstones started falling. The size of the hail increased in several swathes through the afternoon until the final swathe was about tennis-ball size.  I think this was recorded as a H6 (60mm hailstones) event.

May/June 1986/7 - A weird electrical storm with several hours of red coloured heat lightning around the horizon with no thunder, followed by a thunderstorm. 

August 1994 - really severe storm that lasted several hours with continuous thunder and heavy rain/hail.  Only time I've seen the clouds turn dark green in colour.

Some more recent storms have been spectacular - but nothing quite as memorable as these...