What’s the worst storm you have experienced living in the UK?

[dogs32]

This was in 2006 I think. Moved up from the south (The lights you can see in the very background are on the Isle of Wight) and this photo was taken about 9pm. An epic storm with constant lightning. By far the most spectacular storm I have ever seen in this country. Oh and if anyone else remembers this storm and has any pictures it would be great to see them, although I know i was a bit sketchy on the details but if you saw the storm I think you would remember it

Thats A one picture there...what camera was that

I may be wrong but it could have been Thursday 27th July. I just remember arriving back from a holiday in Portugal at Bristol Airport. It was chucking it down and thunder was booming away to the west.

Did you see nothing but lightning...this was not your average storm....As anyone got any links to graphs or images of previous years storms... I would realy love to find about this storm.....in all my years and all the countries I have never seen anything like it before....

This was in 2006 I think. Moved up from the south (The lights you can see in the very background are on the Isle of Wight) and this photo was taken about 9pm. An epic storm with constant lightning. By far the most spectacular storm I have ever seen in this country. Oh and if anyone else remembers this storm and has any pictures it would be great to see them, although I know i was a bit sketchy on the details but if you saw the storm I think you would remember it

Thats ONE of the best pics Ive ever seen by a mile...its now my desktop background..infact I will print it out enlarge it put it in a frame...have you anymore...or a web site with them on???/

Edited December 3, 2007 by dogs32

[biddie]

For me it has to be the Mesoscale Convective System over central/Southern England on June 24th, 1994. Here's a video I shot at the time.

wow i would have been so scared of that hard to believe that is in england i had to laugh when you said the bit about how you could now understand why some people get scared then the lighning hits !

[Zenarcher]

2005 storm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQNV5qrI0b8

interesting video at the end when it floods

[Cookie]

great video mate

[weatherterry]

If your storm had hit Southern England instead, then that would have been my worst by the look of it. As it is the 87 is by far my most memorable.

Funnily enough my best electrical storm happened in 1987 too, at Sittingbourne, in July or August I think. Got to be a vintage year

Regards,

Russ.

as too thunderstorms here 1978 may. i was havin a bath " when i was dryin myself.when lightining thunderbolt above me knocked me back in the bath and my mum and sis were on front door talkin too. SHOCK.

AND IN 1983 JULY I TOOK some pics too of storms with my 110 cam.

also camcorder 1999 june storms bad ones...........which i do a lot since ihad the camcorder.

TEZZ

[Noctilucid]

Hmm most memorable thunderstorm...

I remember a storm when I was quite young, probrably around 1999-2000, I think it was on a cold front and the cloud base was incredibly low, what I remember is the lightning, more or less all of it was cloud to ground, and also it was probrably the only time ive seen flickering lightning bolts, they must have been flickering about 12 times a second, it was mental.

I can also remember those multicells that used to start before I went to sleep and would end just as i was waking up the next morning!

Another storm which must have been around 2003 came rolling up from the South after an incredibly hazy humid day, I remember that day being so humid that there was a halo round the sun reflected from all the moisture! The rain was very prolonged and heavy and although the lightning was quite infrequent it was very powerful and we had a few trees struck within a kilometre!

The first plume of 2005 also, it was a short lived, weak affair, but its leading edge brought some very high based storms in the night, which uncharacteristicly for high based storms, gave us torrential rain! And an incrediblt lightning display, high based storms are very eerie, loads of very tall lightning bolts but its deadly silent and often still at the surface, sometimes you get very odd thunder also, sounds more like a gunshot.

2006 was a mental year also, at the end of may we had a loaded gun scenario, with loads of CAPE but a warm air layer acting as a cap, in my area the day had been mostly cloudy with low cloud, but over South West London, south of heathrow airport it had been clearer and daytime heating broke the cap causing some very isolated but very mental storms to move North Eastwards across london and out to sea and over Essex, dumping record rainfall amounts! Iremember that day well, reports started coming in here of developing storms in the Staines area, soon the humid mushy low cloud began to darken rapidly, the first smaller strom passed to my south over the Bexlyheath/Chatham area, very mushy dark skies could be seen to my south, and a few quiet rumbles of thunder were heard, but then another cell followed up bhind, as it approached the sky didnt look that dark, but cloud bases were very low and CG's were jumping all over the place to my South West, after the lightning show moved through, the absolutely torrential rain began, it appeared afterwards that the storm had developed further overhead, and gave areas around NE London and Southern Essex record rainfall, the heaviest rain ive ever seen in my life!

The end of July 2006 was alo marked by a very strong outbreak, although we had no overhead storms, some very powerful ones were knocking about nearby. The day started clear and humid, but around mid day the cap broke. Within half an hour huge Cb's were building and it became very dark to my east, this moved off North, and I could see an absolutely hug, thick anvil, this storm at the time was affecting North Essex, over 30 miles away yet the storm was still nearly overhead! This cleared off, and most of the mid day was brighter, the storm also seemed to bring drier air in its wake, so visibility improved, meanwhile some very strong storms formed a line over Southern Berkshire and moved rapidly NE, soon i could see a giant wall of anvils on the Western Horrizon, andd huge towers feeding into it on the tail end, which was the area most liely to hit here, some very storng storms formed on the tail end and it went incredibly dark, with a strong lightning show being reported in London, however this suddenly dissipated, however as it was doing so, a massive storm formed to the East over Eastern Kent, and ran up the coast into Essex giving Eastern Kent a massive lightning show, i was lucky enough to get a photo as the setting sun illuminated the anvil. I remember this day as feeling incredibly humid too, the air felt sieriously thick!

I still think the storms in cold air masses are the best though, you can see all the structure, the clear air makes photos come out amazing, also the storms that rattle in from the west seem to be rather strong, such as November 2006, I remember the cold front fast approaching, and the cliud being balck and nearly at ground level, we had horrizontal rain rattling through and some very loud thunder, this storm supposedly gave London a tornado, but I think it was just a localised squall. I absolutely love strong cold fronts, they make brilliant video/photo opportunities.

Jan 2004 thundersnow event also deserves a mention, black clouds descended from the North, moderate rain began and got heavier, and then all of a sudden, a massve gust of wind picked up, I remember watching the rain turn to horrizontal snow flakes in about three seconds! Visibility also went from good to virtually nothing in about 10 seconds! Wehad green lightning from that as well, very close by, the thunder sounded all odd and muffled, the snow flakes got bigger and bigger also, and the best snow came after the front, it must have snowed huge flakes for about 2 hours!

Joe

Edited December 31, 2007 by jshaw

[*AL*]

Excellent write up Joe, great to read especially this paragraph;

Jan 2004 thundersnow event also deserves a mention, black clouds descended from the North, moderate rain began and got heavier, and then all of a sudden, a massve gust of wind picked up, I remember watching the rain turn to horrizontal snow flakes in about three seconds! Visibility also went from good to virtually nothing in about 10 seconds! Wehad green lightning from that as well, very close by, the thunder sounded all odd and muffled, the snow flakes got bigger and bigger also, and the best snow came after the front, it must have snowed huge flakes for about 2 hours!

I remember this well, possibly the 18th or 28th Jan?? Time around 16.00?

I looked at this on the radar and there was a defined line East/West( wales out pass London) that moved directly south.Cold air mass dropping over moist air giving the most amazing weather i've ever seen.Started as light rain, then torrential rain turning to heavy snow in seconds with the most amazing purple lightning i've ever seen.We were left with a moderate covering of snow, quite an amazing day.

I believe this 'line' dropped as far as the south coast?

Has anyone got any links to radar that day?

Edited January 1, 2008 by *AL*

[Andy Bown]

I remember this well, possibly the 18th or 28th Jan?? Time around 16.00?

Has anyone got any links to radar that day?

Al, it was 28 Jan 2004.

I thought I had saved the lightning detector and radar but can't find them.

[Paul R]

Al, it was 28 Jan 2004.

I thought I had saved the lightning detector and radar but can't find them.

Linky: http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/2004/...loc20040128.gif (Location)

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/2004/...oc220040128.gif (Intensity)

Edited January 1, 2008 by emerson

[Cookie]

thanks for the links mate they are great

[*AL*]

Al, it was 28 Jan 2004.

I thought I had saved the lightning detector and radar but can't find them.

Cheers Andy and Emerson, i'd love to see a radar pic also, it was an amazing pic i seem to remember.

[Thundersquall]

Excellent write up Joe, great to read especially this paragraph;

Jan 2004 thundersnow event also deserves a mention, black clouds descended from the North, moderate rain began and got heavier, and then all of a sudden, a massve gust of wind picked up, I remember watching the rain turn to horrizontal snow flakes in about three seconds! Visibility also went from good to virtually nothing in about 10 seconds! Wehad green lightning from that as well, very close by, the thunder sounded all odd and muffled, the snow flakes got bigger and bigger also, and the best snow came after the front, it must have snowed huge flakes for about 2 hours!

I remember this well, possibly the 18th or 28th Jan?? Time around 16.00?

I looked at this on the radar and there was a defined line East/West( wales out pass London) that moved directly south.Cold air mass dropping over moist air giving the most amazing weather i've ever seen.Started as light rain, then torrential rain turning to heavy snow in seconds with the most amazing purple lightning i've ever seen.We were left with a moderate covering of snow, quite an amazing day.

I believe this 'line' dropped as far as the south coast?

Has anyone got any links to radar that day?

I was studying in my first year at Luton College of Higher Education (became the University of Luton now called the University of Bedfordshire)

in 1992. This year to me seemed unusually thundery, with some very vivid forked lightning displays.

A particularly vivid isolated storm built up around the Amersham / Rickmansworth area that summer, and produced some of the most amazing

forked lightning I have ever witnessed. This if I recall correctly was the last really vicious storm of that particularly thundery summer.

But the worst storm for me would have to be that "thundersnow" event of January 2004.

I recall the temperature as the front passed almost instantly dropped several degrees (Richard Angwin of BBC Points West

said in his forecast the temperature dropped from +7 degrees C to 0 degrees C in a matter of minutes).

Edited January 1, 2008 by Thundersquall