The 'no Storms Club' 2009

[*AL*]

All the recent activity and we had nothing! Typical, most decent storms here just 'happen'.

[maidstone weather]

For those interested in who missed out on Lightning during the thundery plume mid-week, UKASF have kindly created a map that has plotted all the real lightning strikes detected at their HQ from Tuesday up till Thursday here: http://ukasf.co.uk/module-Blog/

[Summer of 95]

Thunderstorm on the morning of 15 April, so not in this club here this year. Last year wasn't very good, best one was again early in the morning in May (a Sunday morning, date escapes me), 2007 had quite a few in late June but none in July.

[Somerset Squall]

I'm quite lucky down here for storms, can't remember a summer without at least one. Not so many last year as 2006 and 2005 but a some good 'uns nonetheless. Nothing here so far this year though but I'm not worried, it's early days yet.

Edited April 19, 2009 by Somerset Squall

[Essex Boy]

Well if you want guaranteed thunder and lightning, you need to move to somewhere like Florida. Or how about Rwanda/Congo region (believe the world's most thundery place or place with most lightning strikes?)

[Thundery wintry showers]

Best place for thunderstorms is probably Norwich. I had thunder there on 16 days last year (which is probably about par for the area), and in 2004 Norwich Weather Centre reported thunder on 27 days!

As for Harrogate, I remember some good storms in the Leeds area in 2006- three in May, one on 12 June, and a few in both July and August. The storm of 3 July was particularly phenomenal with lightning every 10 seconds or so at one point. The storm of 12 June had continuous thunder for about 15 minutes. The Leeds thunderstorm of 31 August 2005 was also very intense. I think of Yorkshire as being quite a thunder-prone area- annual thunderstorm frequency doesn't decline much as you head north up the eastern side to Yorkshire, it's past Yorkshire (read: Tyne & Wear/Durham) where storms tend to die out very quickly.

In Exeter I'm still in the "no-storms club". The spell of murky weather around midweek produced a few sharpish showers here, and on the Wednesday the weather had a very thundery look about it that afternoon, but there was no thunder. But Exeter's annual average is only about 8 thunder-days per year.

[Harry]

Off the top of my head, we had at least 7 or 8 good thunderstorm events in NW Kent/London during the course of last year, with other days of passing storms (flashing skies, distant rumbles).

The two dates I can recall of particular note was 25th May, when that great MCS came up overnight from France - plenty of thunder and lightning from that baby, and it lasted a fair while too (1 of 6 videos from YouTube below, not taking by me)

The other storm of note of course was 6th August, that great long line of thunderstorms which erupted between N France and SE England, and went on for hours - for more than an hour it produced the most frequent lightning I have ever seen in this country (for one 60 second spell I counted, I saw 26 individual flashes of lightning) (photos below)

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h...l%3Den%26um%3D1

Compared to other parts of the country, I cannot complain when I live in the UK's 'lightning alley' - though although we get hit relatively quite often, the number which sail past by about 20 miles - soooo frustrating!!

Edited April 20, 2009 by Harry

[Paul Sherman]

Nice Vid Just a shame he did not put the Camera onto Auto Focus which would have sorted the Glare Out! So thats what I missed last year just 3 days before Returning, was watching the Radar whilst out getting ready for the Aurora Day (29.05.08)

Myself although I would never ever swap Chasing Supercells in the US In Spring Season it has In some way ruined my take On Uk Thunderstorms and I am sure Nick F would back me up on this, when you see the power of those against even our most Severe MCS Jobbies from France the Uk Summer Storms just Cannot compete, I still rate some Uk Surface Based Storms as having a Violent Tendency but these are sadly very rare these days (Pattern Shift Who Knows ??)

The Hays (Ks) Early morning Storm from 23rd May literally had me Bricking myself, I really thought the Hotel was going to take a Direct Hit and set on fire, these were all Positive Cg's landing in the Car Park about 20-50 Feet in front of our door and It was just NOT Funny in a Single Storie Hotel with a Flat Roof!!

The Storm that does it for me in the Uk still has to be when I was 10 years Old and a MCS Hit giving continous Lightning from 10pm until 6am when I lived in Chelmsford.

US Wise has to be the Childress Supercell of 13th May 2005 which gave out 200,000 Bolts of Lightning from this Single Storm, 5 Tornadoes and 5" Hail.

Go Compare the 2

[Terminal Moraine]

No thunder heard here so far this year but there's plenty of time.

The average number of days with thunder heard over the last 30 years is around 12 and we do get occasional severe storms, the last one being about 4 years ago.

[Guest North Sea Snow Convection]

Nice Vid Just a shame he did not put the Camera onto Auto Focus which would have sorted the Glare Out! So thats what I missed last year just 3 days before Returning, was watching the Radar whilst out getting ready for the Aurora Day (29.05.08)

Myself although I would never ever swap Chasing Supercells in the US In Spring Season it has In some way ruined my take On Uk Thunderstorms and I am sure Nick F would back me up on this, when you see the power of those against even our most Severe MCS Jobbies from France the Uk Summer Storms just Cannot compete, I still rate some Uk Surface Based Storms as having a Violent Tendency but these are sadly very rare these days (Pattern Shift Who Knows ??)

The Hays (Ks) Early morning Storm from 23rd May literally had me Bricking myself, I really thought the Hotel was going to take a Direct Hit and set on fire, these were all Positive Cg's landing in the Car Park about 20-50 Feet in front of our door and It was just NOT Funny in a Single Storie Hotel with a Flat Roof!!

The Storm that does it for me in the Uk still has to be when I was 10 years Old and a MCS Hit giving continous Lightning from 10pm until 6am when I lived in Chelmsford.

US Wise has to be the Childress Supercell of 13th May 2005 which gave out 200,000 Bolts of Lightning from this Single Storm, 5 Tornadoes and 5" Hail.

Go Compare the 2

Paul

I know that the US storm season is a bit hard to match, but have you thought about going to Australia at the opposite end of the year? You could have a second storm fix then at a time of year when we are going into our winter season.

I was looking yesterday at the various You tube videos of the destructive storm(s) that Brisbane had of just a couple of years or so ago. It seems they have a defined storm season then -plus a lovely country to tour around anyway!!

Hope you and everyone else has a great time out in states. Safe travelling around

[Marcus_surfer]

No thunderstorms in this area of the world yet, but there is plenty of time as many people have said, last year we had a very good thunderstorm in May...We usually have thunderstorms in May/June/July

Edited April 20, 2009 by Marcus_surfer

[Paul Sherman]

Never really thought about that Tamara - Good Idea But one Snag the Wife and 3 Kids Getting away with 5 weeks a year is hard enough, If we went to Oz would have to spend the whole time with them, so it would kill me to know these Tropical Storms were going on and I would have to go to a Water Park or something like that.

Paul S

[Nick F]

Myself although I would never ever swap Chasing Supercells in the US In Spring Season it has In some way ruined my take On Uk Thunderstorms and I am sure Nick F would back me up on this, when you see the power of those against even our most Severe MCS Jobbies from France the Uk Summer Storms just Cannot compete, I still rate some Uk Surface Based Storms as having a Violent Tendency but these are sadly very rare these days (Pattern Shift Who Knows ??)

The Hays (Ks) Early morning Storm from 23rd May literally had me Bricking myself, I really thought the Hotel was going to take a Direct Hit and set on fire, these were all Positive Cg's landing in the Car Park about 20-50 Feet in front of our door and It was just NOT Funny in a Single Storie Hotel with a Flat Roof!!

Yes, I agree, even our best UK storms are quite lame in comparison to the monsters that swallow us up on the Plains and subject us to baseball size hail, dangerous lightning and violent RFD winds. Though I welcome any storm here even if its just a few flashes and bangs. But in the US, even the lightning can get pretty frightening for us seasoned chasers, like that morning you mention in Hays and I well remember awoken lying there in bed in the dawn twighlight thinking that the lightning was rather intense and abit close for comfort. And seeing the destruction the tornadoes do at first hand is quite something else that we never experience here.

Regarding the Aussie storms, yes - some spectacular and sometimes violent supercells they get there too, just looking at that storm that hit Brisbane, that someone posted links for, and destroyed many homes just from the strong winds and extreme rain. Also they do get tornadoes occasionally (though not on the scale of the US) - the clip below shows:

The draw back with Aussie is the road infrastructure and mountainous/hilly terrain where the best supercell storms are found towards the East Coast from NSW up into Queensland ... plus I imagine the technology probably isn't there with regards to data such as Barons, GRLevel3 which we use in the US.

[Guest North Sea Snow Convection]

Never really thought about that Tamara - Good Idea But one Snag the Wife and 3 Kids Getting away with 5 weeks a year is hard enough, If we went to Oz would have to spend the whole time with them, so it would kill me to know these Tropical Storms were going on and I would have to go to a Water Park or something like that.

Paul S

I was actually thinking you might take her with you actually! :lol: Making a general holiday out of it is a nice compromise ( even water parks can be fun occasionally!)

I watched poor Alison (wife of chaser Stuart) last night on the British Storm chaser junkie programme - so my allegiances are not just with the weather by any means!

Thanks for your comments too Nick. The Brisbane footage is amazing. I also like the lead up to the storm in two parts that one girl has taken footage of .

Edited April 20, 2009 by North Sea Snow Convection

[Harry]

I am going to defend our 'wet fart' storms here... :lol:

I know our storms aren't a whisker on those seen in the US and Down Under - however, when we do get those high elevated MCS's from France, or when we do get severe storms, where lightning is still frequent accompanied by some beautiful cloud structures, I am more than happy!

One thing which I value about our storms - is the fact I can enjoy them, without having to worry about my house and car being smashed to splinters by 100+mph winds, golf ball/baseball hail, or an F3+ tornado.

The Birmingham and London tornadoes are testament that our 'little' storms are still capable of producing exceptionally powerful and damaging winds! I for one have been fortunate (depends which side of the fence you sit on really) to have seen a large rope funnel cloud descend from a severe storm (in Kent), come down to within a few hundred yards of the ground and then travel directly over my head and then out to sea. Had it touched down....well, I cant speculate on what would have happened - but lets just say, that even only dangling from the cloud base, it created enough wind to scare any red blooded human being.

Bring on the big guns next year in the US - but I will happily keep our little storms in the mean time, knowing that if I am lucky enough to catch a large tornado next year, it wont be my house and family in its path

Edited April 21, 2009 by Harry

[shuggee]

There were a few cracks of thunder on 27 March in Edinburgh, my husband relaibly informs me - but I was on a train heading to Englandshire so only saw big grey clouds from the carriage window whilst whisking through East Lothian. So personally, I'm at zero :lol:

[Stuart]

still 0 storms here yet :lol:

[Paul Sherman]

Bring on the big guns next year in the US - but I will happily keep our little storms in the mean time, knowing that if I am lucky enough to catch a large tornado next year, it wont be my house and family in its path

Very Good Point Harry

Would not like my Property to be Subjected to some of those Storms and Certainly would not want to send my kids to school knowing a High Risk had been Issued and being over 40 Miles away at work helpless to the Situation (Relying On Others for their Welfare)

We are lucky in we are an Island without a Continental Climate that rarely builds these Insane Set-Ups around our Shores!

Paul S

[sammie]

The last storm we had there was New Years Even 2007, loud thunder, didn't see any lightning however the trees in the wood behind us, my garden and my neighbours got rearranged. Pretty sure it was tornadic damage my friend swears on her death bed that she saw a funnel and the trees in the wood behind that were knocked down were lying in opposit directions. I supose I don't deserve a storm for at least four years after that.

Edited April 21, 2009 by sammie

[Thundery wintry showers]

We are lucky in we are an Island without a Continental Climate that rarely builds these Insane Set-Ups around our Shores!

Paul S

My view on that depends on which continental region we're being compared to! I don't consider us "lucky" to be on an island without the continental climate that affects most of France and Germany, where storms are often more intense than ours (especially in central and southern parts of those countries) but are rarely anywhere near as dangerous as the ones that regularly affect parts of the USA. On the other hand, I agree that we are indeed lucky not to get the highly dangerous ones that affect parts of the USA.

[Nick F]

Just to have the same frequency of decent thunderstorms that continental Europe has in summer would be nice, in recent years we seem to have missed out on the majority of thundery plumes that affect even the near continent. This hasn't seemed to be always the case from memory, but every thing seems to have shifted SE - so those big MCSs we used to get each summer now seem to end up trundling up through Belgium and Holland rather than up over us.

I suppose having the threat each year of your house being damaged or destroyed by the severe storms they get in the mid-west would be something many would think twice about if they moved there, and I suppose we can rely on that threat never hanging over us living here. Still, nice just to visit and experience the storms in the US for a few weeks each year and no worries if the hire car gets battered by hail dents and hit by wind blown objects like ours did last year, as we won't have to keep it!

[The PIT]

Sheffield shield normally shreds all storms and only rarely goes for maintenance. So I reckon I'll be one of the last members of the club.

[Harry]

I don't consider us "lucky" to be on an island without the continental climate that affects most of France and Germany, where storms are often more intense than ours (especially in central and southern parts of those countries) but are rarely anywhere near as dangerous as the ones that regularly affect parts of the USA

I wouldnt be so sure regarding the power of particularly French, German and Polish storms - some of the supercells that explode over these regions each year are HUGE. When cold air descends out of the alps, warm moist air advects out of the med and dry warm air comes out of Siberia, I would think theoretically conditions were just as favourable as the US for huge supercells.

Thoughts?

[Thundery wintry showers]

I've been on annual summer holidays to France and Germany (mainly France) and seen quite a number of their continental storms. I have to say I'm a big fan of the summer climate of most of France and Germany, with particularly honourable mentions going to the eastern Dordogne and also the Alsace near Strasbourg.

Those MCS storms can be very intense with lightning strikes averaging every few seconds, and can be accompanied by strong gusty winds and, on occasion, large hail. But from what I've seen and heard those destructive tornadoes that affect the USA, for whatever reasons, are very rare events even in continental parts of Europe- although lightning damage is quite a common occurrence with the high frequency of lightning strikes.

One odd quirk is that some of those continental storms provide surprisingly little rain, as the precipitation associated with the convective cells can occupy a much smaller area than the influence of the lightning activity. On other occasions it really chucks it down, however.

[Guest North Sea Snow Convection]

I'v always said I would prefer a continental climate. A Canadian one would suit me best of all - with all that is best in terms of winter snow and cold and big storms in the summer. But Germany etc would do fine too

The atlantic spoils evey party it seems