Uk Airports Reporting The Most Thunderstorms

[Grazy2266]

Hi all,

When I was at work yesterday I found a very interesting document, it's basically the most reported thundertsorms at UK airports over the last 15 years. I thought I would share it all with you. Kinda can see a trend here!

1st Birmingham Intl

2nd East Midlands

3rd Manchester

4th Liverpool

5th Blackpool/Jersey Intl Airport

6th Robin Hood Airport (only reporting for last 5 years, new airport nr Doncaster)

7th Durham Tees Valley Airport (formally Teeside Intl)

8th London Luton Intl

9th Bristol Intl Airport

10th Cardiff Intl Airport

11th London Heathrow Intl

12th Southampton Intl

13th Norwich Intl Airport

14th London Gatwick Intl

15th London Manston Intl (reporting for 13 years)

16th Newquay Intl

17th Exeter Intl Airport

18th Southend Airport

These are all the airports that take part in the system. Scottish Airports are not included nor are Irish airports or very small regional airports.

[maidstone weather]

Birmingham International with the most storms reported? Nah that can't be right! :lol: surely?

[Grazy2266]

Birmingham International with the most storms reported? Nah that can't be right! :lol: surely?

Yep I'm afraid so, Ive always said that the Midlands don't do bad for storms.

[Harry]

Durham Tees Valley (attention GeordieSnow!) has more recorded thunderstorms in the last 15 years than every airport in the entire SE quadrant (inc Luton)

That is startling, almost a part of me thinks, plain wrong

Edited June 29, 2009 by Harry

[Boleyball]

Would be interesting to know home many storms each place had reported. There maybe not much between some of the airports.

Edited June 29, 2009 by Boleyball

[Grazy2266]

Would be interesting to know home many storms each place had reported. There maybe not much between some of the airports.

Would be interesting to know home many storms each place had reported. There maybe not much between some of the airports.

Would be interesting to know home many storms each place had reported. There maybe not much between some of the airports.

Would be interesting to know how many storms each place had reported. There maybe not be much between some of the airports.

I don't have that data to hand until tomorrow however I know Birmingham was 32 in 15 years, and Manchester was 27 and Luton 13 thats all I can remember at the moment.

There are certain reqiurements to be met before they officaly class a storm, many places would have high values if thundery showers were to be included.

[maidstone weather]

Why?

I was under the impression that the southeast had more storms than the Midlands? Just that the past 2 years or so had changed slightly. But since these records go back 15 year, I'm not so sure the SE is the prime location anymore

[Shiny_Bottom_1]

Birmingham is unique though MW.

[Grazy2266]

Its also worth noting these are airports, remember some locations don't have an awful lot of airports in the area. Also some airports can be pretty far away from the town or city they are named after. So stats can often differ from airport to town/city. Example London City airport is off the scale at the very bottom, but Heathrow isn't and its not a million miles away.

When an airport reports thunderstorms they are not necessarily overhead!

[johnholmes]

best you turn to the Met O site and find what is the official definition of a thunderstorm-remember official weather stations report on a weather code; thunder appears in that from 95-99 with the additional present weather of 17 which is thunder heard in the distance.

As to whether the numbers for the airports at the head of the thread are DAYS with thunderstorms or actual separate storms on those days which some of you seem to go by I think you will find its 'thunder days' NOT the number of individual storms which have been counted.

hope that helps explain some things before our poster reveals the full data.

Edited June 29, 2009 by johnholmes

[Tom D]

Surprising Luton is on there but not Stansted! I live quite near Stansted and we don't do that bad for storms, although I do admit they tend to go over towards the Luton area more often than not.

[Grazy2266]

Surprising Luton is on there but not Stansted! I live quite near Stansted and we don't do that bad for storms, although I do admit they tend to go over towards the Luton area more often than not.

Stansted are not on our network thats why they don't appear Tommy, I'm sure they do fairly similar to Luton.

Also a good point you raise there about thunder days John, the above stats are thunderstorms which is why the numbers over 15 years are very low, they have a certain requirement to meet before being regarded as storms. Ill get some more info from work and post, so you can see where the stats come from and what the requirements are etc. (you will be surprised what an airport regards as a storm lol)

[johnholmes]

tks bu

I would have thought that ALL airports had to follow the WMO/ICAO regulations which are as I suggested regarding the code numbers and hence the description.

If they are different then when it comes to the next weather check by NATS and Met they may well get hauled over the coals so to speak?

Edited June 29, 2009 by johnholmes

[Grazy2266]

Yep all airports have to follow World Meteorological Organisation and International Civil Aviation Organisation regulations and I'm sure all do, blimey i hope so lol

This study was originally started for early study of wind shear in the UK as PART (obviously along with other data) of a independent storm reporting network and was experimental between 5 independent (not BAA) airports (more have joined since), the study has continued over years and I'm sure has reached its conclusion on the small effects of wind shear in the UK, however the stats are still being recorded and the information is collated and used purely by the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations members and its not reported or collated for use in any other way. We report various real time data to the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations for use in various educationals and to universities for various projects. I suppose you could call this an independent experiment, i just don't know when it ends lol

When i worked for BAA airports we use to report data for independent sources, so its rather like that!

Edited June 29, 2009 by buckslad28

[Thundery wintry showers]

So, an interesting point here: although their thunder codes follow WMO/Met Office, I'm guessing their definition of a "thunder-day" in this survey is different to the MetO definition of "a day on which thunder is heard"? Interesting, because it would imply that the Midlands and north-west England are most favoured for their classification of "thunderstorm" with London and Norwich surprisingly low down the list.

Actually I don't think thunder frequency over much of S and E Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Midlands is a lot different to what it is in south-east England. In fact over the period 1993-2004 I recall that Ringway (Manchester Airport) averaged slightly more thunder-days in a year than Heathrow Airport, although Hastings, Waddington (Lincs) and Lowestoft were similar to Ringway or higher. But I always had the impression that the southeast and East Anglia had the most intense storms, and certainly at Norwich the thunder frequency is as high as anywhere in the country (I heard thunder, or saw reports of thunder while I was away, on 16 days there last year).

It would also be interesting to see how many storms get missed as a result of some airports not reporting through the night.

[OldGreggsTundraBoy]

Not surprised really, Birmingham and the West Midlands always seems to get by far the most storms followed by the East midlands including places such as Luton and Cambridge, why this is i don't know other than big storms with high cape form as far away from the coast as possible. Heathrow & Gatwick which im closest 2 come in much lower because it's closer distance from sea, despite recording the Hotest temperatures.

Edited June 29, 2009 by OldGreggsTundraBoy

[Supercell]

Yep, gotta love the Midlands for storms . I really don't know why TWS says that thunderstorms in the SE and EA are generally more intense. In terms of what? More CGs? Bigger Hail? more Tornadoes? Until someone has lived in every region of the country for at least 2 years, no one can say who gets the most intense storms. I mean there's just over a hundred mile difference between B'ham and London, how much can storms differ?

Yes, this part of the country usually does well so i'm not surprised to see Birmingham top the list. Although there has been a bit of a lull in the last couple of years.

If we're going county specific, for highest thunderstorm frequency, i'd plump for Cambridgeshire.

Edited June 29, 2009 by Supercell

[multi cellular thunderstorm]

Durham Tees Valley (attention GeordieSnow!) has more recorded thunderstorms in the last 15 years than every airport in the entire SE quadrant (inc Luton)

That is startling, almost a part of me thinks, plain wrong

Could be right, that's about 30 miles south of Tyne and Wear, and they do get a lot more storms down there.

Often the storms coming up from the south reach about Middlesbrough and get no further.

Teeside does very well for storms for being in the North East.

[Phil UK]

That's probably the main reason I wouldn't move to the SE, too much relying on France to bring in the imports whereas in Central England storms are homegrown and are pretty intense.

And ain't it the truth, Weather09. Saturday, Sunday and yesterday. All home grown even if not seen the full benefits of. But I think until Friday, there is far more to come.

Statistically, home grown and move north are more severe as heading over the Pennine region can be even more severe with the extra uplift and any mid to upper level instability.

Phil.

Edited June 29, 2009 by Phil UK

[Harry]

Weather09 yesterday:

These storms are weak. So in total that's 4 I've seen. Two to my W with a few flashes, one forming right over me and giving one rumble and the last one which has just passed me to my E by about a mile giving a tropical downpour and alot of loud rumbles. All in all, not a success. I suppose if they hit me dead on then I'd think they're a bit stronger but honestly, nothing compare to the ones in EA or the SE.

Weather09 today:

Yep, gotta love the Midlands for storms . I really don't know why TWS says that thunderstorms in the SE and EA are generally more intense. In terms of what? More CGs? Bigger Hail? more Tornadoes? Until someone has lived in every region of the country for at least 2 years, no one can say who gets the most intense storms. I mean there's just over a hundred mile difference between B'ham and London, how much can storms differ?

Perhaps instead of asking TWS to go through the process of explaining his comments, perhaps justify your comment 'nothing compares to the ones in EA or the SE"?

Indeed, until you have lived in every part of the country for at least 2 years (odd figure but anyway) you cannot know for sure, and quite right it depends on which element of storm you are focussing on.

What I will say for whats it worth, there are very few UK brewed storms that can compete against a plume thunderstorm - you can refer to size, rain intensity, lightning frequency, % positive to negative bolts, whichever, 1 in probably 25 will compare well against a plume import, if at all. I think there can be very little dispute between the SE/EA and the Midlands, who gets more of these...!! The storms of 15th June, home grown in Kent and Essex roaring on through the rest of EA - I believe it was remarked quite widely how those storms in particular were the most severe of the year to date???

Apart from this, Kent alone has had (iirc!!) at least 4 confirmed tornadoes/funnels (the triple at Ramsgate if I am not mistaken) plus the Ashford funnel snapped by Nick F, in 2009 alone, along with the funnel in Suffolk and I believe in Norfolk too. EA/SE therefore confirmed 6 funnels so far this year. How does the Midlands fair? (this is not meant to sounds provacative btw, just curious).

Edited June 30, 2009 by Harry

[Phil UK]

This is where you and me will agree, and Harry sadly will have to disagree on this issue as regarding tornados.

July 2005. An F2. Reason being and had a good discussion only yesterday with a goood friend of mine as to why Birmingham seems to be something of a hotspot for such phenomena.

Reason?? It's called an urban/concrete jungle where heat cannot automatically radiate away at night as opposed to rural country areas. Small Heath, Moseley, Bordseley Green, Selly Oak areas of Birmingham. July 1999 and 2005 respectively. And both in the what is known as the UK version of 'Tornado Alley'.

Two of the said areas, former and latter were breeding grounds for F2 style tornados.

Phil. (Goodnight. I think I'll be back though even though I've planned on sabbatical until Friday!)