Thunderstorm Stories

[Stormyking]

Sorry if there had been or there is a thread like this.

Thought I would start a topic on Stories of previous thunderstorms anyone had experienced in the past so they can share them.

I have 1 very special storm I remember:

1st one, 26th July 2006- This is probabaly the best storm I have ever seen. The day started off on a very warm and humid note and felt very uncomfortable as the day went on and was like that Hot and sticky feel. By about mid day onwards some AcCas was starting to form and the afternoon became hotter and temperatures was actually in its 30's. By about 4pm me, my Brother and my Dad went down to ventnor for a nice walk,when we got there I looked over out to sea and it was very dark out there and there was distant rumbling going, I said to my dad i can hear thunder in the distant and he was na its not thunder as he couldn't hear it and I said it is the thunder becasue it sounded exactly like thunder and it kept doing it ever few seconds or a few minutes. Anyway after we had our walk we headed back to the car and then finally my dad gave in and said actually that is thunder and i was like I told you, unfortunatly the storm was not coming our way and then i started to lose hope if we was going to get any storms.

At about 6pm we got home and it felt very humid and muggy still but still no sign of any storms coming our way, had diner about 7:15pm and then went to the carnival which was right behind my house. As we got to the carnival it came over very dark but only gave a few spots of rain then moved on i felt disappointed becasue i thought that was it, Then we went home at about 8pm or 8:30 can't remember. We went in the house and i got told to take somet out into the Garden so i did and as i went out in the garden I heard a crackle and then rumbling and my thoughts was THUNDER!! I ran upstairs into my bedroom and with in 5 seconds of opening my window A huge CG hit to the Left of me with some loud thunder and i was WOOO bring it on, It was very dark to my east and thats where i saw the CG but that was just 1 Storm cloud, it produced quite a few beutiful CGS for about 10 minutes. Then I was hearing thunder to my south and looked that way and all I saw was this Huge Thunderstorm coming right towards me and then connected to the other storm to my east and I shouted to parents "I THINK WE ARE IN FOR A BIG SHOW". They laughed and said looks like we are not going to see you all night then considering you will be weather watching all night and I was like yup :lol:.

Anyway back to the Storm, As i said this storm from the south had connected with the storm to my east so basically we had 2 storms turn into 1 mega one, I started to see Lightning flashing to my South, East and South West. As the storm was getting closer the Lightning was becoming very frequent but there was hardly any thunder and for the first 2 hours it was just like 1 big Lightning show but the Lightning was flashing anywhere between 0.5 seconds and 5 seconds with no gaps at all and was producing the best CG's and CC'S I have ever seen with somtimes about 5 or 6 strikes all at once and next to each other. The storm was very slow moving and then after about 2 hours the Thunder started to get frequent and very loud and the thunder was constantly grumbling, crackling non stop, then the rain started but strangely was not very heavy it was more like an electrical storm with hardly much rain. This went on for about 3-4 hours and there was even spider Lightning as well and Lightning just traveling across the sky in some style. Thunder was Just shaking the whole area, My brother could not sleep with it going on and my mum was watching it with me and then my brother Joined and they was like WOW!!!

This storm will take some beating for a while from what I have seen in my life time which is only 17 years next wednesday, who knows might get something like that this year lets hope it does.

Hope you enjoyed reading it and hope everyone else has a story to tell

Thankyou

[BlueHedgehog074]

That was quite an amusing thundery tale, so thanks for sharing it. Just when it looked like you were going to miss out on the thunder, one mighty storm comes in and invades the area giving you a dazzling display with frequent lightning flashes. Lightning can sure be very pretty, but I must admit, I do get a little nervous watching it sometimes (lol), unless it is from the distance. Though, to be honest, I would still love to witness something similar to the thunderstorm you had.

I think that is one odd aspect about thunderstorms - even though they may look dark and rather threatening, they don't always produce heavy torrential rain or hail.

Anyway, I will have a Thunderstorm Story posted hopefully tommorrow, or Thursday.

Edit: Are we allowed to post any sightnings of thundersnow aswell as Summer thunderstorms? I don't mind if not, but just wondering.

Edited April 27, 2010 by Rainbow Snow

[Stormyking]

That was quite an amusing thundery tale, so thanks for sharing it. Just when it looked like you were going to miss out on the thunder, one mighty storm comes in and invades the area giving you a dazzling display with frequent lightning flashes. Lightning can sure be very pretty, but I must admit, I do get a little nervous watching it sometimes (lol), unless it is from the distance. Though, to be honest, I would still love to witness something similar to the thunderstorm you had.

I think that is one odd aspect about thunderstorms - even though they may look dark and rather threatening, they don't always produce heavy torrential rain or hail.

Anyway, I will have a Thunderstorm Story posted hopefully tommorrow, or Thursday.

Edit: Are we allowed to post any sightnings of thundersnow aswell as Summer thunderstorms? I don't mind if not, but just wondering.

Yeh thats fine , makes it more Interesting posting sighting of thundersnow or any thunderstorms. I have loads of stories and will post another story of another good storm we had back in september 2008 tomorrow .

When I was very little about 3,4 or 5 I was petrified of Lightning for some reason but loved the sound of thunder but now Lightning to me is most beutiful thing to see on earth along with thunder being best sound on earth.

That storm we had, I dont think we will see another one like it for a while but will never forget it.

[BlueHedgehog074]

Yeh thats fine , makes it more Interesting posting sighting of thundersnow or any thunderstorms. I have loads of stories and will post another story of another good storm we had back in september 2008 tomorrow .

When I was very little about 3,4 or 5 I was petrified of Lightning for some reason but loved the sound of thunder but now Lightning to me is most beutiful thing to see on earth along with thunder being best sound on earth.

That storm we had, I dont think we will see another one like it for a while but will never forget it.

Cool, look forward to it.

I don't blame you for not wanting to forget about that storm, seeing as they can be rare.

The May 2005 Thunderstorm Story - It was a Saturday when my family and I decided to visit the Moretan Morrel Warwickshire College open day (about 20 miles to the South-East), where I would be studying Horticulture during the following September. I got into the car and peered out through the shiny window. Clouds dominated the sky and as we raced down the M40, I saw we were heading towards a shower which, although gave a splattering of rain, it did not have the characteristics of a thunderstorm. Within 5 minutes of reaching the College, the shower cleared like dirt being wiped off a window, to sunny spells. In my mind I thought, "Yes, it looks like it could be dry for the Open Day."

After exploring the place for three hours, I was happy to walk down the tall hill towards the Horticultural Unit. Then, by surprise, I saw a dark grey thing at the corner of my eyes as I walked down the big bump in the landscape and I could hear these "Grrrrrrrruuuuummmmmmbbbbbbblleeeee, grruuuummmmbbbbbleee" sounds.

It was then I realised we were in for a spot of thunder; in fact worse than that, there was a great big...

...sorry, I'm going to have to finish the story off later as it's time for me tea. To Be Continued (end of part 1)...

[Stormyking]

Thanks Rainbow snow

Am looking forward to the next part of your story .

Later on tonight or tomorrow evening I will share another story

[Mesoscale]

I have a couple of stories

1: This was june of last year best storm id ever seen in the UK sorry about the bad quality, my gay voice, my lack of storm knoledge and the dog all i know is i love thunderstorms!!

Part 1: http://s428.photobuc...726thunder2.flv

Part 2: http://s428.photobuc...nt=thunder2.flv

you cant hear all of the thunder as my phone is really bad lol but there was alot! some good lightning in it though also looks like a tornado is forming. the storm started at 4:30pm and didnt finish untill 9:45pm it was carazy!

2: I was in florida in august 2009, the hottest day id ever had we got up about 9 and went to Seaworlds Aquatica at 11am we got into the wave pool and theres a jumbatron(large screen they have a football etc) displaying messages, the current weather conditions and the temperature which read 35C at 11am in the morning the wave pool had heated up aswell as the day went on and i felt like i was sweating inside the water it was horrible. so about 12ish we decided to leave as it was just getting 2 hot, why do they make floors at water parks dark?? my feet felt like they had been toasted from the floor. we had lunch and decided to go to the florida mall at about 2pm ish clouds had started to build as they do everyday in florida after 12 it seems to get very convective. The temperature by now had risen to 39C and walking across the malls parking lot was like walking the sahara desert, the humidity was a killer aswell over 80%. I love hollister and Aeropostle so i decided to drag my parents around the mall for a couple of hours!!! i brought over $200 worth of hollister stuff about $50 worth of aeropostle! at about 4/4:30 we exit the mall and to my delightment storms had built to are north and west and since storms always nearlly travel east to west in florida we were in for a treat, we drove to the wal-mart to pick up some stuff for the evening like beer etc and the whole drive there i couldnt keep my eyes of the storm that was approaching you could see the sheer edge of the storm and you could see it flattning at the top. we got out of wal-mart and it had got much closer as florida is flat as a plank of wood you can see for miles and you could almost see where the lightning was striking there where alot of cg lightning to are west and out in an open car park felt abit dangerous so i was on a mission to get bk to the car as quickly as possible lol the thunder was still quite long after the thunder at this point no more then 6 seconds. it was time for dinner we went to the ponderosa as we driving down international drive the thunderstorm came over us and one bit of lightning hit quite close that i felt the heat of it after that i closed my window as the rain had started to bucket down, we parked the car and decided to make a run for the entrance the rain had calmed a bit as we where standing under the front of the restuarant the lightning kept getting closer and closer at one point all you could hear was thunder rumbling on for about a minute there where alot of close strikes to where we were standing as international drive has alot of tall buildings but most of it was behind us and i didnt feel like running around the outside of the building to look at it because there wasnt any cover behind the building which is a shame and i didnt feel like gettting struck by lightning neither eventually my mum got bored and she dragged us inside for dinner but i didnt wanna go in lol we came out about 9 and there was still alot of lightning around but not much thunder as the humidity in florida stops the sound of the thunder from traveling too far. my balcony in my hotel room faced south so i couldnt see most of the lightning but i got up at 5am that night to go to the toilet and could still see the lightning reflecting off the ajacent building. out of the 15 days i was there 12 of them i could either hear thunder or see the lightning in the distance! although most of the storms we had werent that strong. i bet floridians get fed up of it all the time lol!!!!

Edited April 28, 2010 by Mesodiscussion

[RichardR]

Not a lot of info on this one, but I would be grateful if someone with better access to it might be able to shed light on information about this thunderstorm.

In August 1997 I was camping in Jersey and there was a terrific frightning thunderstorm about 1-2 O'clock in the morning, which directly struck the campsight and also burned somebody in their tent, I remember. It was very lightning active, probably not severe though. It seemed rather like a plume type of storm and probably came from France. Looking at some partial weather records I found, the date was probably 5th August 1997. Anyone got any more information about this "event"?

Edited April 28, 2010 by RichardR

[Stormyking]

I have a couple of stories

1: This was june of last year best storm id ever seen in the UK sorry about the bad quality, my gay voice, my lack of storm knoledge and the dog all i know is i love thunderstorms!!

Part 1: http://s428.photobuc...726thunder2.flv

Part 2: http://s428.photobuc...nt=thunder2.flv

you cant hear all of the thunder as my phone is really bad lol but there was alot! some good lightning in it though also looks like a tornado is forming. the storm started at 4:30pm and didnt finish untill 9:45pm it was carazy!

2: I was in florida in august 2009, the hottest day id ever had we got up about 9 and went to Seaworlds Aquatica at 11am we got into the wave pool and theres a jumbatron(large screen they have a football etc) displaying messages, the current weather conditions and the temperature which read 35C at 11am in the morning the wave pool had heated up aswell as the day went on and i felt like i was sweating inside the water it was horrible. so about 12ish we decided to leave as it was just getting 2 hot, why do they make floors at water parks dark?? my feet felt like they had been toasted from the floor. we had lunch and decided to go to the florida mall at about 2pm ish clouds had started to build as they do everyday in florida after 12 it seems to get very convective. The temperature by now had risen to 39C and walking across the malls parking lot was like walking the sahara desert, the humidity was a killer aswell over 80%. I love hollister and Aeropostle so i decided to drag my parents around the mall for a couple of hours!!! i brought over $200 worth of hollister stuff about $50 worth of aeropostle! at about 4/4:30 we exit the mall and to my delightment storms had built to are north and west and since storms always nearlly travel east to west in florida we were in for a treat, we drove to the wal-mart to pick up some stuff for the evening like beer etc and the whole drive there i couldnt keep my eyes of the storm that was approaching you could see the sheer edge of the storm and you could see it flattning at the top. we got out of wal-mart and it had got much closer as florida is flat as a plank of wood you can see for miles and you could almost see where the lightning was striking there where alot of cg lightning to are west and out in an open car park felt abit dangerous so i was on a mission to get bk to the car as quickly as possible lol the thunder was still quite long after the thunder at this point no more then 6 seconds. it was time for dinner we went to the ponderosa as we driving down international drive the thunderstorm came over us and one bit of lightning hit quite close that i felt the heat of it after that i closed my window as the rain had started to bucket down, we parked the car and decided to make a run for the entrance the rain had calmed a bit as we where standing under the front of the restuarant the lightning kept getting closer and closer at one point all you could hear was thunder rumbling on for about a minute there where alot of close strikes to where we were standing as international drive has alot of tall buildings but most of it was behind us and i didnt feel like running around the outside of the building to look at it because there wasnt any cover behind the building which is a shame and i didnt feel like gettting struck by lightning neither eventually my mum got bored and she dragged us inside for dinner but i didnt wanna go in lol we came out about 9 and there was still alot of lightning around but not much thunder as the humidity in florida stops the sound of the thunder from traveling too far. my balcony in my hotel room faced south so i couldnt see most of the lightning but i got up at 5am that night to go to the toilet and could still see the lightning reflecting off the ajacent building. out of the 15 days i was there 12 of them i could either hear thunder or see the lightning in the distance! although most of the storms we had werent that strong. i bet floridians get fed up of it all the time lol!!!!

Wow that sounds like a cracker of a Storm, I would love to see a storm like or the one i was talking about on my first post in this thread again. That storm must of lasted for hours, do you know how many this storm went on for.

BTW Just watched your videos and that looks like a great storm as well :lol:

[Ben_Cambs]

I will go into a lot more detail in another post(maybe tomorrow), but I can remember a thunderstorm that lasted for at least 14 hours when I visited Florida in April 2003. (Cant remember the exact date though!)

Regarding RichardR's post, here is the 500 hpa chart for that date:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/topkarten/fsreaeur.html

That date had 850 Uppers of 15C, so it was a "Spanish plume" set up. With Lowish pressure to the west of the UK and High Pressure just to the East/North East of the UK. This of course allows moist air from Spain to head up through France and meets the dryer continental air, creating unstability, And this later would of sparked the Thunderstorms heading up France during daytime maxima and across the channel during nightime hours, though I suspect in your case it possibly could of been a more organised line of thunderstorms caused by a mid level trough. Im may not be right at this, Im still a novice at Thunderstorms. Nick F in the Learning area has an excellent guide to Thunderstorm setups, as it may answer some of your questions.

Regarding that particular date, Im not totally sure, but it did defiently happen in a Spanish plume setup.

Edited April 28, 2010 by Snowman0697

[Mesoscale]

Wow that sounds like a cracker of a Storm, I would love to see a storm like or the one i was talking about on my first post in this thread again. That storm must of lasted for hours, do you know how many this storm went on for.

BTW Just watched your videos and that looks like a great storm as well

Yeah it was awsome, i want to spend a whole summer over there. if you want to see a decent storm either go to the congo lol or florida!

It lasted for a long time but i think it was more of a cluster of storms it probably lasted till about 11 with audible thunder but lightning could be scene all night it probably started about 3pm before i had come out of the mall, It even set some trees alight in osceola, no doubt it probably kept going the next day out to sea as florida is not that wide everything gets blown off quickly. one of the days i could see a thunderstorm way off in the distance at about 8am so that must of gone on all night aswell, the only problem is the heat it really gets uncomfortable.

Buts its good fun maybe netweather should do tornado chasing during spring and then lightning chasing during the summer. that would be mega and i would pay for that!

[Stormyking]

Yeah it was awsome, i want to spend a whole summer over there. if you want to see a decent storm either go to the congo lol or florida!

It lasted for a long time but i think it was more of a cluster of storms it probably lasted till about 11 with audible thunder but lightning could be scene all night it probably started about 3pm before i had come out of the mall, It even set some trees alight in osceola, no doubt it probably kept going the next day out to sea as florida is not that wide everything gets blown off quickly. one of the days i could see a thunderstorm way off in the distance at about 8am so that must of gone on all night aswell, the only problem is the heat it really gets uncomfortable.

Buts its good fun maybe netweather should do tornado chasing during spring and then lightning chasing during the summer. that would be mega and i would pay for that!

Dont blame you that you want to go over there again sounds like an excellant place, but even though we may not get as many here as florida, tornado alley or any parts of America the IOW can get some very good ones as i have seen quite alot of times but yeh nothing compared to where Mid US gets I would dream of going there every year and I jsut want to expericence it at least once or twice in my Life time.

[MP-R]

This is a very short one to start, I have many longer stories to share but not this late.

I thought it was just uncanny that when I went to Brasil for Christmas 2003, we left Rio on Saturday 10th January 2004 during a thunderstorm, we actually took off in a thunderstorm - scary and fun at the same time. Then, we were plane/airport travelling until we landed at Bristol on Sunday 11th January, only to look out to the Severn to see a waterspout then walk out the airport to torrential hail, thunder and lightning - we were back in England!

[Stormyking]

This is a very short one to start, I have many longer stories to share but not this late.

I thought it was just uncanny that when I went to Brasil for Christmas 2003, we left Rio on Saturday 10th January 2004 during a thunderstorm, we actually took off in a thunderstorm - scary and fun at the same time. Then, we were plane/airport travelling until we landed at Bristol on Sunday 11th January, only to look out to the Severn to see a waterspout then walk out the airport to torrential hail, thunder and lightning - we were back in England!

That Sounds exciting, I wonder if one of my friends from Bristol remembers this, I will have to ask him tomorrow but thanks for sharing

[StormChaseUK]

Thought I would show my favourite storm/storms Story in picture form. hopefully wet the appetite for people this summer

and how what is possible when all the elements come together

enjoy

[Stormyking]

Thought I would show my favourite storm/storms Story in picture form. hopefully wet the appetite for people this summer

and how what is possible when all the elements come together

enjoy

The 25th of June in some of those you posted, the storms over france on there came up onto to hit us that night and gave a pretty decent Lightning display

Thanks for Sharing the Charts.

[Marcus_surfer]

Nice sat pictures of Storms over South Wales, look at that lightning chart! Hope for more of those, i remember that very well.

[Azazel]

Hi guys, havent posted here in ages!

my most vivid and awe-inspiring account came the day before I went on holiday to Florida in 1999..I live in a little town called Whitchurch in Hampshire, it was somewhen in May..although i'm not quite sure of the date.

I was 14 at the time and i remember the early afternoon being quite warm and bright. I was climbing a tree when i spotted a massive anvil out to the south west and exclaimed to my friends below that we might be in for a bit of thunder later. As the anvil slowly crept closer the sky behind it gradually turned to a deep shade of orange. Visibility was superb which is a little unusual for this country with all the late spring/summer haze but you could see the cloud base perfectly and the dangling tendrils of scud hanging just below the line of the horizon. My friend's house is on a hill and we could see right over the centre of the village and out to the west where this thing was now beginning to come in quite fast and it looked awesome..the huge anvil now stretching right over our heads and the solid updraught base dark as night against the now vivid, orange sky behind it partly obscured to one side by a solid hail-curtain.

As it got even closer the sky darkened quite dramatically and me and my friend decided to run down to the centre of the village, i wanted to be right underneath it as it came over the top of us! When we reached the village it was exceptionally dark for late may at 3pm in the afternoon..the streetlights came on and there was an eerie calm as warm wind changed direction and began to blow into the approaching storm from behind us. As the storm reached us the sky turned sea-green. It was the such a deep and vivid green it was very unsettling and something to this day i havent ever seen since. There was white and ragged scud swirling just below the cloud base moving rapidly across the sky in different directions and it was at this point that i looked up to see the cloud base very visibly rotating. There were clear striation bands from rotation and It appeared to 'suck up' in the middle almost like looking into a whirlpool and it didnt look real..almost like computer graphics..then it got really scary as the rotating mass began to extend down towards the ground literally about what must have been half a mile away and heading straight towards us. My knowledge was pretty limited at the time (it still is really:p) but i knew this was a funnel cloud and possible tornado forming so i turned on my heels and legged it with my mate back towards the house. As we turned to run, the wind blowing into the storm (obviously inflow) picked up tremendously making it hard to run as we ran away from the storm and suddenly there was a huge crack of thunder and the heavens opened..literally. Firstly, marble sized hail and then absolutely torrential rain with red lightning which again..i havent seen since..it poured down for about 10 minutes before easing and the storm moved away to the north east, still rumbling away.

It was breathtaking. Does anyone have any more info on this event? it was may 1999..not sure of the date:(

[Andy Bown]

Does anyone have any more info on this event? it was may 1999..not sure of the date:(

Great account Azazel! Was it a Saturday afternoon?

The only green sky I have seen happened on a Saturday afternoon in May 1999, it was the 2nd of 3 thundery outbreaks that happened within 6 days!

The morning had been sunny/warm and the afternoon started similarly although I'd seen a forecast for thundery rain. Looking outside in mid-afternoon there was a massive CB with green tinges to the West and this moved over giving torrential rain and frequent lightning/thunder for a few hours.

I do recall a tv forecast when BBC used to have flashing lightning symbols and the most of the SW/CS England was covered in them during that afternoon.

[Azazel]

Great account Azazel! Was it a Saturday afternoon?

The only green sky I have seen happened on a Saturday afternoon in May 1999, it was the 2nd of 3 thundery outbreaks that happened within 6 days!

The morning had been sunny/warm and the afternoon started similarly although I'd seen a forecast for thundery rain. Looking outside in mid-afternoon there was a massive CB with green tinges to the West and this moved over giving torrential rain and frequent lightning/thunder for a few hours.

I do recall a tv forecast when BBC used to have flashing lightning symbols and the most of the SW/CS England was covered in them during that afternoon.

yes i think it may have been! I was off school so it was definitely the weekend and also i'm pretty sure we flew out to florida on a sunday so that seems to tie in nicely! It was the best storm I've ever seen by miles!

[Azazel]

this seems most likely..although not 100 percent sure as there were a few thunder days that month it seems!

taken from www.met.rdg.ac.uk

"Rain continued to fall over many parts of Scotland until early afternoon on the 29th, while Ireland has a mainly cloudy day. England and Wales began dry and sunny and became quite warm in places. An area of thundery activity (accompanied by hail in places) moved into SW England by 0600 GMT, moving NE and spreading to the E Midlands and East Anglia by late evening. A thunderstorm at Bristol (Totterdown) from 1215 GMT until 1515 GMT resulted in 18mm of precipitation, including 10mm from 1325 GMT to 1338 GMT when a 26 kn gust occurred. During the passage of a thunderstorm at Wokingham from 1551 GMT to 1608 GMT 15.7mm of rain fell, with a peak rainfall rate of 199 mm/hr around 1554 GMT over a two and half minute period. Thunderstorms resulted in local flooding in many areas (eg. in parts of SW and Cent S England) and there were reports of small tornadoes in the SW. Rainfall under the core of the storms was heavy, eg. 25.4mm at Cirencester (of which 15mm fell in 15 mins with winds of force 5 to 7). Several places from Birmingham to Wokingham reported rapid pressure fluctuations during these storms (associated with temperature falls as large as 5degC). Hail in a storm at Dartford was 1cm in diameter, while in Danbury (Essex) 17mm fell in 5 minutes. (Southampton 27C, Lerwick 6C, Chipping Norton 34mm, Folkestone 14.0h.) "

although it could also be this one!

Most parts of S Ireland, Wales, and England S of the Pennines, had a cloudy night with fog forming by dawn on the 19th in parts of the Thames Valley. Other areas had a clear night with a ground frost in parts of Scotland. Scotland then had a sunny day while further s cloud moved N over much of England, Wales and Ireland. After a wam and quite humid day, thunderstorms occurred over SE, Cent S England during the early evening, moving to the S Midlands later in the evening. Some thunderstorms were heavy in the SE with hail in places (1cm in diameter at Maidenhead where 20mm fell in 20 minutes, the temperature fell 7C during the early evening storm, pressure rose 2mbar and roads were temporarily flooded). The NOAA12 channel 4 thermal image at 1637 GMT (courtesy of Bernard Burton) shows what appears to be a mesoscale convective system of storms during this event. At Crowthorne 26.3mm fell between 1630 GMT and 1745 GMT. In Hampshire, golfball-size hail fell at Easton and Itchen Stoke, and the hail was still lying 15 hours after the storm. Conservatory roofs, glasshouses and guttering were damaged by the storm and gardens and crops were devastated there, and several minor roads were flooded. There were also reports of large hail on the Isle of Wight. (London Weather Centre 24C max, Redhill 22mm, Lerwick 16.0h.)

depends which one was a saturday!

although im not sure about the 2nd one as it certainly wasnt early evening.

Edited April 29, 2010 by Azazel

[Stormyking]

this seems most likely..although not 100 percent sure as there were a few thunder days that month it seems!

taken from www.met.rdg.ac.uk

"Rain continued to fall over many parts of Scotland until early afternoon on the 29th, while Ireland has a mainly cloudy day. England and Wales began dry and sunny and became quite warm in places. An area of thundery activity (accompanied by hail in places) moved into SW England by 0600 GMT, moving NE and spreading to the E Midlands and East Anglia by late evening. A thunderstorm at Bristol (Totterdown) from 1215 GMT until 1515 GMT resulted in 18mm of precipitation, including 10mm from 1325 GMT to 1338 GMT when a 26 kn gust occurred. During the passage of a thunderstorm at Wokingham from 1551 GMT to 1608 GMT 15.7mm of rain fell, with a peak rainfall rate of 199 mm/hr around 1554 GMT over a two and half minute period. Thunderstorms resulted in local flooding in many areas (eg. in parts of SW and Cent S England) and there were reports of small tornadoes in the SW. Rainfall under the core of the storms was heavy, eg. 25.4mm at Cirencester (of which 15mm fell in 15 mins with winds of force 5 to 7). Several places from Birmingham to Wokingham reported rapid pressure fluctuations during these storms (associated with temperature falls as large as 5degC). Hail in a storm at Dartford was 1cm in diameter, while in Danbury (Essex) 17mm fell in 5 minutes. (Southampton 27C, Lerwick 6C, Chipping Norton 34mm, Folkestone 14.0h.) "

although it could also be this one!

Most parts of S Ireland, Wales, and England S of the Pennines, had a cloudy night with fog forming by dawn on the 19th in parts of the Thames Valley. Other areas had a clear night with a ground frost in parts of Scotland. Scotland then had a sunny day while further s cloud moved N over much of England, Wales and Ireland. After a wam and quite humid day, thunderstorms occurred over SE, Cent S England during the early evening, moving to the S Midlands later in the evening. Some thunderstorms were heavy in the SE with hail in places (1cm in diameter at Maidenhead where 20mm fell in 20 minutes, the temperature fell 7C during the early evening storm, pressure rose 2mbar and roads were temporarily flooded). The NOAA12 channel 4 thermal image at 1637 GMT (courtesy of Bernard Burton) shows what appears to be a mesoscale convective system of storms during this event. At Crowthorne 26.3mm fell between 1630 GMT and 1745 GMT. In Hampshire, golfball-size hail fell at Easton and Itchen Stoke, and the hail was still lying 15 hours after the storm. Conservatory roofs, glasshouses and guttering were damaged by the storm and gardens and crops were devastated there, and several minor roads were flooded. There were also reports of large hail on the Isle of Wight. (London Weather Centre 24C max, Redhill 22mm, Lerwick 16.0h.)

depends which one was a saturday!

although im not sure about the 2nd one as it certainly wasnt early evening.

This sounds Interesting, I think I remember this actually, I was only 6 at the time and this is when my liking of weather started around the same time and I remember it was a thunderstorm around that time frame that got me into weather and made me love it so much. I don't remember the hail here on the Isle of Wight but remember being a heavy thunderstorm over head.

Thanks for the Information

[Andy Bown]

More likely it was the first account in your post Azazel, certainly the timing would be about right for what I recall.

I mentioned there were 2 other thundery outbreaks in that period : the Thursday evening had a number of small, active thunderstorms heading N/NE in the mid-late evening. These included the best spider lightning I've ever seen and were very distracting to be driving in!! Then there was the aforementioned Saturday event, before further storms moved through on the following Monday night which are memorable for there vivid sheet lightning.

So, within 6 days, there were 3 completely different types of thunderstorms. I wasn't recording weather at that time so am relying purely on memory!

[shogan83]

Hi guys

I don't post on here much but i remember the late May 1999 period fairly well as i was about to undertake my GCSE exams so had a reasonable amount of spare time for which i assume i was meant to be studying.

Anyway i am 100% certain that the 29th of May was a Saturday as their was a County cricket game going on between Surrey and Somerset which finished on the 29th. I remember to this day that Surrey just managed to scramble to victory before an almighty Thunderstorm swept in. To this day i remember the picture in the papers of the players coming off to a dramatic backdrop of black skies and jaged forked lighting. I think it was late afternoonish 5-6pm when this started to occur so seems to fit in with what the rest of you guys are saying.

You can't beat a good nostalgic think-back!!

[Thundery wintry showers]

A few thundersnow memories:

1. 29th December 2000 in Cleadon. Heavy snow showers persisted through the night giving a 7cm snow cover in total. At 4:50am I was woken up by a loud roll of thunder. True, not a very spectacular storm in terms of thunder and lightning- but it was a genuine occurrence of thundersnow.

2. Overnight 21st/22nd December 2003 in Cleadon. I went to bed that evening resigned to the notion that snow showers would keep drifting along the North Sea and not make it inland. At 2am, I was woken up by thunder and lightning. There was a snow cover that a recent snow shower had deposited, and a cumulonimbus cloud just off the coast kept lighting up, with distant rumbles of thunder.

3. New Year's Eve 2009. Well, last winter just had to have one, really. There was large pea-sized hail at 4:30pm that day, and in the evening, heavy snow and graupel was accompanied by two flashes of lightning. The first was bright blue/white and over towards Gateshead and caught me completely by surprise.

Summer storm memories: One memory is of storms in Cleadon on the 22nd June 2003, not so much for the intensity of storms, but the fact that it was on my birthday. The night before, the BBC forecast had uttered the immortal "hopefully north-east England should escape the storms", and by 8am the next day, repeated rumbles illustrated how wrong the forecast had been. The cloud was predominantly high, with an eerie reddish haze towards the horizon. After a brighter spell at 9-10pm, bigger thunderstorms came in from the west with several loud bangs and close-by lightning strikes. Although the storm was more notable for frequency of thunder and lightning than rain, there was a brief heavy shower as the storm passed over.

The 12th April 2008 storm in Norwich was memorable for its deposition of pea-sized hail as well as frequent thunder and lightning, and there were a couple of big ones early in August 2008, where I captured videos of the lightning.

Perhaps the biggest thunderstorm I've seen to date was one in France on the 19th/20th July 2006 which covered almost the whole country by late evening. I was in the Loire Valley area at the time and the storm raged on for a good few hours with lightning strikes every few seconds at times, and frequent loud thunder- this followed on from an evening where storm clouds seemed to sprout up to the north, west, east and south and miss where I was, but eventually the circle narrowed to nothing. A couple of thunderstorms near Argentat, west of the Central Massif, in July 2007 were comparable, one of which woke me up at 3-4am and had lightning flashes every few seconds.

[Schnee]

My favorite storm to date was one which caught us out by surprise in the mid 1980's at Skegness.

My dad had a Mk5 Cortina at the time and for the entire duration of the storm, I was sat in the car with my brother asleep in the pushchair next to my mother besides the front door. She had strung raincoats between the pushchair and car to keep the car and my brother dry.

At the time, I did not know how dangerous it was. I was in awe at the fork lightning which made interesting noises on the radio. Eventually the storm passed and my mother got out. Only it was very dangerous. 100 yards away we witnessed lightning strike the ground.

Other memorable events was a storm in Leeds during 2006 where I was driving the 3.5t van back to work through Rothwell. All of a sudden I saw a bright ''ball'' infront of me, in the central reservation followed by a very eerie and loud bang. This was my first encounter with ball lightning.

2007 in York, I got to a site to do a job as a storm had passed and was mere seconds from witnessing a bolt out of the blue. A phenomenon that kills lots. It's a freak lightning bolt that strikes the ground after a storm has passed. It originates from the back of the stormcloud. I now know that the lightning bolt in Skegness was indeed a similar event.

Anyhow, this new bolt struck a transformer on a column and took out the power to Poppleton. I saw the bolt but never knew it struck where it did.