19Th June 2005

[Summer of 95]

Can't believe this is 6 years ago- by far the best June day in recent years:

Following a steadily warming week the temperature got uop to about 28C on the Saturday, and unlike most warm spells since there was plenty of sunshine to go with it.

Sunday dawned clear and warm, and at about this time of day it was nearing 30C and I decided to go out to watch the cricket down the pub (it was thinking about doing the same now and realising it's Sunday June 19th again that prompted me to write this!), and walking down it was blazing hot and a touch muggy, but still sunny. At about 3pm we were all suddenly distracted from the cricket by thunder and lightning, and a few of us went outside to see it absolutely hammering it down, with T/L about every 10 seconds. This continued for an hour or so, before this storm delivered its real signature of the biggest hail I can remember: easily 2cm diameter, and coming down at a tremendous rate. By now some local roads were flooding and the temperature had dropped noticeably, though it was still warm. The hail lasted over half an hour, and the rain, thunder and lightning carried on till about 8pm.

Walking home at 10pm- still in daylight it was so much cooler it was hard to believe it was the same day. It had dropped to about 16C, yet the heat started up again on Monday and continued till the end of what became a superb month.

It turned out that there was widespread thunder, lighning, hail from the Midlands and Wales all the way to Yorkshire, seemingly caused by a cold front hitting the warm air (why does this never give thunder here nowadays?)- one of the best days for weather I can remember in the last 10-15 years.

[paul tall]

Incredibly, nearly 200 miles away, we had an almost identical day. Hot and sunny morning, a peak temperature of 26.6º at 2pm, followed by the most memorable thunderstorm and hail. I actually took some pictures of the giant hail - I've seen nothing like it before or since - and the stones were up to 40mm, and 25-30mm with regularity.

[cheeky_monkey]

i dont remember individual days but June 2005 is almost the perfect summer month..yet it is often forgoten

[Alex95]

Remember it well, I'd been out in Northumberland in the heat, and hit the thunderstorms on the way home - they rumbled on all evening, and the ground was white at times with the hail as though it had been snowing. Probably the best thunderstorm I've ever seen in the UK. I know North Yorkshire and parts of County Durham were worst affected.

Edited June 20, 2011 by alza

[Radiating Dendrite]

Remember it well, first year in uni, sat out all Sunday afternoon reading. Went to Castle Howard on the Monday with some uni friends (was at York Uni). The Monday was fantastic and hot, not a cloud in the sky all day!

[Summer18]

15 years ago today. I remember it well, a hot and humid Sunday afternoon followed by a massive thunderstorm with monsoon rain and hail in the afternoon.

2005 was a decent year storm wise, we had 3 big ones off the top of my head, one around the early May Bank Holiday, 19th June and also an absolute monster on the 31st of August that year.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

Edited June 19, 2020 by I remember Atlantic 252

[Plume Meets BFTE]

The 2nd half of this month was almost the perfect 'half' summer month (the first half was actually quite cool).  There seemed to be 3 thundery peaks to this event.. the 19th, 24th and 28th.  The 24th I'm sure is when the SW had the humdinger of a storm that flooded Glastonbury.  We had good storms on the 24th and 28th and most days from mid month were warm or hot, but the weekend of 25/26 was not so good from memory

[MP-R]

I remember the 19th - hot, steamy and sunny. A beautiful weekend down here!

Indeed, the 24th was the day we had about 5 separate thunderstorms cross the area between 4am and 4pm. Then the 28th storms were much more severe and dramatic but moved through within a few hours in the evening. A great period of weather!

[Sunny76]

For some reason summer 2005 just doesn’t stick out for me. I recall a London thunderstorm in the evening and constant flashing heading north of London around 10pm. Think that was late june and a weeknight. 
 

Apart from that, I remember some sunny and warm days in August, but also wet and cloudy weather during July.

[Derecho]

I remember this weekend very well, not sure if I can recall weather as humid as what we saw in Hull on that Sunday. The evening turned very dark thanks to the storms to my north-west but we missed them here. Not sure what was worse, missing on the huge storms or seeing all the Michelin F1 cars withdraw from the US grand prix, leaving the Ferraris to get their easiest win they will ever get.

A good summer though with a fair few storms, especially at the end of August.

Edited June 19, 2020 by Quicksilver1989

[Don]

I remember Sunday 19th June 2005 very well.  I went to see Green Day perform at the National Bowl, Milton Keynes in the sweltering heat!  Slightly different 15 years later, although next week could be nearly as hot.

Edited June 19, 2020 by Don

[philglossop]

Remember that Sunday 19th June very well. I was living just outside of Glossop in Derbyshire at the time. It was a glorious warm/hot day but a thunderstorm literally rolled up the valley from down Marple way from memory. My poor dog was watching it from the lounge window but ran off yelping when a big bolt landed fairly close to the house! 

[Metwatch]

Quite a potent day by the looks of things with 2 papers published on this event.

North York Moors Storms 19 Jun 2005.pdf Multiple large hail events 19 June 2005.pdf

Edited April 23, 2024 by Metwatch

[reef]

This was the warmest day of the summer here with a max of 29.5C. Unfortunately, the storms all missed us, it turned mostly cloudy in the evening from the cells to the west but we had nothing.

The best storms of that summer were on 31st August - those were exceptional in this area.

This was seen as a pretty decent summer at the time, but would now be the 5th coldest of all of the summers of the last 20 years. Things have changed a bit, its literally average on every metric compared to the 1991-2020 averages.

[Plume Meets BFTE]

I remember this day, it was very hot and sunny though we did miss the storms here.  It was actually a memorable 10-11 day spell of weather generally, from the 17th to the 28th.  It was a 3-section rinse and repeat (17th-19th, 20th-24th, 26th-28th) whereby it would heat up, go bang, cool down and then go again.  It reminded me fondly of summer 1994 which was renowned for this type of scenario.  We just don't seem to get this anymore.  

[Summer8906]

Have posted something on the other thread but will add that the Midlands thunderstorms were so huge that they were visible from high ground in the Winchester area. Locally it was sunny, very hot and slightly humid.

 SummerShower ... and another curious coincidence was that 1994 and 2005 had the same calendar, and both featured a thundery breakdown on Friday 24th.

The rest of the 80s and 90s too had some instances of this "heat up - thunder - cool down" cycle, for example at times in 1984 or 1999.

I used to think of the "heat up - thunder - cool down - heat up again" as not atypical of southern English summers but just doesn't happen much anymore.

This kind of cycle also very much typified a two-week holiday in Montreal in summer 1994, in which each week heated up followed by a thundery spell at the weekend and a cooldown. As 1994 had been much like that at home, it was a continuation of the conditions I'd been used to all summer!

Edited May 3, 2024 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

On 23/04/2024 at 20:02, reef said:

This was seen as a pretty decent summer at the time, but would now be the 5th coldest of all of the summers of the last 20 years.

I think what typified 2005 was cooler nights, hence it was cooler overall.

But to my mind 2005 is still better than 13 of the 18 summers which followed it (2006, 2013, 2018 and 2022 better; 2014 about equal).

All others worse than 2005 to varying degrees due to a lack of sun mostly.

Edited May 3, 2024 by Summer8906

[Summerlover2006]

What was the high of this day because I always thought 33.1 was generally accepted but then I’m looking at sights like Trevor Harley and they say the high was only 32.6.