Guildford tornado and severe thunderstorms of 1st August 1998

[Weather-history]

Any members in the south remember these storms of 1st August 1998?

[AutumnMists]

Was down South on holiday around that date and I recall it, just. Thanks for the memories as always!

[Severe Blizzard]

I was not in Guildford at the time of the thunderstorms - but I do remember that afternoon well.

The surface flow was N.E.ly and conditions were very unstable. There had been heavy rain in the late afternoon with thunder on Friday 31st July.

The thunderstorms affected the Guildford area around 4 pm onwards and slowly moved west and N.W. The N.W. movement being more due to the first cell decaying and a new one developing to the right of the flow.

The heaviest rain was initially to the N.E. of Guildford where an observer recorded 27~28 mm rain at East Horsley. This storm missed Guildford itself where only 7.5 mm fell in the whole day. To the South of the town, conditions were severe, especially at Milford, Hambledon, Elstead and possibly Farnham. An observer measured 12.5 mm rain with pea-sized hail at Milford and this was quoted in the Surrey Advertiser newspaper in the following week.

While I was travelling south along the A331 near Farnborough there was vivid CG lightning to the south at 4:30 pm. The lightning was a vivid blue-purple colour and was estimated to be over Seale or Compton (Nr. Farnham).

Around 5 pm. A new cell developed to the N.W. and rain / hail shafts were seen along the M3 westwards towards Basingstoke. There were reports of rain lashing 30 cm high on the motorway when chatting in the pub later that day. On visiting Fleet at 5:30 pm or so, there was a power cut which lasted about 45 minutes. Only 3 mm of rain fell at Fleet and all the activity had been to the east, south and west of the Guildford-Farnborough-Fleet area.

I remember hearing about the tornado on TV later that evening and feeling peeved that I may have missed an exciting event at home (Guildford) but no one at work saw anything either. There had been a power failure at Guildford in the supermarket where I work, as the checkouts failed due to the power glitches at the height of the storm. For the main town area at Guildford the event was a good electrical storm with close lightning and loud thunder but disappointingly little rain.

[Bluebreezer54]

Great report, thanks for sharing it .