August 1997 - the thunderstorm rife month

[Lauren]

August 1997 delivered some of the best plume set-ups in the UK in my lifetime. During the month there were regular storms and as I recall, several overnight MCS, including the night of 12th August which gave me the greatest UK storm I have seen in my lifetime. This is the chart from that night.

 

 

Does anyone else remember this particularly stormy month?

[Robbie Garrett]

I remember this, wasn't October also similar or was that a different year? There was one October that was so stormy full of T&L

[Weather-history]

Apparently there was a very severe thunderstorm over Manchester on the evening of 10 August 1997, coincidentally the very evening I was born on. Could that explain why I love storms so much - because I was born while one was in progress?

No, it missed this area, it was further west, which sums up this year for stormsMy diary entry says hot and sunny.Infact my entries for that month contain hardly any mention of thunder.

Forecasts from that month

Edited June 29, 2014 by Weather-history

[Lauren]

Perhaps it should be edited to read 'rife in the South East'!

[Thundery wintry showers]

When recalling exceptionally hot summer months, many of us tend to overlook August 1997, rather like February 1986 gets overlooked as an exceptionally cold winter month.  

 

The fact that the vast majority of the country had a record-breaking hot dry sunny August just two years earlier won't have helped, but I think August 1997 was a rather odd case in general.  The prevailing synoptic weather patterns (frequent anticyclonic, southerly and south-easterly types) were the perfect recipe for a hot and sunny month with some thundery outbreaks and a significantly above-normal diurnal temperature range, but it only delivered on those counts to limited areas of the country.  Instead, for many of us, it was a month of variable rather than plentiful sunshine, frequent warm sticky nights, and frequent unrealised thunder potential, and perhaps this sense of the right ingredients being there, but not delivering, contributes to August 1997 being "the forgotten hot month".

 

Looking over the old TV forecasts I get the impression that maybe, in contrast to many recent summer months, it was an active month for continental imports which would have favoured the far south-east, while in the meantime Norwich Weather Centre reported only two days with thunder.

Edited July 2, 2014 by Thundery wintry showers

[Snowyowl9]

August 10th best night here saw the developing shower clouds 4.30pm then sharp thundery showers from 6.30 to 9pm.

August 17th sharp shower turned to a thunderstorm 5-6pm.

August 1st distant rumbles lightning 3.30am

August 31st heavy rain and a few rumbles of thunder.

[cheeky_monkey]

When recalling exceptionally hot summer months, many of us tend to overlook August 1997, rather like February 1986 gets overlooked as an exceptionally cold winter month.  

 

The fact that the vast majority of the country had a record-breaking hot dry sunny August just two years earlier won't have helped, but I think August 1997 was a rather odd case in general.  The prevailing synoptic weather patterns (frequent anticyclonic, southerly and south-easterly types) were the perfect recipe for a hot and sunny month with some thundery outbreaks and a significantly above-normal diurnal temperature range, but it only delivered on those counts to limited areas of the country.  Instead, for many of us, it was a month of variable rather than plentiful sunshine, frequent warm sticky nights, and frequent unrealised thunder potential, and perhaps this sense of the right ingredients being there, but not delivering, contributes to August 1997 being "the forgotten hot month".

 

Looking over the old TV forecasts I get the impression that maybe, in contrast to many recent summer months, it was an active month for continental imports which would have favoured the far south-east, while in the meantime Norwich Weather Centre reported only two days with thunder.

 Not for me Aug 1997 comes in as the 2nd hottest Aug after 1995 for me maybe it is forgotten as it is so close to 1995 that many people when remembering the months merge both months as 1995 and many of the vents that happened in 1997 get confused with 1995.