Thundery August 2004

[Weather-history]

This was the thunderiest month that I can remember but it was also very wet. Manchester Ringway recorded 8 days of thunder.

At times, it felt tropical, with the high humidity and temperatures, torrential rain and thunder.

BBC forecasts from that month

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWbt7RniF2aqyEBw8NnxTo9pZOMCPITTk

[Lauren]

This was the month my sister got married and we were all dreading the weather on the day as the week leading up to it had been wet and thundery. But on the day it was lovely and hot. We flew off on holiday the next day and we only heard how bad the weather had been at home through new arrivals to the resort.

[Terminal Moraine]

August 2004 was the wettest month in the last 37 years here with 245.6 mm recorded including 75.1 mm on the 9th. Places a few miles east of here recorded even higher totals during the month as several days had thunderstorms moving roughly S/N on a track about 8-10 miles to the east.

There were 8 days with thunder heard but it wasn't the most thundery month on record, that honour goes to June 1982 which had 10 days with thunder.

[Thundery wintry showers]

In Cleadon in Tyne and Wear it was a frustrating month for a thunderstorm lover- the persistent winds off the North Sea kept most of the thundery activity away from the coast, though it did not keep much of the rain away (I recorded well over 100mm of rain that month).  There were a couple of weak thunderstorms in the first half.  However, it became warm with sunshine and sharp showers around the 16th-19th when the winds turned south to south-westerly and this resulted in a big thunderstorm on the evening of the 18th.  I remember having a trip to visit a friend in Newcastle and being caught out in the thunderstorm that evening, which was particularly potent around Newcastle itself.

 

However I popped over to Lancaster University (where I was studying for my degree) on the 23rd-25th and picked up two thunder-days there (Lancaster had 7 thunder-days during August 2004, which was particularly unusual as Lancaster is significantly less thunder-prone on average than Manchester) taking my personal total for the month to 5 thunder-days.  Lancaster had two separate thunderstorms on the 25th.

Edited August 6, 2014 by Thundery wintry showers

[Weather-history]

10 years since Boscastle flood

[Weather-history]

Central parts of England up the spine of Northern England were particularly thundery if you look at the anomaly map, in excess of 10 days on the days of thunder map.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/summaries/anomacts

Compare that to August 2010 with large parts of the country reporting no thunder.