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Your top five memorable weather events....!


ANYWEATHER

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Posted
  • Location: Evesham/ Tewkesbury
  • Weather Preferences: Enjoy the weather, you can't take it with you 😎
  • Location: Evesham/ Tewkesbury

There's been lots of weather in my life, just like it has been for everyone, but would love to share my top 5 memorable weather memories, although there are a lot more...☺ and may do another five memories at some point....! 

To start it off.....1976... A windstorm like no other in January,  baking hot all summer, and some spectacular thunderstorms in September,  started my Passion in weather.

1981/82 ..A memorable Winter, Huge snowdrifts ,Severe cold .

Fast forward 22 years.....2004, A brief but massive punch as a polar front moves south, never seen rain turn to snow so quickly with 50 mph gusts of wind causing temporary blizzards and chaos on the roads....This event happened in January.  Allbeit brief within an hour and half , it certainly packed a punch...

2007........Flooding which I've never seen before...

2017.......The Red Sun looked very Biblical in October .....Ex hurricane Ophelia brought Sahara dust and smoke from Iberia as the depression moved to the West of Ireland..a Very Errie sun followed ,never seen any like that before....

Edited by Nick L
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Posted
  • Location: Birmingham, West Midlands
  • Weather Preferences: Heat, sun and thunderstorms in summer. Cold sunny days and snow in winter
  • Location: Birmingham, West Midlands

Summer 2003: It was a good summer that year which coincided with the summer hols. I just finished primary school and was ever so excited about starting secondary.

Summer 2006: Another decent summer. Daytime temperature reached 35 Celsius in July of that year and I can remember being locked out of the house on one afternoon when I got home from school.

December 2010: The best winter in my lifetime by far, though it did get a little boring after a while when the snow turned into brown slush.

March 2012: An impressive month. But looking back on it I would say that it was also a calm before the storm kind of month. We all know how spring and summer went after that.

Summer 2018: A long hot summer which was an interesting experience as summers like that are few and far between. It didn't feel particularly humid either which was nice.

Edited by Weather Enthusiast91
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Posted
  • Location: Poole, Dorset
  • Location: Poole, Dorset

June 5th 1983, Poole. I was only 7 but remember it well. Day time darkness and hail the size of golf balls.

July or August 1991, Poole. Still haven't managed to pinpoint a date yet. Hot, humid evening, an extraordinary dark bubbling cloud moved in from the south (think close encounters) followed by a thunderstorm. This was the event that got me seriously into the weather.

13th/14th February 1994, Poole. Sub zero all day with steady snow late evening and over night.

4th January 1998, Portland Bill. Sustained hurricane force winds, max gust 105mph.

25th July 2019, Ipswich. The heat. I have experienced hotter abroad but to experience it the UK was quite special. The day ended with anvil crawlers.

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Posted
  • Location: Cheshire
  • Location: Cheshire

Rainfall - floods of 15th September 1968 (S London / Surrey), 2nd August 2002 (Pickering, N Yorkshire)

Sun / heat - summer of 1976, Aug 2003 and July 2019

Cold / snow - winter of 1962/3, Dec 1981 and Jan 1987

Wind - Great Storm of 16th Oct 1987 (S London / Surrey), Burns Day gale 1990 (Blackpool), 18th Jan 2007 (S Cheshire)

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Posted
  • Location: Motherwell
  • Weather Preferences: windy
  • Location: Motherwell

Hard to put them in order but the 5 that spring to mind would be...

 

Jan 3rd 2012 - The strongest winds i've ever experienced, gusting over 90mph for a short time.

 

August 12th 2020 - The best and longest lasting thunderstorm i've seen with strikes every couple of seconds for over 2 hours and torrential rain at times.

 

Dec 26th 1998 - The second most severe wind storm I remember with about 5-6 hours of 80mph gusts and quite widespread damage.

 

 Dec 2009 and Dec 2010 - It's hard to say which was better. I remember more snow days in 10 but a more prolonged cold period with snow on the ground for almost the whole month in 09.

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Posted
  • Location: London
  • Location: London

August 5/6th 1981 in London, when it turned completely dark as night, due to severe daytime thunderstorms. It was like nighttime for a few hours. Was 5 at the time,  but felt like the day was constantly dark until the evening.

My memory however may have played tricks on me, and there was probably a break in the darkness.

A number of other weather memories come from 1987 below:

January snow in London. Was very cold for days on end with minus temps during the day. Very snowy and cold windchill.

Warm sunny April

Severe storms in the evening and into the night of August 21st 1987.

The great storm in October. The winds were terrifying.

Christmas Day sunshine in 1987. Blue skies and temps reaching 14-15c. Felt like an April day and even more surreal when you added blue sunny skies and a very mild temp.

 

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Posted
  • Location: Brighton
  • Location: Brighton

Quickly....Oct 1987 Great Storm, Feb 1991 Cold Snap, Jan 1990 Storm, I remember also various Blizzards and alike as a child just cannot pinpoint...also someone mentioned about darkness in June in Poole....I can remember same in Brighton...it was a Sunday! Prolonged Showers and Sussex Flooding Oct 2000, and again....csn't pinpoint but some amazing Thunderstorms Imported from France......only seemed to happen as a kid...1983/4/5/7/1989. And finally....I know its technically not weather...but I was in Rouen in Aug 1999 for Total Eclipse.

Edited by leedsnowfan
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Posted
  • Location: Bath
  • Location: Bath

These events are not necessarily my 'favourites', just the ones most memorable to me from before I started following weather more geekily.

Jan 2013 - struggling to get to school (which somehow stayed open most days) in the car because of the snow - other cars were literally abandoned on the side of the street. That cold/snowy spell doesn't seem to get the attention that some others do. 

28th Feb-2nd March 2018 - recall it just getting colder and snowier day by day. On the 28th I was on the bus home late and worried if I'd get back in the snow, and on the 2nd I went to work through through the deep, settled snow in town. The weather stayed generally cool, cloudy and unsettled until mid-April pretty much, and then of course we had that very sunny May-July. A dramatic several months of weather.

16th Oct 2017 - ex-hurricane Ophelia turning the sky orange that morning was fascinating, I was at work and sat there in the office baffled. 

Jan 2010 - I seem to recall this and the school closures more than December of the same year, for some reason. I think we just got so used to that sort of weather in the winter's months of 2010.

Winter 2014 - less specific memories of this, but obviously was aware of how notably wet it was and how the more rural parts of Somerset were being flooded. I think the snowlessness was also probably quite notable after the previous few winters.

Edited by White Horse
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Posted
  • Location: Cheshire
  • Location: Cheshire
16 hours ago, leedsnowfan said:

Quickly....Oct 1987 Great Storm, Feb 1991 Cold Snap, Jan 1990 Storm, I remember also various Blizzards and alike as a child just cannot pinpoint...also someone mentioned about darkness in June in Poole....I can remember same in Brighton...it was a Sunday! Prolonged Showers and Sussex Flooding Oct 2000, and again....csn't pinpoint but some amazing Thunderstorms Imported from France......only seemed to happen as a kid...1983/4/5/7/1989. And finally....I know its technically not weather...but I was in Rouen in Aug 1999 for Total Eclipse.

Imported thunderstorms - overnight 31st May / 1st June 1983 (Surrey / Hants border) was a real cracker; also midweek afternoon late May / early June 1985 (v localised and based on Crawley). Later, 14th - 15th September 2016 lasted virtually all night at Alton Hants, although possibly not imported.

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Posted
  • Location: Poole, Dorset
  • Location: Poole, Dorset
20 hours ago, leedsnowfan said:

also someone mentioned about darkness in June in Poole....I can remember same in Brighton...it was a Sunday!

Yes that's right it was a Sunday, late morning (in Dorset). Initiating over Lyme Bay, a series of supercell storms propagated east across southern regions of Dorset, Hampshire and Sussex. 

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Posted
  • Location: Cheshire
  • Location: Cheshire
2 hours ago, R Alto said:

Yes that's right it was a Sunday, late morning (in Dorset). Initiating over Lyme Bay, a series of supercell storms propagated east across southern regions of Dorset, Hampshire and Sussex. 

You don't by any chance have a date for this supercell event? I was leading a walk on a Sunday in the mid to late 1980s from Alton to Basingstoke in Hampshire. We walked up the hill out of Alton on to the Downs at about 12noon in hot sunny weather (as forecast) but then heard what some of us thought was gunfire, with someone indicating that the forecast had changed overnight to thunderstorms in parts of S England. The Met O were belatedly correct and, whilst we could and should have turned back, we decided to push on and hope the storm would pass. Big mistake as the thunder and lightning accompanied us all the way to Basingstoke, in what was a prolonged and terrifying experience. I don't know whether it was the same storm as affected you and leedsnowfan, but I wouldn't mind betting that it was! 

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Posted
  • Location: Tunbridge Wells, Kent
  • Location: Tunbridge Wells, Kent

In no particular order.

August 2003 - Hot hot hot.

October 1987 - Great Storm

January 2004 - Thundersnow from squall front - countrywide event

December 2010 - the whole month - doubt I will see another sustained cold spell like this.

January 1987 - Just a cold snap in terms of longevity - but a one in 200 year one.

 

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Posted
  • Location: London
  • Location: London

28th(?) December 1995 - Arriving in Aberdeen to a colossal amount of snow, the most I’d ever seen. Big memory for 7 year old me at the time and a winter all have been compared to since.

7th December 2006 - Waking up to torrential rain and banging windows, turning on the news soon after to find a tornado(!) had destroyed houses in nearby Kensal Rise. Very locally contained but memorable for those around the area.

24th-25th December 2010 - Not just a white Christmas but a white Christmas in East Devon of all places. Snowmen on the beach and it all generally feeling like I was in a Hollywood festive film. Took me right back to being a kid again.

1st October 2011 - Surreal day and night out as I started my final year of uni in that astonishing record heatwave. Being out at 1am and it still feeling a hot summer day!

7th July 2018 - The most memorable of that amazing summer 2018 run. England win a crucial World Cup match on the same afternoon as that year’s Pride festival in London - rest of the day and night are football lads celebrating together with drag and LGBT acts in scorching capital heat. Felt a bit like world peace had been declared that day.

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Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl

Rainfall wise 5 December 2015. A terrible day for the Lake District.

Snowfall wise 6 February 1996, 18 inches of snow by 4pm in the afternoon after 30 hrs of snow.

Wind wise, memory hazy but the Burns Storm Jan 1990 brought exceptional winds to much of the Lake District.

Heat wise - August 1995, the Lake District became desert like, scorched earth and rivers dry.. 

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Posted
  • Location: Cheshire
  • Location: Cheshire
16 hours ago, R Alto said:

@A Face like Thunder

It was the 5th June 1983

Many thanks R Alto. I note now that Philip Eden comments on the thunder and hail storms affecting south coast communities of England on the 5th June 1983, with Winfrith Heath in Dorset receiving 74mm of rain, mostly in 2 hours along with hailstones 7cm across. Yachts capsized at Christchurch under the weight of the hail and much damage was done to glass houses and slate roofs. I commented earlier on the severe overnight thunderstorm on 31st May / 1st June 1983 on the Surrey / Hants border and. working on from there, I don't think that the Dorset storm of 5th June could be the same one as I was thinking of when we walked from Alton to Basingstoke (much wider area and longer-lasting). Thanks anyway!   

Edited by A Face like Thunder
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Posted
  • Location: Hampshire
  • Weather Preferences: Bright weather. Warm sunny thundery summers, short cold winters.
  • Location: Hampshire

I'm trying to include all of: hot summers, snowy spells, windstorms and thunderstorms in this. So:

1. October 1987 storm - certainly the most disruptive of all the weather events I've experienced, so would have to come top.

2. Snowy spell of January 1987

3. Snowy spell of January 1985

4. One of the hot summers. Will pick one, let's say summer 1995 as that was probably best overall of the ones I remember, with 1989 a close second. (1976 was also in my lifetime but I can't remember it, likewise winter 78/9 was in my lifetime but I only have vague memories of it.)

5. Off-season severe thunderstorm of April 21 2018.

Edited by Summer8906
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Posted
  • Location: Hampshire
  • Weather Preferences: Bright weather. Warm sunny thundery summers, short cold winters.
  • Location: Hampshire
On 03/01/2022 at 22:37, R Alto said:

June 5th 1983, Poole. I was only 7 but remember it well. Day time darkness and hail the size of golf balls.

July or August 1991, Poole. Still haven't managed to pinpoint a date yet. Hot, humid evening, an extraordinary dark bubbling cloud moved in from the south (think close encounters) followed by a thunderstorm. This was the event that got me seriously into the weather.

I would guess Friday July 5 1991 from that description. I think that was the only severe 'breakdown of heat' type storm that summer.

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Posted
  • Location: Cheshire
  • Location: Cheshire
1 hour ago, Summer8906 said:

I would guess Friday July 5 1991 from that description. I think that was the only severe 'breakdown of heat' type storm that summer.

Philip Eden mentions flooding on 28th - 29th September 1991 in Hants, Dorset, Wiltshire and Somerset, with 114mm of rain at Branksome and 110mm at Poole. I suspect this would have 'tickled the fancy' of any weather enthusiast in the area!

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Posted
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine and 15-25c
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)

1. Summer of 1995 - The most continental summer you will ever get in the UK ...Edges out summer of 1976...2003 & 2006 dont even come close.

2. Feb 1978 - Great SW blizzard ..never seen anything like it since and that includes Canada

3, Winter of 1978-79 - Not been a winter like it since then in the UK

4. Feb 1986 - The duration of the cold was impressive for the UK

5. Summer of 2010 - Exceptionally stormy summer here in Alberta..big supercell storms in a 42 day period of recording thunder everyday..plus a few  tornadoes that touched down in the province 

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Posted
  • Location: Cheshire
  • Location: Cheshire

I was reminded of the 'smog' of 1st to 7th December 1962, the last great smog before the Clean Air Act 1956 began to take effect. I was at school in S London / Surrey at the time, and the Head sent the whole school early one afternoon, except he forgot my class who were situated at the far end of the school. We were not amused when we found out what had happened! 

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Posted
  • Location: Hampshire
  • Weather Preferences: Bright weather. Warm sunny thundery summers, short cold winters.
  • Location: Hampshire
On 09/01/2022 at 11:48, A Face like Thunder said:

Philip Eden mentions flooding on 28th - 29th September 1991 in Hants, Dorset, Wiltshire and Somerset, with 114mm of rain at Branksome and 110mm at Poole. I suspect this would have 'tickled the fancy' of any weather enthusiast in the area!

I do remember the Saturday of that weekend was very wet, but I think it was just prolonged steady rain rather than anything thundery or dramatic where I was. It may have continued on the Sunday but I cannot remember.

More interesting in terms of my own experience in the same period was approximately Wednesday 9th October. After an unsettled and probably relatively cool week going from September into October, it became frosty and sunny on the 6th October but then there was quite an abrupt change to warm unsettled weather which lasted much of that week. I recall the warm temperatures (must have been close to 20C) accompanied by repeated torrential bursts of rain and dramatically dark skies. As the following weekend approached it remained warm but the low pressure weakened and the following weekend was both warm and bright.

I think what happened is that a ridge on the 6th was replaced by a low moving maybe SSW-NNE to the west of Ireland, bringing warm air but accompanied by fronts and at times torrential rainfall. The low then became slow moving but gradually weakened with time.

Edited by Summer8906
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Posted
  • Location: Hampshire
  • Weather Preferences: Bright weather. Warm sunny thundery summers, short cold winters.
  • Location: Hampshire
On 10/01/2022 at 11:35, R Alto said:

Thank you @Summer8906 that looks like it must be the one.

No problem! July 1991 remained warm after this breakdown if somewhat changeable, with sunny periods alternating with wetter (mostly showery) but it was persistently warm. However I am fairly sure the 5th was the only actual thundery episode in the south that month, and indeed all summer.

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