When will the first storms of the summer arrive?

[Sunny76]

I know there’s a thread about this topic, but it was either moved or buried a while ago. 
 

Seeing as it’s April, it won’t be long before we start turning our attention to thunderstorms. 2020 and 21 were a massive disappointment in my region. 
 

Here’s hope 2022 produces a couple of widespread events.

My guess is late May or early June before we get a proper thunderstorm. And another few during July and August. 

[Summer8906]

Rare to get summer-style warm weather storms in April though we did of course have that exceptional event on April 21, 2018 which was as severe as almost any high-summer event I've experienced in this country.

There does seem to be a marked uptick quite early on in May - so I'd guess the first thundery spell will be sometime in the first half of May, probably on an easterly with low pressure over France and, as often happens that time of year, not excessively warm daytime temps (low 20s). Those types of synoptics seem to happen very frequently in early-mid May.

Edited April 4, 2022 by Summer8906

[Sunny76]

1 minute ago, Summer8906 said:

Rare to get storms in April though we did of course have that exceptional event on April 21, 2018 which was as severe as almost any high-summer event I've experienced in this country.

There does seem to be a marked uptick quite early on in May - so I'd guess the first thundery spell will be sometime in the first half of May, probably on an easterly with low pressure over France and, as often happens that time of year, not excessively warm daytime temps (low 20s).

I was pointing more towards the May to August period. I never expect storms in April, and haven’t seen one since April 2004. 

[SummerShower]

22 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

Rare to get summer-style warm weather storms in April though we did of course have that exceptional event on April 21, 2018 which was as severe as almost any high-summer event I've experienced in this country.

There does seem to be a marked uptick quite early on in May - so I'd guess the first thundery spell will be sometime in the first half of May, probably on an easterly with low pressure over France and, as often happens that time of year, not excessively warm daytime temps (low 20s). Those types of synoptics seem to happen very frequently in early-mid May.

Yes I remember the April 2018 event here, was pretty good but I remember people on the hampshire coast saying it was equal to, say July 2017 ( which was awesome itself) so must have been exceptional for so early on.  

I'd love a May like 1999 or 2000, with those easterly type synoptics delivering numerous events.  May 2018 wasn't bad too.

[MP-R]

Early to mid May seems to be a good bet on average. These are the dates for first summer-style (ie warm air) thunderstorms per year imby over the last 20 years:

2021 - July 24th

2020 - June 16th

2019 - July 23rd

2018 - April 21st

2017 - May 11th

2016 - May 07th

2015 - July 04th

2014 - May 19th

2013 - July 23rd

2012 - August 12th

2011 - May 07th

2010 - none

2009 - June 25th

2008 - May 09th

2007 - June 19th

2006 - May 10th

2005 - May 01st (also March 23rd)

2004 - May 10th

2003 - June 21st

2002 - May 16th

2001 - May 10th

2000 - May 06th

[Sunny76]

1 hour ago, SummerShower said:

Yes I remember the April 2018 event here, was pretty good but I remember people on the hampshire coast saying it was equal to, say July 2017 ( which was awesome itself) so must have been exceptional for so early on.  

I'd love a May like 1999 or 2000, with those easterly type synoptics delivering numerous events.  May 2018 wasn't bad too.

May 2018 was a brilliant storm. That was the one on Saturday night towards the end of the month. Frequent lightning and high winds. 
 

July 2017 was the last time we had a number of storms in the evening and into the night. June 2016 was similar.

 

[Weather Enthusiast91]

I just love a good thunderstorm or two during the summer. 

My guess is that the first thunderstorm will arrive in early June, following our first plume of the season.

But as is often the case with the UK climate of today, decent widespread thunderstorms are hard to come by. Just like with snow during the winter.

 

Edited April 5, 2022 by Weather Enthusiast91

[Summer8906]

On 04/04/2022 at 20:06, SummerShower said:

Yes I remember the April 2018 event here, was pretty good but I remember people on the hampshire coast saying it was equal to, say July 2017 ( which was awesome itself) so must have been exceptional for so early on. 

It was exceptional, similar to July 2017 or almost any other notable summer storm. Remember the unseasonable intense mugginess earlier in the day, was a strange contrast to the cherry blossom in bloom.

On 04/04/2022 at 20:06, SummerShower said:

I'd love a May like 1999 or 2000, with those easterly type synoptics delivering numerous events.  May 2018 wasn't bad too.

May 1999, yes - but May 2000 was pretty cool and wet in the second half of the month IIRC. May 1992 and 1993 were other good ones.

[Sunny76]

50 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

It was exceptional, similar to July 2017 or almost any other notable summer storm. Remember the unseasonable intense mugginess earlier in the day, was a strange contrast to the cherry blossom in bloom.

May 1999, yes - but May 2000 was pretty cool and wet in the second half of the month IIRC. May 1992 and 1993 were other good ones.

1992 was very thundery. The end of May, around the 24th, again, similar to 1989. Was quite a lot of warm or hot days during May 92, and the storms hit the London region and South during Friday night and Saturday morning. 
 

The Friday was very muggy and cloudy.

We had another storm, travelling back from a day out at Margate, after a few hot days in the high 20s. This was early in the July I think, and the weather started to turn as we travelling closer to London. It was dark by 6:30. Storms lasted into the night, and we had more overnight storms. 
 

August produced another overnight storm on a Saturday, which I think was earlier in the month. The latter half of august was much cooler and unsettled. 
 

Confident that 2022 will make up for the lack of thundery activity since 2019.

 

1999 was a classic for overnight storms. We had one in late May, then another one in early July. I left for Canada on August 11th, and didn’t return until 2001, so missed 2000 over here. It was a thundery summer in Toronto though. 
 

1993 didn’t produce any notable storms, apart from an afternoon/early evening one which was quite loud, on a weekday in September. 

Edited April 6, 2022 by Sunny76

[Mac Sweeney Ryan 1990]

I live in Cork Republic of Ireland and it rarely gets thunderstorms. 2020 was a very thundery summer where I am from in Cork Southern Ireland. The first one was during that very humid, showery spell in Mid June when on Saturday the 13th there was an elevated thunderstorm that afternoon when at 3pm that afternoon it got very dark and even though there wasn't much lightning there was a lot of loud thunder and the rain was like something you would see in the tropics. Then it dried up an hour later and it was sunny but that night into the early hours of Sunday 14th a severe slow moving thunderstorm hit Waterford but we got a few flashes and one rumble but lots of heavy rain from it as it moved north west. August of that year certainly made up for it in Cork City as during that hot and thundery spell the 12th was a very hot and humid day with unbroken sunshine all afternoon but by that evening around 5pm I noticed convective clouds starting to build to my south east with increasingly hazy sunshine then at about 7pm the sky was very onimous looking with large drops of rain falling but then stopping. By 9pm as it was getting dark the sky was very convective looking and then at a it 2.15 am I heard the first rumble and then minutes later I seen the first flash the storm lasted for about a good hour and a half with frequent lightning and loud thunder but the rain was extremely intense and at the Met Éireann station at Cork Airport 22mm fell in just one hour from 2-3am which resulted in flash flooding across the city and county. The second one then was on the afternoon of the 27th when after some heavy frontal rain early that morning it brightened up nicely during the late morning and afternoon but by about 3pm convective clouds started building once again and it got very dark. Then at around 4pm was the loudest clap of thunder I heard in a long time and a torrential downpour then followed with several more claps of thunder. Then even though it eased around 5pm I could still hear more thunder in the distance and the sky was still very dark and another downpour followed. 2020 will stand out in my mind for a long time as being the most thundery summer in years. Unfortunately 2021 had very little in the way of thunder then and in January of this year there was a minor thunderstorm with hail in the early hours of the 3rd but here's hoping that there will be more yo come in 2022. One thing I have noticed also is that the classic sunshine and showers day especially in spring and summer are much less these days compared to when I was growing up they were very common, especially the ones where the day would start out dry and sunny then by the mid to late morning shower clouds would start bubbling upand then as daytime heating arrives by late morning the showers have already started to develop. You know those kind of slow moving ones where they would last for a long time and be very intense and then as the shower is moving away rainbows would form. These showers would then continue until evening when by around the late evening they would die out and the night would be dry and clear only for that cycle to be repeated over and over again. We also seem to be setting less of those classic April showers day also. 

[Sunny76]

4 hours ago, Mac Sweeney Ryan 1990 said:

I live in Cork Republic of Ireland and it rarely gets thunderstorms. 2020 was a very thundery summer where I am from in Cork Southern Ireland. The first one was during that very humid, showery spell in Mid June when on Saturday the 13th there was an elevated thunderstorm that afternoon when at 3pm that afternoon it got very dark and even though there wasn't much lightning there was a lot of loud thunder and the rain was like something you would see in the tropics. Then it dried up an hour later and it was sunny but that night into the early hours of Sunday 14th a severe slow moving thunderstorm hit Waterford but we got a few flashes and one rumble but lots of heavy rain from it as it moved north west. August of that year certainly made up for it in Cork City as during that hot and thundery spell the 12th was a very hot and humid day with unbroken sunshine all afternoon but by that evening around 5pm I noticed convective clouds starting to build to my south east with increasingly hazy sunshine then at about 7pm the sky was very onimous looking with large drops of rain falling but then stopping. By 9pm as it was getting dark the sky was very convective looking and then at a it 2.15 am I heard the first rumble and then minutes later I seen the first flash the storm lasted for about a good hour and a half with frequent lightning and loud thunder but the rain was extremely intense and at the Met Éireann station at Cork Airport 22mm fell in just one hour from 2-3am which resulted in flash flooding across the city and county. The second one then was on the afternoon of the 27th when after some heavy frontal rain early that morning it brightened up nicely during the late morning and afternoon but by about 3pm convective clouds started building once again and it got very dark. Then at around 4pm was the loudest clap of thunder I heard in a long time and a torrential downpour then followed with several more claps of thunder. Then even though it eased around 5pm I could still hear more thunder in the distance and the sky was still very dark and another downpour followed. 2020 will stand out in my mind for a long time as being the most thundery summer in years. Unfortunately 2021 had very little in the way of thunder then and in January of this year there was a minor thunderstorm with hail in the early hours of the 3rd but here's hoping that there will be more yo come in 2022. One thing I have noticed also is that the classic sunshine and showers day especially in spring and summer are much less these days compared to when I was growing up they were very common, especially the ones where the day would start out dry and sunny then by the mid to late morning shower clouds would start bubbling upand then as daytime heating arrives by late morning the showers have already started to develop. You know those kind of slow moving ones where they would last for a long time and be very intense and then as the shower is moving away rainbows would form. These showers would then continue until evening when by around the late evening they would die out and the night would be dry and clear only for that cycle to be repeated over and over again. We also seem to be setting less of those classic April showers day also. 

Sounds like a classic 2020 for you.

Apparently, there were some storms in the London area yesterday.

Unfortunately, I work in the basement and heard nothing lol.

[East_England_Stormchaser91]

I’ll go for mid May. 

[Sunny76]

On 08/04/2022 at 11:45, East_England_Stormchaser91 said:

I’ll go for mid May. 

Well done.

I had a feeling we were going to get one around this time, although I'm a few days out.

It wasn't as strong in West London, lasted about 30 minutes with distant booming and a loud crack of thunder as the storm moved closer. Quite a lot of distance lightning between 11:20 and midnight, but not more storms beyond that.

Not a bad start, and I hope that's just a taste of what's to come between now and late August.