Very wet thundery May of 1967

[Weather-history]

May 1967 was a very wet, cool, thundery month

CET: 10.4

3rd wettest May on record since 1776 for England and Wales, although not as wet for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

16 days of thunder were recorded at west Raynham in Norfolk with a number of stations recording 10 to 12 days of thunder in central and eastern parts of England

Guardian reports:  hail, snow thunder reported on the 1st

Forecast of snow in north and hills

Floods part of NW England, 85.9mm fell at Fallowfield near Manchester

Thunderstorms reported

Rain and thunderstorms ruin the Whit weekend holiday

Death by lightning

 

[Summer8906]

Remember reading the Weather Log for May 1967 which claimed it was "the wettest May since 1729" though maybe that was not actually the case.

How did 1967 compare with 2021? It sounds worse.

[LetItSnow!]

On 10/05/2022 at 10:45, Summer8906 said:

Remember reading the Weather Log for May 1967 which claimed it was "the wettest May since 1729" though maybe that was not actually the case.

How did 1967 compare with 2021? It sounds worse.

You can see the trough was ever so slightly more inclined to bring a more southerly influence at times, that meant May 1967 was ever so slightly wetter and much more thundery. May 2021 had the blocking more concentrated over Iceland, that meant colder conditions and not as thundery but still exceptionally wet.

[Harry's House]

I was at secondary school in Essex in May 1967.  Although a thundery month, I remember on Monday morning 1st May during a History lesson seeing a wintry shower out of the classroom window (teacher not noticing me not concentrating on the lesson at that moment!). A little later still before mid-month, a short warm spell occurred followed by the inevitable thundery breakdown, and more thundery weather later in the month. Quite a dramatic one during the afternoon of 23rd!

[Thundery wintry showers]

May 1967 started off with a potent northerly outbreak with widespread snow showers but after that a cyclonic south-westerly type prevailed, hence the sea level pressure anomaly chart showing the low pressure anomaly to the west.  At Waddington near Lincoln, May 1967 was the most thundery month in a record back to 1948, and by a fair margin, with thunder heard on 11 days (there have been numerous months with 7 or 8 days with thunder, but no other months had higher than 8).  The cold snap at the beginning brought 2 days with sleet/snow falling, giving the first instance of snow in May since 1955, and it didn't snow in May again until the famously snowy episode in 1979.

Edited May 13, 2022 by Thundery wintry showers

[Methuselah]

If I remember correctly, we had a lovely thunderstorm on the day of the FA Cup Final (Spurs 2-1 Chelsea). I'm nae too sure about that one, but there was defo one whilst The Possessed (Turning the Screw) was on telly, adding to the tension!

[Summer8906]

On 13/05/2022 at 21:01, Harry's House said:

I was at secondary school in Essex in May 1967.  Although a thundery month, I remember on Monday morning 1st May during a History lesson seeing a wintry shower out of the classroom window (teacher not noticing me not concentrating on the lesson at that moment!). A little later still before mid-month, a short warm spell occurred followed by the inevitable thundery breakdown, and more thundery weather later in the month. Quite a dramatic one during the afternoon of 23rd!

An interesting sign of the times there, as the first Monday in May later became a bank holiday of course. I can accurately say I never went to school on Monday 1st May!

Interesting how frequently (and perhaps counterintuitively) cold weather in a northerly in spring is then followed by prolonged unsettled weather - look also at April 2000 or 2012 or May 2021. I say counterintuitively as one might expect that an Atlantic high might move in following a northerly. Certainly the weather chart of May 2 shown in the paper cutting gives no obvious sign of the very wet weather to come. What seems to happen often is upper-air retrogression so a trough to the east migrates west and the path of lows also migrates westwards. It's commonplace for such unsettled spells to begin with a NW-SE moving low from the Iceland area which displaces the high further west - and then further lows make more and more westerly tracks and we end up with a cyclonic SW-ly. Looks like that's what actually happened here as that small low up near Iceland/Greenland on May 2 then deepened markedly. Very reminiscent of April 2012 or May 2021.

Edited May 15, 2022 by Summer8906