The most severe thundery outbreak in recorded U.K. history?

[Summer8906]

1 hour ago, Sunny76 said:

Being 18 at the time, I can certainly tell you that 1994 was a very thundery summer.

I remember the Friday evening and into the night one in June 1994, then another one in July on a Tuesday night, which happened during the hot spell and temps around 33-34c. This was the hottest period of weather since 1990 at the time.

I think we had another storm in early August. 

Being in my early 20s at the time I also recall this summer vividly.

The Tuesday night one will have been July 12/13.

The first June one was June 24, to be followed by a repeat performance exactly a week later on July 1. Others include storms in some areas in July 24 (though I missed these) and the August occasion was the evening of Wed Aug 3, notable for seeing the Cbs from afar about two hours before they arrived, and frequent and vivid lightning. A common setup this year seemed to be shallow lows to the west of Ireland but ridging over eastern England, meaning we got both warm sunny days and frequent storms. This summer is discussed in more detail in the "Memories of 1994" thread.

Edited June 7, 2022 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

Another forgotten thundery summer period, perhaps, is that of late July-early August 1992, with the first outbreak notable for its longevity.

It's not an obvious one as it came during a very dull, unsettled July-August period, but I remember three quite severe events in a three-week period.

Firstly there was Monday July 20 1992. The lead up to this had been unsettled weather, then on the Sunday there was drizzly, muggy but cool-by-day Tm weather. On the Monday morning we had a partial clearance to warm bright weather with Ac cast and then around early evening a prolonged thunderstorm broke, which persisted many hours, well into the night. I don't think the lightning or rain were so dramatic but what was notable was the sheer longevity of the outbreak.

The others, less severe but still quite notable were night-time storms on 7/8 and 8/9 August. The weather had been a bit more settled at the end of July but the first week of August was dominated by Tm, if I remember right. I think Friday 7th was slightly cooler and the first round of storms actually came on a warm front from the south, with Sat 8th in a Tc hot sector. Then the second round came on the following cold front, to be followed by cool Atlantic weather which persisted - with no letup whatsoever, even for a day - for the remainder of summer.

Edited June 7, 2022 by Summer8906

[LetItSnow!]

15 hours ago, Row w said:

I don't know why but 1994 seems to stick in my mind as a very thundery year whether it was being a kid at the time that made the memory of looking back at storms made them seem more severe I'm not too sure but there was one on that year around the June or July that started in the early evening and rumbled on well into the night with some of the most colourful lightning I remember one flash being a vivid lilac colour, I also remember it causing a powercut that lasted for hours from around 7:30pm to around 10 or elevenish, the thunder was shotgun loud and I remember it feeling like it shook the house, it would be interesting if anybody has any information on storm activity from around this time for the Midlands area.

Speaking of 1994, there’s a brilliant video of camcorder footage of some very severe thunderstorms that occurred on June 24, 1994 available to watch on YouTube if you search it up. I believe the footage was taken in Essex.

[Jamie M]

7 minutes ago, LetItSnow! said:

Speaking of 1994, there’s a brilliant video of camcorder footage of some very severe thunderstorms that occurred on June 24, 1994 available to watch on YouTube if you search it up. I believe the footage was taken in Essex.

And there's an entire case study from the Met I found on that MCS a while back but never had the time to mention it.

https://library.metoffice.gov.uk/Portal/DownloadImageFile.ashx?fieldValueId=536

'A Case Study of The 24 June 1994 Mesoscale Convective System' 

Some neat satellite and radar pics.

[LetItSnow!]

While overall not a pick for the worst, in NW Kent around late June 2016 was a very thundery spell. The most widespread spell of thunderstorms came on 22nd into the 23rd but where I was living it was the 25th that brought the most intense thunderstorm in my memory. I was radar watching that day as storms were forecast to break out - at some point that afternoon I noticed tiny little cells were starting to form just about anywhere. For the first (and so far only) time in my life a cell actually formed straight over our house. It started as light rain but very quickly turned to torrential rain. Over the course of about 1-2 hours a mini cell because virtually stuck over us and kept back building so the rain was consistent. In that time the rainfall rates were over 100mm, peaking somewhere over 250mm at one point, accompanied by large hail and quite frequent lightning and thunder. It was so bad that despite the road outside being quite flat, it turned into a river in minutes and water was running into the front garden. The temperature during this storm fell to 7.3degC. It had already been an exceptionally wet month (coming off a deluge at the end of May 2016). I remember the next day, walking round the village with twigs and leaves scattered everywhere from the damage of the intense hail and rain. From that storm it probably made June 2016 one of the wettest ever recorded locally. 

6 minutes ago, Jamie M said:

And there's an entire case study from the Met I found on that MCS a while back but never had the time to mention it.

https://library.metoffice.gov.uk/Portal/DownloadImageFile.ashx?fieldValueId=536

'A Case Study of The 24 June 1994 Mesoscale Convective System' 

Some neat satellite and radar pics.

There was also a case study done on the storms from May 27-29, 1999 that I read many years ago but sadly can’t find anymore.

Other thundery spells that come to mind are July 4, 2001 and the floods of June and July 2007 which I do think had thundery elements. 

Edited June 7, 2022 by LetItSnow!

[Sunny76]

Yes late May 1999 overnight storms, and another one hit London in July during the night on a Sunday I think.

1992 was quite thundery like someone said. We had a few daytime storms as well as nighttime ones. 

[Jamie M]

15 minutes ago, LetItSnow! said:

 

There was also a case study done on the storms from May 27-29, 1999 that I read many years ago but sadly can’t find anymore.

 

Might of found what you are looking for, starts from about pg7 on the PDF. It was the only thing listed in the Met's archives that I could find relating.

http://www.ijmet.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/241.pdf

[MP-R]

9 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

Yes late May 1999 overnight storms, and another one hit London in July during the night on a Sunday I think.

1992 was quite thundery like someone said. We had a few daytime storms as well as nighttime ones. 

And although not quite as severe, there were further storms on the 1st/2nd June 1999 also.

Other notable outbreaks I’d add are:

3rd-7th July 2001

3rd-9th August 2002

12th-18th August 2004

24th-29th June 2005

17th-19th July 2014

27th-28th May 2017

19th-23rd July 2017

13th-17th June 2020

10th-17th August 2020

[Row w]

49 minutes ago, LetItSnow! said:

Speaking of 1994, there’s a brilliant video of camcorder footage of some very severe thunderstorms that occurred on June 24, 1994 available to watch on YouTube if you search it up. I believe the footage was taken in Essex.

Cheers mate I think I might have already watched that footage was it of a Mesocyclone system 

[Sunny76]

14 minutes ago, MP-R said:

And although not quite as severe, there were further storms on the 1st/2nd June 1999 also.

Other notable outbreaks I’d add are:

3rd-7th July 2001

3rd-9th August 2002

12th-18th August 2004

24th-29th June 2005

17th-19th July 2014

27th-28th May 2017

19th-23rd July 2017

13th-17th June 2020

10th-17th August 2020

You missed out July 2013 which produced a decent couple of overnight storms, similar to July 2014.

The mid 2010s was pretty decent for storms, especially 2013-2018, but since 18 it’s been disappointing, and the early years of the decade produced nothing much, although Newcastle has a nasty storm in summer 2012.

[LetItSnow!]

53 minutes ago, MP-R said:

And although not quite as severe, there were further storms on the 1st/2nd June 1999 also.

Other notable outbreaks I’d add are:

3rd-7th July 2001

3rd-9th August 2002

12th-18th August 2004

24th-29th June 2005

17th-19th July 2014

27th-28th May 2017

19th-23rd July 2017

13th-17th June 2020

10th-17th August 2020

British Isles weather diary

WWW.MET.READING.AC.UK

---

weather observations

 A brilliant source for daily information which has lots of reports of thunderstorms that are long forgotten from memory. The resource starts from January 1, 1999 onward. 

A great example is how apparently there was an intense but very localised thunderstorm in Penzance that caused flooding on January 17, 2001. I would never have guessed that from this chart! 

[cheeky_monkey]

1 hour ago, Sunny76 said:

Yes late May 1999 overnight storms, and another one hit London in July during the night on a Sunday I think.

1992 was quite thundery like someone said. We had a few daytime storms as well as nighttime ones. 

i had a video of a bunch of storms that happened on a Saturday Morning in May 1999..i had bought my first ever camcorder the week before primarily for capturing my kids growing up who were 2 and 3 months old at the time..but used also to capture this weather event..there were some big storms that lasted from 10am -2pm in the afternoon...not sure of the date it was either the 22nd or 29th of May 

[Andy Bown]

These threads make for great reading and reminiscing!

Personally the best and most prolonged thundery outbreak I have experienced was Friday 24th June 2005.

This was the day that the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury got struck by a CG at around 07.00 .

I lived in Westbury at the time, we had a few early morning storms from about 04.30 then a brief lull before another storm at about 08.00 .

That morning I was invigilating exams at the local school. I had and still have the utmost respect for those students, it was crazy outside for parts of that morning! Several CGs struck very nearby, we subsequently found out that a teachers car had been hit!

The sky seemed to clear and the day looked set to improve around midday however further storms developed rapidly for a final hurrah at about 13.00 with a few shotgun CGs!

From memory of posting on here at the time we had at least 9 separate storms that day from 04.30-13.30!

Also from memory I think it was a very slow moving cold front that sparked the storms.

I would love to be able to have access to today’s Net Weather radar and various lightning maps to review that day!

[MP-R]

6 hours ago, Sunny76 said:

You missed out July 2013 which produced a decent couple of overnight storms, similar to July 2014.

The mid 2010s was pretty decent for storms, especially 2013-2018, but since 18 it’s been disappointing, and the early years of the decade produced nothing much, although Newcastle has a nasty storm in summer 2012.

Yes true. I left 2013 out because each thundery outbreak was about a week apart here. First the 23rd July, then 29th July, a close by one on August 2nd and another on August 5th.

12 minutes ago, Andy Bown said:

These threads make for great reading and reminiscing!

Personally the best and most prolonged thundery outbreak I have experienced was Friday 24th June 2005.

This was the day that the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury got struck by a CG at around 07.00 .

I lived in Westbury at the time, we had a few early morning storms from about 04.30 then a brief lull before another storm at about 08.00 .

That morning I was invigilating exams at the local school. I had and still have the utmost respect for those students, it was crazy outside for parts of that morning! Several CGs struck very nearby, we subsequently found out that a teachers car had been hit!

The sky seemed to clear and the day looked set to improve around midday however further storms developed rapidly for a final hurrah at about 13.00 with a few shotgun CGs!

From memory of posting on here at the time we had at least 9 separate storms that day from 04.30-13.30!

Also from memory I think it was a very slow moving cold front that sparked the storms.

I would love to be able to have access to today’s Net Weather radar and various lightning maps to review that day!

This day is etched in my memory. Quite an amazing episode! The 25th was the standard post storm grey day, then the heat built again for 3 days before we did it all again on the evening of the 28th. For strength… the 28th was more impressive here.

[virtualsphere]

On 06/06/2022 at 20:49, iand61 said:

I remember this storm but as is often the case, it was very localised and even though we are only about 10 miles west of Walshaw Dean Reservoirs where the 198mm figure was recorded, we had nothing.

there must have been massive damage down in Hebden Bridge and Luddenden Foot.

Most of this article on the 1989 Halifax storm is behind a paywall but there's an interesting free map on the rainfall distribution around the area.

Just a moment...

RMETS.ONLINELIBRARY.WILEY.COM

 

[Summer18]

I was only 5 but the storm that “cured” me from being scared of thunder and lightning was in early July 1999. I remember it lasted for hours with really intense lightning. I thought if I lived through that then thunder will never scare me again and It hasn’t! Indeed 1999 was a very thundery summer.

I remember one in July 2002 which must have lasted for about 18 hours, started midday and lasted until morning the day after. I can’t remember one which lasted as long as that before or since. 

[Weather-history]

15 hours ago, Row w said:

Cheers mate I think I might have already watched that footage was it of a Mesocyclone system 

BBC forecast I uploaded on Youtube. The radar image is amazing, as John Kettley put it "Henri Matisse's lesser known works"

 

[Weather-history]

There were some pretty big storms during  2nd week of June 1993

 

[SnowBear]

Probably one which every one in Cornwall will remember until eternity, 16th August 2004 and the Boscastle Flood. 

Caused by convergent sea breezes across Cornwall and the Brown Willy effect in an uncapped atmosphere pushed cloud tops to over 40,000 feet which saw prolonged thunderstorms in the hills and moorland behind Boscastle. 

Lesnewth, a village some 2 or 3 miles inland saw 7" of rain, other reports saw 8" of rain, in just a few hours. 

The result was the catastrophic flood in the village of Boscastle as the water made its way down the valley exactly 52 years after Lynmouth suffered the same in 1952.

 

[A Face like Thunder]

 

1 hour ago, SnowBear said:

Probably one which every one in Cornwall will remember until eternity, 16th August 2004 and the Boscastle Flood. 

Caused by convergent sea breezes across Cornwall and the Brown Willy effect in an uncapped atmosphere pushed cloud tops to over 40,000 feet which saw prolonged thunderstorms in the hills and moorland behind Boscastle. 

Lesnewth, a village some 2 or 3 miles inland saw 7" of rain, other reports saw 8" of rain, in just a few hours. 

The result was the catastrophic flood in the village of Boscastle as the water made its way down the valley exactly 52 years after Lynmouth suffered the same in 1952.

 

I was thinking of those two storms. Surely contenders for the most destructive thunderstorms in modern history.

Edited June 8, 2022 by A Face like Thunder

[Nick L]

2 hours ago, SnowBear said:

Probably one which every one in Cornwall will remember until eternity, 16th August 2004 and the Boscastle Flood. 

Caused by convergent sea breezes across Cornwall and the Brown Willy effect in an uncapped atmosphere pushed cloud tops to over 40,000 feet which saw prolonged thunderstorms in the hills and moorland behind Boscastle. 

Lesnewth, a village some 2 or 3 miles inland saw 7" of rain, other reports saw 8" of rain, in just a few hours. 

The result was the catastrophic flood in the village of Boscastle as the water made its way down the valley exactly 52 years after Lynmouth suffered the same in 1952.

 

Incredible how nobody was killed in that Boscastle flood.

[A Face like Thunder]

5 hours ago, Weather-history said:

There were some pretty big storms during  2nd week of June 1993

 

Interesting. We had an epic thunderstorm and rain at Scorton near Lancaster on Bank Holiday Monday 31st May 1993, but at Blackpool, there was absolutely nothing! 

[TwisterGirl81]

On the 17th October 2014 in the evening was the worst thunderstorm that I recall to have gone through in Exeter, rain was torrential for probably nearly half an hour and constant lightening....Would be really interested to see the rainfall radar image if anyone could help?

[AndrewJM70]

Here in Leicester I remember the following biggies:

 

4th June 1982 - massive storm from around 7pm until well after 10pm

18th August, 1996 - shotgun blast of thunder around 9pm followed by an hour of the most intense rainfall I have ever seen. 3ft floods in the street.

28th June, 2012 - lunchtime, barrage of the loudest thunder I have heard, followed by an intense storm and what appeared to be a tornado going through my garden. Similar to storms I have seen in Florida and videos from Kansas.

 

2019 was the worst - absolutely zero activity wherever I was. 

 

[SummerShower]

The storms that accompanied the plum in September 2016.  I'd say Basingstokes worst storm of the 21st century was overnight 15th and 16th, it really was epic with shotgun thunder for 2 hours and really torrential rain continuously.  It literally shook the house with several close strikes.  I know other regions were hit on the 13th too.

I'd say, may 1989 is a contender for worst widespread outbreak (in my lifetime) as storms were widespread occurring in various areas from 19th to 25th.. including the Halifax storm already mentioned.  A house in our village took a direct hit from a positive CG (one of those that occur at the end of a storm when seemingly it is dying out).  I was only 8 at the time and remember it being the loudest thunder I'd ever heard, and it scared me as I thought the storm had ended .

Others would be June 2005, July 2006 (2nd half of that hot spell) and July 2013(though we were unlucky here on the 22/23rd with just distant flashes), more recently May 2018 and to some degree, August 2020, which at times felt like being in Florida, are contenders