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

[A Face like Thunder]

I would certainly go along with you SummerShower re September 2016. We were in the NW for the storm on 13th, but this was totally eclipsed by the overnight storm on the 15/16th when we were staying at a hotel in Alton prior to a cruise. We didn't get much sleep that night! And I recall it was hot during the day, with 32c in the SE, thus presumably giving more 'fuel' to the storm during the night.    

[Sunny76]

17 minutes ago, A Face like Thunder said:

I would certainly go along with you SummerShower re September 2016. We were in the NW for the storm on 13th, but this was totally eclipsed by the overnight storm on the 15/16th when we were staying at a hotel in Alton prior to a cruise. We didn't get much sleep that night! And I recall it was hot during the day, with 32c in the SE, thus presumably giving more 'fuel' to the storm during the night.    

Yeah I remember that one. It was 34c in London, and we headed to Portsmouth for a day trip. 
 

Came back to London after a long hot sunny day, but overnight the storms rolled in.

A similar thing happened in September 2014, during a very warm spell. 
 

The referendum storms of June 2016 were quite bad. That seemed to go on for a couple of hours overnight. 

[Weather-history]

Reading Guardian newspaper clippings from the hot (and stinky in London) June of 1858. Some fierce thunderstorms especially mid month

4th     11th     14th     15th  

16th          17th   18th 

 

[ChezWeather]

Hard to believe its 10 years ago now, but amidst a drab and awful summer, 28th June 2012 is surely up there with some of the most severe weather conditions this country has ever seen. 

Golf ball sized hail in large swathes across the midlands, multiple tornado's, well defined supercells, and a biblical flood from an MCS in the NE.

Well documented here;

28th June 2012

WWW.STRATUSDECK.CO.UK

---

For many people in the UK, including meteorologists and weather enthusiasts, June 28th 2012 was a day to remember. In the afternoon, violent supercell thunderstorms broke out across the...

 

 

Leicestershire Tornadic Supercell Storms of 28th June 2012 | hinckleyweather's Blog

HINCKLEYWEATHERBLOG.WORDPRESS.COM

---

Every so often a weather event occurs that is so extreme and so sudden, that it can’t possibly be forecast or expected to happen in any particular location. The 28th of June 2012 was such an occasion when Hinckley...

 

 

[A Face like Thunder]

On 14/06/2022 at 22:10, ChezWeather said:

Hard to believe its 10 years ago now, but amidst a drab and awful summer, 28th June 2012 is surely up there with some of the most severe weather conditions this country has ever seen. 

Golf ball sized hail in large swathes across the midlands, multiple tornado's, well defined supercells, and a biblical flood from an MCS in the NE.

Well documented here;

28th June 2012

WWW.STRATUSDECK.CO.UK

---

For many people in the UK, including meteorologists and weather enthusiasts, June 28th 2012 was a day to remember. In the afternoon, violent supercell thunderstorms broke out across the...

 

 

Leicestershire Tornadic Supercell Storms of 28th June 2012 | hinckleyweather's Blog

HINCKLEYWEATHERBLOG.WORDPRESS.COM

---

Every so often a weather event occurs that is so extreme and so sudden, that it can’t possibly be forecast or expected to happen in any particular location. The 28th of June 2012 was such an occasion when Hinckley...

 

 

10 years on today, who would have believed it? I wasn't in any of the affected areas that day but love seeing the clips!

[Glaswegianblizzard]

The storms that hit Scotland on 10th August 2020 are the worst I’ve seen here. Could even see atmospheric cloud lightning, and we didn’t even get the worst of it in Glasgow. That was reserved for the East Coast from Edinburgh and the Lothians right upto Aberdeen.

The biggest consequence was of course the tragic train derailment near Stonehaven the following morning, however the main Edinburgh to Glasgow railway line was washed away over a mile and a half near Falkirk due to the Forth & Clyde Canal embankments being breached.

[mushymanrob]

July 31st 1972
September 15th 1973

Two i can remember with dates although there were storms in the late 60's/1970 that were as good... Derby... a line of supercells tracked Northwards on those dates, bringing an ever darkening, dramatic sky, followed by very heavy rain/hail and frequent lightning

July 11th 1981 Derby had a cloudburst. 3" rain in an hour, never seen rain like it, so hard you could hardly hear the thunder or see the lightning. Wonderful.
 

[philglossop]

I know the summer of 1995 is up there with 1976 for being an great summer but the thunderstorms of 95 have mostly been forgotten- especially the ones around 10th July which I maintain to this day led in part to my late Aunt having a heart attack and sadly passing. Never known a storm like it in Plymouth that Tuesday/Wednesday night and it just rumbled for hours. 
 

The summer 2005 was interesting as I was on holiday in my then caravan just outside Rippenden West Yorks in late July(?)  and trust me I’ve never been so flipping scared as storms came up from Manchester. Swear the trees nearby got hit. Then we drove home to Glossop and boom the town was hit again and had some mild flooding.  

[Weather-history]

On 14/06/2022 at 22:10, ChezWeather said:

Hard to believe its 10 years ago now, but amidst a drab and awful summer, 28th June 2012 is surely up there with some of the most severe weather conditions this country has ever seen. 

Golf ball sized hail in large swathes across the midlands, multiple tornado's, well defined supercells, and a biblical flood from an MCS in the NE.

Well documented here;

28th June 2012

WWW.STRATUSDECK.CO.UK

---

For many people in the UK, including meteorologists and weather enthusiasts, June 28th 2012 was a day to remember. In the afternoon, violent supercell thunderstorms broke out across the...

 

 

Leicestershire Tornadic Supercell Storms of 28th June 2012 | hinckleyweather's Blog

HINCKLEYWEATHERBLOG.WORDPRESS.COM

---

Every so often a weather event occurs that is so extreme and so sudden, that it can’t possibly be forecast or expected to happen in any particular location. The 28th of June 2012 was such an occasion when Hinckley...

 

 

Threads from that period

[damianslaw]

Recent summers here have been very lacking in thunderstorms and lightning. We did see a very thundery downpour on 2 June just when the jubilee beacon was being lit. I remember many a storm when younger, watching the black cloud loom to our SW and the trees ruffling.. probably during summers such as 1994, 1995 and 1997 - the latter was very thundery from memory. 

The most vivid storm I recall more recently was in Newcastle upon Tyne I don't have the exact date, but it was the Sunday after 'super saturday olympics' 2012, quite a frightning experience... significant flooding in the city. 

[Kirkcaldy Weather]

On 28/06/2022 at 20:27, Glaswegianblizzard said:

The storms that hit Scotland on 10th August 2020 are the worst I’ve seen here. Could even see atmospheric cloud lightning, and we didn’t even get the worst of it in Glasgow. That was reserved for the East Coast from Edinburgh and the Lothians right upto Aberdeen.

The biggest consequence was of course the tragic train derailment near Stonehaven the following morning, however the main Edinburgh to Glasgow railway line was washed away over a mile and a half near Falkirk due to the Forth & Clyde Canal embankments being breached.

It was the 11th/12th August 2020  but yes the most severe storms everyone in my area has ever seen. The day started with a nearby storm around 11am-mid day but the main action began around 7pm and lasted a staggering 12 HOURS and that's no exaggeration, it was declared a major incident there were cars floating down the streets with most towns around here getting around 100mm in just a few hours, it was a trough delivering the storms with 2 supercells (11pm - after midnight) then it became linear slowly drifting west then moving back east again.

My videos of the 2 supercells 

 

 

 

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/weather/learn-about/uk-past-events/interesting/2020/2020_07_august_rain.pdf

Still the only time I've been fearful from a weather event.

[Supacell]

2 hours ago, damianslaw said:

The most vivid storm I recall more recently was in Newcastle upon Tyne I don't have the exact date, but it was the Sunday after 'super saturday olympics' 2012, quite a frightning experience... significant flooding in the city. 

I think it was August 5th. I was living in Yorkshire at the time and there were severe storms which pushed north and east on that afternoon along a convergence zone. I think they moved into Newcastle that evening. I witnessed a funnel cloud on that date, as did a few people in Yorkshire. 

[LetItSnow!]

59 minutes ago, Kirkcaldy Weather said:

It was the 11th/12th August 2020  but yes the most severe storms everyone in my area has ever seen. The day started with a nearby storm around 11am-mid day but the main action began around 7pm and lasted a staggering 12 HOURS and that's no exaggeration, it was declared a major incident there were cars floating down the streets with most towns around here getting around 100mm in just a few hours, it was a trough delivering the storms with 2 supercells (11pm - after midnight) then it became linear slowly drifting west then moving back east again.

My videos of the 2 supercells 

 

 

 

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/weather/learn-about/uk-past-events/interesting/2020/2020_07_august_rain.pdf

Still the only time I've been fearful from a weather event.

IIRC, I believe a rainfall rate record was made during that time but I thought it was the 16th. I remember watching a video of a storm around Norfolk way and the rain was unlike anything you'd ever seen. I believe it was the storm that broke the record. Very turbulent time for the weather. I remember it very well as spent mid-August going from Carlisle back to London. There were thunderstorms in the northwest around the 10th-13th but I missed anything notable. The 14th to the rest of the month featured frequent downpours including some record storms like the ones you mentioned, but curiosly I only seemed to remember just very heavy showers. Must have been a location thing.

[Harry's House]

On 08/06/2022 at 04:07, Summer18 said:

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. 

When I was living in Shinfield, near Reading, not long after midnight very early on 3rd July1999 a bar of cloud approached from the SW so full of lightning that it was like a faulty fluorescent light which never goes out but just keeps momentarily fading. Thunder could be heard continuously for over 1 hour and 20 minutes though not very loud as the lightning was intra-cloud. I have never experienced lightning like that before or since.

 

[A Face like Thunder]

2nd - 5th July 1999 was noted by Philip Eden as a particularly thundery spell, with flooding, particularly in Essex, and even reports of tornados.  

[A Face like Thunder]

On 06/06/2022 at 19:34, A Face like Thunder said:

If we look back 20 years, the period between 29th July and 9th August 2002 saw widespread thundery activity and flooding, including Fylingdales and Pickering in N Yorkshire - 115mm - on 2nd August where I took this picture, Penistone (S Yorkshire), Leeming (NY) and Hampstead (London).

20 years ago today!

[Don]

11 minutes ago, A Face like Thunder said:

20 years ago today!

Absolutely incredible to think that was 20 years ago!!