August 21st 1987 thunderstorms

[Sunny76]

35 years ago this week since those widespread storms from France moved slowly north.

Much of the South, and South East of England and other areas were affected by heavy thunderstorms.

This followed a week of hot weather peaking around 29-30c, with the last hot day on a Friday. That evening, the storms moved in just before dark, and continued well into the night.

Also remember the following day was grey and humid with more distant rumbles of thunder. 

[A Face like Thunder]

I must have been in S London / Surrey at the time but I don't remember this at all. Philip Eden noted a very thundery spell between 21st and 23rd, with severe local flooding resulting from 116mm of rain at Holbeach (what is it with Holbeach and storms?!) and 115mm at Blithfield Reservoir in Staffs. Serious flooding also affected the Wigan area and parts of Essex.

[Coopsy]

I remember this night well as a young child. It was a Friday night/early Saturday morning event.

Our Family left late at night/early morning to travel to Devon from Kent for our annual holiday and I remember vividly seeing lightning what felt like most of the way.

Most impressive was seeing Stonehenge lit up by lightning as we progressed along the A303.

I also believe the following few weeks were hot and sunny (or so it felt as a child on the beach everyday in Devon)  

[Sunny76]

26 minutes ago, Coopsy said:

I remember this night well as a young child. It was a Friday night/early Saturday morning event.

Our Family left late at night/early morning to travel to Devon from Kent for our annual holiday and I remember vividly seeing lightning what felt like most of the way.

Most impressive was seeing Stonehenge lit up by lightning as we progressed along the A303.

I also believe the following few weeks were hot and sunny (or so it felt as a child on the beach everyday in Devon)  

I remember it being hot and sunny all day on a Friday, then by around 8pm or so, distant flickering to the south could be seen.

As it approached 9pm or so, the daylight had faded and the storm was moving closer and the lightning was more frequent.

Thunder and lightning for the next 2 hours or so, with heavy showers. Then the storms moved away, and I was woken up at some point later in the night, probably around 3-4am when more storms arrived.

Saturday afternoon produced more storms, with rumbles of thunder to my east.

I was living in Chelsea at the time. 

[Sunny76]

32 minutes ago, Coopsy said:

I remember this night well as a young child. It was a Friday night/early Saturday morning event.

Our Family left late at night/early morning to travel to Devon from Kent for our annual holiday and I remember vividly seeing lightning what felt like most of the way.

Most impressive was seeing Stonehenge lit up by lightning as we progressed along the A303.

I also believe the following few weeks were hot and sunny (or so it felt as a child on the beach everyday in Devon)  

I think late August and early September produced some of the best weather of summer 1987.

I remember when I started secondary it was quite warm and sunny, and I remember sweating in my blazer lol.

[Weather-history]

From what I posted 16 years ago

"

I remember these storms well.

On the 21st of August 1987, a Spanish plume and low spread northwards and was expected to only affect SE parts however, it spread further west to affect much of England and Wales.

I remember Friday evening with deep altocumulus castellanus spreading over and large drops of rain falling. Thunderstorms accompanied the low and on the 22nd, the Saturday, further thunderstorms broke out.

82.7mm fell at Elmdon and large hail was reported at Chelmsford and Ipswich, the size of golfballs and up to 30cm deep in places

On the Saturday afternoon, a severe weather flash came on BBC TV of a severe thunderstorm in the Greater Manchester and Cheshire area. Indeed, we had torrential rain and very loud thunder. Many roads in the region were affected by flooding with 1m of floodwater near Preston

A man was killed and 9 others were injured by lightning at a cricket match at Isleworth."

Newspaper clippings on the storms 

           

          

   

[Sunny76]

18 minutes ago, Weather-history said:

From what I posted 16 years ago

"

I remember these storms well.

On the 21st of August 1987, a Spanish plume and low spread northwards and was expected to only affect SE parts however, it spread further west to affect much of England and Wales.

I remember Friday evening with deep altocumulus castellanus spreading over and large drops of rain falling. Thunderstorms accompanied the low and on the 22nd, the Saturday, further thunderstorms broke out.

82.7mm fell at Elmdon and large hail was reported at Chelmsford and Ipswich, the size of golfballs and up to 30cm deep in places

On the Saturday afternoon, a severe weather flash came on BBC TV of a severe thunderstorm in the Greater Manchester and Cheshire area. Indeed, we had torrential rain and very loud thunder. Many roads in the region were affected by flooding with 1m of floodwater near Preston

A man was killed and 9 others were injured by lightning at a cricket match at Isleworth."

Newspaper clippings on the storms 

           

          

   

This and the 1981 storms were what I call true thunderstorms.

The recent storms this week weren’t a patch on the above and the flooding was over egged as usual.

[Sunny76]

36 minutes ago, Weather-history said:

From what I posted 16 years ago

"

I remember these storms well.

On the 21st of August 1987, a Spanish plume and low spread northwards and was expected to only affect SE parts however, it spread further west to affect much of England and Wales.

I remember Friday evening with deep altocumulus castellanus spreading over and large drops of rain falling. Thunderstorms accompanied the low and on the 22nd, the Saturday, further thunderstorms broke out.

82.7mm fell at Elmdon and large hail was reported at Chelmsford and Ipswich, the size of golfballs and up to 30cm deep in places

On the Saturday afternoon, a severe weather flash came on BBC TV of a severe thunderstorm in the Greater Manchester and Cheshire area. Indeed, we had torrential rain and very loud thunder. Many roads in the region were affected by flooding with 1m of floodwater near Preston

A man was killed and 9 others were injured by lightning at a cricket match at Isleworth."

Newspaper clippings on the storms 

           

          

   

This could well be the first weather event which indicated a change in climate. 
 

[Weather-history]

8 hours ago, Sunny76 said:

This could well be the first weather event which indicated a change in climate. 
 

No different to past plume events. Early August 1981, early July 1968............it isn't a case of this was a first.Infact, I would argue, it was typical.

Plume events seem to have decreased since the start of the century. 

[Sunny76]

5 hours ago, Weather-history said:

No different to past plume events. Early August 1981, early July 1968............it isn't a case of this was a first.Infact, I would argue, it was typical.

Plume events seem to have decreased since the start of the century. 

And yet they make a big deal of flooding now. I think storms are less severe these days.