Weather of 31st May

[A Face like Thunder]

I'm getting in early as I'm away from early next week.

31st May 1983 - a huge overnight thunderstorm in Hampshire arising from two or three distinct cells moving up from France

31st May 1993 - 40mm of rain in an unexpected afternoon thunderstorm drenched residents and bank holidaymakers (including myself) in the Morecambe and Lancaster areas.

31st May 2023 - ???. 

I shall be somewhere in the Scottish Isles on the 31st and am hoping that history doesn't repeat itself 40 and 30 years on!

PS. 31st May 1911 - the 'Derby Day Storm' which killed 17 people in the London area and deposited 92mm of rain in 3 hours at Banstead, Surrey (Eden). 

 

[Harry's House]

My memories of thunder on 31st May.

1969 - I was staying with my Granny at Hastings when there were a number of thundery showers during the evening to round off the thundery May of that year.

1983 - It was one of the most thundery night shifts of my whole career in the Met Office. I was working at Herstmonceux at the time. There were two bouts of thundery activity that night, the first was a pretty good storm occurring during the late evening and around Midnight BST. The second one was after 1am BST on 1st June and was, if anything, more severe at its peak than the first.

2022 - Last year at Pagham, I heard a rumble of thunder shortly before 1am BST then a slight thunderstorm with rain from about 0340am BST for about 10 minutes.

[SummerShower]

The end of may/start of June tends to be one of those recurring thundery periods.  1992, 1999, 2106, 2017, 2018, I all remember distinctly.  Nothing specific on 31st May though.  Is there a phenomenon that causes this I wonder.

On 31st May 2018 I remember widespread thundery showers in the south (though they were forecast to be more severe than they actually were).  We just had several rumbles.

31st May 2007 I believe also had thunderstorms in some areas.

[Summer8906]

We could also add late May/early June 1978, overnight 1/2 June 1981 (not unlike the similar event two years later), and 4-6 June 1982 to this list.

Edited June 11, 2023 by Summer8906