Early June 1983 thunderstorms and large hail

[Weather-history]

Early June 1983 saw violent thunderstorms and large hail hit parts of the UK.  My local town was particular badly hit by large hail that residents of a certain age recall vividly to this day

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

           

 

       

[Sunny76]

For some reason I have no recollection of the 1983 summer storms. 
 

I was 7 at the time, but do remember the August 81 daytime darkness storm. 
 

The only thing I vaguely remember from 83 was the hot sunny weather during July and August.

[R Alto]

Forty years ago today! The hailstorms that struck parts of Dorset, Hampshire and West Sussex on 5th June is the first big weather event that I properly remember.

It got very dark around midday on that Sunday and then down it came! We collected hailstones from the garden that were golf ball size. Some reports of coal being found embedded in the hailstones were also reported in the Poole area.

I have super 8 footage but its on DVD so for the time being Ive just made some rough screen shots.

Yours truley testing out the padding of my coat!

Just after the storm and the flooding.

For those that know Poole this is Stanley Green Road. The adjacent football field was also flooded prompting a storm drain to be put in place.

[Sunny76]

42 minutes ago, R Alto said:

Forty years ago today! The hailstorms that struck parts of Dorset, Hampshire and West Sussex on 5th June is the first big weather event that I properly remember.

It got very dark around midday on that Sunday and then down it came! We collected hailstones from the garden that were golf ball size. Some reports of coal being found embedded in the hailstones were also reported in the Poole area.

I have super 8 footage but its on DVD so for the time being Ive just made some rough screen shots.

Yours truley testing out the padding of my coat!

Just after the storm and the flooding.

For those that know Poole this is Stanley Green Road. The adjacent football field was also flooded prompting a storm drain to be put in place.

Did London get hit by these storms?

[R Alto]

2 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

Did London get hit by these storms?

I don't think they did @Sunny76. These storms were confined to the far South and moved roughly East in direction as far as I'm aware.

[Mapantz]

A supercell hit Dorset during that episode. Golf ball sized hail did a lot of damage. Probably the worst storm I've witnessed living here.

[Emz by the Thames]

It was my first summer in the south of England and I can remember asking my schoolfriends if the weather is always this wild in the south. The song Gold by Spandau Ballet reminds me of this time as a violent storm blew our electricity for the second time and my sisters and I listened to Radio 1 on a little pocket radio in sweltering humidity.

[Harry's House]

I was working at Herstmonceux and living in nearby Hailsham and the 5th June 1983 may be the most thundery day of my life. It started during the late afternoon/early evening of 4th with a strike close to Beachy Head and started thundering in earnest later that evening and during most of 5th. There was no hail locally as far as I know but a colleague told me that his car was dented by hailstones at Ryde when he was on holiday on the Isle of Wight.

[Sunny76]

I tend to associate Gold by Spandau Ballet with the hot August and early September of 83.

Blind Vision by Blancmange ties in with June 83. I don’t remember the storms, but just vaguely remember it being unsettled.

[A Face like Thunder]

On 05/06/2023 at 11:57, R Alto said:

I don't think they did @Sunny76. These storms were confined to the far South and moved roughly East in direction as far as I'm aware.

Agreed. I heard about the storms on 5th June but we were unaffected in S London / Surrey. Philip Eden reports 74mm at Winfrith (Dorset), along with hailstones 7cm across on the 5th. Similar sized hailstones were reported from the Manchester area on the 7th. The storms started early in June 1983, with a massive overnight storm in Hampshire, where we were camping, during the night of 31`st May - 1st June 1983. 

[Summer8906]

On 05/06/2023 at 16:04, Sunny76 said:

I tend to associate Gold by Spandau Ballet with the hot August and early September of 83.

That's when it came out, yes. Was no.2 behind Give It Up by KC and the Sunshine Band.

In fact I have a very distinct memory of Tuesday August 30th and hearing the end of the charts, with Give It Up being knocked off and replaced by Red Red Wine by UB40. This was a sunny and very stable day with temps probably only low 20s. Looked like the fine weather would continue given the low humidity and clear air but alas, the breakdown arrived the following evening  (of the 31st) following a rapid rise in humidity, exactly coinciding with the change from summer to autumn, and September was mostly unsettled with a fine warm finish. In fact the opening days of September had quite a big early autumn storm with strong winds, IIRC, though there was a more settled interlude around September 5th/6th, happily just before school started.

On 05/06/2023 at 16:04, Sunny76 said:

Blind Vision by Blancmange ties in with June 83. I don’t remember the storms, but just vaguely remember it being unsettled.

I actually don't remember the June 5 storms, and I wasn't far from the south coast (NW Sussex, close to the borders of both Surrey and Hampshire). Can anyone remember how far north they got?

I do have a vague memory of a Sunday evening with gloomy and rather copper coloured skies and some rain, though nothing dramatic, this could well have been June 5th.

I much more clearly remember the severe night-time storms of May 31/June 1 following the first day to rise above 20C of the entire year. I do also seem to remember early June being persistently thundery though can't remember the specific dates. I also seem to remember a midweek incidence of distant thunder around 11pm or midnight, perhaps the week following June 5th - looking at the newspaper cuttings above this could well have been the evening of the 7th on the cold front.

Interestingly the actual weather chart for the 5th looks very benign.

Edited June 11, 2023 by Summer8906