August 31 2005 severe thunderstorms

[JoshStundon1]

Hello all, 

I hope everyone is doing well. 

I posted this on another forum a good few months back, but I’m curious to know what your thoughts are. 

 

The day was August 31 2005. The day had one of the most severe thunderstorms i have ever experienced in my location. We had at least 2 rounds of severe thunderstorms. It was a primarily afternoon event. The storms had some of the loudest, most unusual sounding thunder I have ever heard, either mostly positive lightning strikes or simply very close lightning, and torrential rainfall. 

The convective setup according to estofex consisted of a thundery low from bay of biscay which moved to southeast ireland, still in it’s deepening stages, and its associated slow moving surface cold front. If I recall, the atmosphere was capped to thunderstorm development over england, it was mainly Ireland that got in on the action. Trying to figure out if this was a classic, or modified Spanish plume event? The forecast also mentioned strong wind sheer and a strong jet streak, so it appears that this was a highly sheered setup. I have read many convective outlooks over the years, but I have rarely come across a situation where a low from the bay of biscay in summer moves all the way to southeast Ireland. I am visually impaired so unfortunately am unable to read weather charts or radar images but if someone can find weather charts or radar images for that day it would be good to describe them in the comments. 

[MarkW]

Hi there. I'm nowhere near your location (West Midlands), but around that time I do recall a Sunday afternoon, when I was caught near Dudley in a terrific storm with some severe hail. I had to stop the car. It was defiantly, Summer 2005 and I am sure it was August.  

[Summer8906]

I do recall this episode from the south of England. It was strangely similar to what happened on the same day in 1983, which strangely was also a Wednesday.

There had been a fine warm spell of a few days previously, and much of the day was still fine and warm in southern England. It turned cloudy around dark and there was some rain around midnight, though not thundery - though I do remember thunder being in the forecast.

The following day the front cleared and it became fine again, before a repeat performance on Sunday 4th, when I think I did see distant lightning.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Summer8906