[Storms and Convective discussion - June 2023]

At 2am this night, was woken up by a lightning strike. It sounded like something exploded nearby. Loudest I've heard since 2020 at least

[Best storm you've ever seen in the UK]

Wednesday 18th May 2022. 

I love thunderstorms, and was disappointed. You see, Cambridge for some reason constantly avoids thunderstorms, which pass to the side all the time. Only very few hit directly. And almost all, even those which hit, are weak. 

There was one storm in 2021 which sounded vicious, as I was hearing thunder constantly from it as opposed to intermittently. But nothing comes close to the display a squall line put on the 18th May. 

It was at night when I checked the weather radar and saw a massive bow echo heading right at Cambridge. The worst of it, again, avoided Cambridge. But the thunder sounded legitimately terrifying from the storm, and lightning flared absolutely nonstop and so bright it turned night completely to day, it seems. Someone I know in Longstanton also spoke of how brightly the lightning flared. I can't imagine what it would have been like if the storm hit Cambridge. Even after it had moved off and the sky was clear above Cambridge, I was seeing nonstop flashes of heat lightning in the distance where the storm had gone off to. It stayed distant, so my photos of it aren't that good. 

Of course, that comes nowhere close to a thunderstorm I saw in Spain, which happened in August 2020. In 15 minutes, 5 palm trees had been smashed to pieces, our balcony became a swimming pool, a nearby eucalyptus grove had branches pouring out of it, the lawn in front of our house turned into a bog and there was flooding everywhere. 

[Thunderstorm Questions]

4 minutes ago, Zak M said:

Hi, welcome to NW! The first and last pics are clear pictures of a shelf cloud. A slight greenish tinge could indicate large hail falling.

Thanks! 

Nice to hear that. And yes, there was an exceptionally violent bombardment of hail a few minutes after I took this particular image...

 

[No storms club 2020]

Of course there will be more thunderstorms! I seriously won't be surprised if there will be a very severe storm with this heat. Today I hoped for a supercell- and was...dissapointed when the tornado warning did not manifest. 

But there have been 4 thunderstorms over Cambridge this year already, three of them on the 12th April and a very violent one on the 30th April. In addition to an awesome-looking cell near Bristol on the 1st March. 

[Thunderstorm Questions]

Hi,

I live in Cambridge, and on the 30th April this year a really violent thunderstorm, with lightning, strong wind, hail and really loud thunder, sped over the city. 

I took numerous pictures of the event- does anyone have any idea what type of storm this is, and is the cloud formation depicted on the first image a shelf cloud? 

In addition, is it just me, or do the clouds have a very slight greenish tinge to them?

Thanks!