I live in Cork Republic of Ireland and it rarely gets thunderstorms. 2020 was a very thundery summer where I am from in Cork Southern Ireland. The first one was during that very humid, showery spell in Mid June when on Saturday the 13th there was an elevated thunderstorm that afternoon when at 3pm that afternoon it got very dark and even though there wasn't much lightning there was a lot of loud thunder and the rain was like something you would see in the tropics. Then it dried up an hour later and it was sunny but that night into the early hours of Sunday 14th a severe slow moving thunderstorm hit Waterford but we got a few flashes and one rumble but lots of heavy rain from it as it moved north west. August of that year certainly made up for it in Cork City as during that hot and thundery spell the 12th was a very hot and humid day with unbroken sunshine all afternoon but by that evening around 5pm I noticed convective clouds starting to build to my south east with increasingly hazy sunshine then at about 7pm the sky was very onimous looking with large drops of rain falling but then stopping. By 9pm as it was getting dark the sky was very convective looking and then at a it 2.15 am I heard the first rumble and then minutes later I seen the first flash the storm lasted for about a good hour and a half with frequent lightning and loud thunder but the rain was extremely intense and at the Met Éireann station at Cork Airport 22mm fell in just one hour from 2-3am which resulted in flash flooding across the city and county. The second one then was on the afternoon of the 27th when after some heavy frontal rain early that morning it brightened up nicely during the late morning and afternoon but by about 3pm convective clouds started building once again and it got very dark. Then at around 4pm was the loudest clap of thunder I heard in a long time and a torrential downpour then followed with several more claps of thunder. Then even though it eased around 5pm I could still hear more thunder in the distance and the sky was still very dark and another downpour followed. 2020 will stand out in my mind for a long time as being the most thundery summer in years. Unfortunately 2021 had very little in the way of thunder then and in January of this year there was a minor thunderstorm with hail in the early hours of the 3rd but here's hoping that there will be more yo come in 2022. One thing I have noticed also is that the classic sunshine and showers day especially in spring and summer are much less these days compared to when I was growing up they were very common, especially the ones where the day would start out dry and sunny then by the mid to late morning shower clouds would start bubbling upand then as daytime heating arrives by late morning the showers have already started to develop. You know those kind of slow moving ones where they would last for a long time and be very intense and then as the shower is moving away rainbows would form. These showers would then continue until evening when by around the late evening they would die out and the night would be dry and clear only for that cycle to be repeated over and over again. We also seem to be setting less of those classic April showers day also.
