LawLord

Attached is a photo taken of flash flooding outside my home following the severe thunderstorm during the night of 22/23 July 1967. After a warm, but not particularly hot. day. with temperatures of 24C, the evening became cloudy and lightning was first observed at about 22.00. The storm lasted an incredible 8 hours, with torrential rain and spectacular thunder and lightning. I remember my Mum being very worried that all the flowers she had planted the day before would be washed away, as indeed many were. Research has shown that up to 90mm of rain fell in our local area (South Bucks) during that night and there was quite a lot of flooding. Apparently a low moved along the North coast of France during the night, leading to the outbreak of storms. The following day, as can be seen in the photo, saw a return to fine, sunny weather.

I am trying to find out more about the storms of this night which I remember as a child. The previous day (7th) was very hot, temperatures hovering around 32C, and in many places it was the hottest day of the year. Thunderstorms broke out overnight in the South and produced some long lived and spectacular lightning displays, which I remember watching for several hours. Does anyone out there have any memories or stories of that stormy night?

Most interesting research, well done! Where I live (in the South) we were not affected at all by that blizzard but I do remember the news reports of it on national TV and in the papers. Some years ago I purchased a postcard featuring scenes from that blizzard in a village in Leicestershire. I have only seen snow like that in Canada, in the last 20 years at any rate.

Yes this was certainly a famous one - apparently it was the basis for the winter scenes in "Lorna Doone". I wonder what the temperature was - could it have exceeded the recorded minimum for the UK of -27.2C? I once read an account of a bottle of ink freezing in one of the Oxford colleges during thes winter as well which gives an indication of the intensity of the cold. It does not appear to have been particularly snowy, so it must have been dry, and would probably have been similar to winter conditions in say Edmonton, Canada today. Having myself experienced Canadian winter weather belive me it is bone chillingly cold!!

Another famous weather anniversary! Exactly 70 years ago this weekend the most notorious hurricane of the inter war period struck the North Eastern United States. Forecasters had mistakenly thought it would follow an easterly course out into the Atlantic but it changed direction and headed north. making landfall at Long Island in the afternoon of 21st September. Coastal areas of New England received heavy damage from storm surge and winds of over 100mph; further inland the system dumped incredible amounts of rain which, falling on land already saturated by a wet September, caused immense floods in places such as Hartford, Connecticut. Millions of trees were lost and in some areas the landscape was changed for ever. One unusual product of this hurricane is that pieces of wood from some of the trees felled were made into a number of objects from paperweits to buttons that were sold to raise funds for the rleief of the victims. If anyone has any recallections of this famous storm I would love to hear from you

Today is the anniversary of the Galveston hurricane of 1900, which is still the most deadly hurricane ever to strike the Western hemisphere. At least 6000, and perhaps more than 8000, people lost their lives on that terrible Saturday at the end of Victoria's reign. Galveston was a popular tourist resort, as well as being the largest port in the American South, being the point of export for cotton, corn, tobacco, rice and other products. In September 1900 it was a crowded, buustling, vibrant city. The problem was that the city was built on an island that rose to only 10 feet above sea level, and the shallow seas around had been dredged and deepened to allow larger ships to enter the port. The storm surge of some 25 feet completely overwhelmed the city, most of which was destroyed, hence the enormous loss of life. The U.S. meteorologist in Galveston was aware of the approaching hurricane, anmd tried to warn the population, but communications were less efficient than now, and many were unaware of the impending disaster bearing down on them. The hurricane arived with 125 mph winds, torrential rain, and the lethal 25 foot storm surge that overwhelmed the city. It raged for 10 hours after which a curious calm and clear sky unveiled the full horror that had overcome Galveston. Though the city was rebuilt, it never again recovered its status as the premier port of the South. The storm did have some positive outcomes; a huge sea wall wa built to protect Galveston which has stood the test of time; more money was put into research into hurricane prediction which has led to the massively sophisticted hurricane warning systems that exist today. As an example, Katrina, a storm of equal strength and impact, caused only a fraction of the loss of life of the Galveston Hurricane.

Thank you everyone for this information. Much apperciated and I can "re-enact" this storm in my mind. I will find a few more historic storms and post them.

From way back in my childhood I can think of 3 storms that were really scary yet they provided the impetus for my current interest in severe weather. Perhaps I needed to understand them to overcome my fear of thunder. The only other storm that really scared me was in 2004, of which more later. 13th July 1964. Surely the scariest storm of my life until 2004. The memory is vague after 44 years but it began about 21.00 and lasted for 5 hours. We had large hail that broke a neighbour's greenhouse windows, flash flooding, loss of all power for 12 hours and a lot of scared people. The older generation were saying they had never experinced a worse one. Subsequent research has unfortunately failed to find out very much about this storm although it seems a cold front became stationary which accounts for the duration. 22/23 July 1967. After a rather humid, sultry day things clouded up in the evening and as my Dad and I walked back from the village where we had got some fish and chips, we had a few spots of "heat rain". Later as I lay in bed with the curtains open around 22.00 I was startled by a distinct double flash in the Southern sky. The ensuing storm lasted for some 8 hours and produced continuous lightning and thunder at its height and a lot of flash flooding. These storms and the flooding featured on the news next day but I have not been able to find out much about them since except that over 100 mm of rain fell at our local observation station, which is an enormous total. 7/8th July 1970. Another night storm after a sweltering day with temperatures at the mystical 32C - a temperature far rarer then than nowadays. I remember being woken up at about 3am by a strange pulsing light at the window which I didn't at first recognise as lightning! That storm didn't produce any rain just thunder and this amazing continuous blue lightning. 12th May 2004. Near Wichita, Kansas USA. My first storm chase. The massive supercell we were following suddenly changed into a menacing, swirling "mother ship" formation, with cloud scraping the ground as we drove through a deluge of rain and an avalanche of up to 5 inch hail. The noise was incredible and visibility almost nil. That was frightening enough, but suddenly the precipitation ceased, we stopped and looked up to see the clouds literally spinning, and only a few hundred yards directly in front of us the most enormous tornado. We were in the "bear's cage" and it was very, very scary. The realisation that this could easily kill you was both immediate and profound. Then we had to go, as large hailstones began whistling down again. Thanks to the cool headedness and expertise of our crew we made it to safety without serious incident, although the van looked as if it had been attacked with a sledgehammer!!

That sounds excellent thank you and I have a great interest in historic weather. Will certainly post there as well. I have a collection of severe storm memorabilia such as medals, coins and tokens commemorating tornados (yes they really do exist) and related items. Would it be worth posting scans and a few notes?

It might have taken place 125 years ago but after reading about this storm as a teenager it has always facinated me. This is not least because a monument was made commemorating the event, from bricks that were awaiting firing when the storm occurred, and which were heavily pitted by the large hail, thus preserving a record. My own researches have elicited that the storm travelled in a SE-NW direction, beginning at Caistor and ending at Barton on Humber (where the bricks were awaiting the kiln and the monument erected). It was the subject of a paper in Symonds Met Mag and a report was read out at a meeting of the Royal Met Society. The monument survived until the 1950's when it seems to have mysteriously vanished. Does anyone have any further information about or interest in this Victorian storm? If so I would be most interested to hear from you. Does anyone know what happened to the monument and does any part of it survive? I am hoping that someone in the Humberside area might know something about it. I am very new to this forum and as you can already see I have an interest in historic weather as well as what is going on now (like the severe thunderstorm today that wasn't...)

Next Friday is the 50th anniversary of this most famous of storms, the subject of Browning and Ludlum's paper that was a major piece of research in identifying what we now know as supecell thunderstorms. The storm itself was described at the time as "frightening" as well it might have been, as it produced 2 tornados and record breaking hailstones that are still the largest ever recorded in the UK. Does anyone out there remember it and could they please share their memories? Did anyone experience flooding or damage connected with the storm? I have been told that local brewery King & Barnes lost their supply of hops as a result and had some real problems. Is anyone able to verify this please?