T-storms June 1993

[Portland Paul]

B) Anyone remember 10th June 1993?

A mini-heatwave ended dramatically with severe thunderstorms and a lot of flash flooding. Up to six inches of rain fell in a few hours in parts of Wales.

[summer blizzard]

The thunderstorms were caused by a shallow area of low pressure which moved north from Spain.

[Summer8906]

I realise this is dragging up an ancient thread but have just seen it.

I remember the forecast thundery spell. The second half of May and early June seemed to be a repeated series of short warm sunny spells and thundery breakdowns from lows moving on a SSW-NNE trajectory up the west side of the country, though only in one case (25/26 May) did any thunder actually occur where I was (south Hampshire).

From June 7-9 there was a proper hot spell with temps in the high 20s and blue skies, followed by this thundery breakdown but it didn't produce any thunder locally. I do remember other parts of the country getting thunder though, and the low deepened by the 12th, if I remember right. We had a warm, humid day with thundery Ac on the 10th, followed by gloom and drizzle on the 11th and heavy frontal rain on the 12th. Then a week of Atlantic changeability before the final 10 days were warm and sunny - a decent June overall.

Edited September 3, 2021 by Summer8906

[Thundery wintry showers]

I was in South Tyneside during that spell and I have quite strong memories of 9 June 1993, though I was just short of 9 years old at the time.   It was a very hazy day, the sea fret/haar came in for a while during the afternoon but then cleared away during the evening.  The sun at around 7pm was bright red/orange, consistent with a hazy continental air mass with high pollution levels.  There might have been thunderstorms the following night, but if so, I slept through them (it wasn't really until the thundery summer of 1994 that I got into watching thunderstorms).

[A Face like Thunder]

I have to say I remember precisely nothing about this event. Being a Thursday (Thor!), I was probably working in Leeds at the time, so maybe that part of the country was not affected.

Stats from Philip Eden:

9th June - Culdrose, Cornwall, 123mm in 9 hours, with flooding in Helston

10th June - 121mm at North Weald in Essex (most in 150mins), with flooding in Harlow, Epping and Ongar. On the same day, Llandudno collected 175mm, mostly in 4 hours, with extensive flooding in many parts of Wales. 

11-12th - 151mm at Aberporth, N Wales and 162mm near Bude in Cornwall, leading to the worst flooding there since 1904.