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Worst Weather Event you Have Experienced?


Costa Del Fal

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Posted
  • Location: Truro, Cornwall
  • Weather Preferences: Winter - Heavy Snow Summer - Hot with Night time Thunderstorms
  • Location: Truro, Cornwall

Final measurement was 8 inches of snow!

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  • 3 years later...
Posted
  • Location: Coventry, West Midlands
  • Location: Coventry, West Midlands

For me, it was probably two very severe storms that hit Winnipeg, MB, on the night of 16-17 July 2005 within half an hour of each other. I actually emailed Environment Canada for a weather summary of the event and they very kindly fished it out for me. Storms like this may be relatively common in the Midwest of the United States, but they really don't tend to hit central Canada that often at all. The summary doesn't mention the lightning, which was actually constant, something I had never seen before.

Anyway, I was hoping to experience something like this again before I leave for England, but no such luck! Very uneventful year, 2010 is. This still stands as my worst storm!

AWCN11 CWWG 172135

UPDATED SUMMARY WEATHER STATEMENT ISSUED BY ENVIRONMENT CANADA AT

4:35 PM CDT SUNDAY 17 JULY 2005.

SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS SLAM WINNIPEG AND SOUTHERN MANITOBA OVERNIGHT...

A STRONG LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM MOVING THROUGH THE DAKOTAS PRODUCED

SOME POWERFUL THUNDERSTORMS THAT MOVED INTO SOUTHERN MANITOBA

SATURDAY EVENING. BY 10:30 PM ON SATURDAY A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM

DEVELOPED SOUTHWEST OF WINNIPEG WEST OF SANFORD AND MOVED NORTHEAST

INTO THE CITY BY 11:30 PM. THE THUNDERSTORM POUNDED THE CITY OVER

THE NEXT HOUR BRINGING HAIL, TORRENTIAL RAIN AND STRONG WINDS. THE

SOUTH END OF THE CITY BORE THE BRUNT OF THIS STORM WITH MARBLE SIZE

HAIL AND VERY HEAVY RAIN CREATING EXTENSIVE FLOODING OF ROADS WITH

WATER UP TO A METRE DEEP IN SOME PLACES.

THIS STORM MOVED EAST OF THE CITY BY 12:30 AM BUT WAS QUICKLY

FOLLOWED BY A NEW LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS THAT DEVELOPED RAPIDLY TO

THE WEST OF THE CITY BY 1 AM. THIS LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS BROUGHT

POWERFUL WINDS TO MUCH OF THE CITY AND SURROUNDING AREAS WITH WINDS

GUSTING TO 111 KM/H FROM THE WEST AT THE WINNIPEG AIRPORT BETWEEN

1:15 AND 1:25 AM SUNDAY MORNING. THE WINDS CAUSED EXTENSIVE POWER

OUTAGES AROUND WINNIPEG DUE TO DOWNED TREES AND POWER LINES. ABOUT

HALF OF THE LARGE OLD TREES WERE REPORTED TO HAVE FALLEN IN KILDONAN

PARK IN NORTHEAST WINNIPEG. DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED THESE WINDS WERE

LIKELY A STRONG DOWNBURST WIND FROM THE LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS WITH

WINDS UP TO 160 KM/H NOTED ON RADAR WITHIN THE THUNDERSTORMS. THESE

THUNDERSTORMS CONTINUED TO MOVE RAPIDLY EAST LIKELY CAUSING SIMILAR

WIND DAMAGE FROM EAST OF WINNIPEG ALL THE WAY TO THE ONTARIO BORDER.

OTHER AREAS OF SOUTHERN MANITOBA ALSO SAW HEAVY THUNDERSTORMS

SATURDAY NIGHT INCLUDING AN AREA FROM NORTH OF PILOT MOUND NEAR

HOLLAND TO PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE TO ST AMBROISE. THIS AREA SAW VERY

HEAVY RAIN WITH 56 MM REPORTED IN PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE BETWEEN

MIDNIGHT AND 1 AM.

ANOTHER LINE OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS FORMED THIS MORNING AND

BROUGHT AN ADDITIONAL 15 TO 25 MM OF RAIN TO A ZONE FROM MORDEN

THROUGH WINNIPEG TO BISSETT.

UPDATED 24 HOUR RAINFALL AMOUNTS PRIOR TO 1 PM THIS AFTERNOON...

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE............ 67 MM

WINNIPEG FORKS................ 66 MM

WINNIPEG AIRPORT.............. 43 MM

PINAWA........................ 41 MM

DELTA MARSH................... 37 MM

CARMAN........................ 33 MM

PILOT MOUND................... 22 MM

MELITA........................ 17 MM

BRANDON....................... 13 MM

AMOUNTS PRIOR TO 7 AM THIS MORNING...

OAKBANK....................... 70 MM

PINE FALLS.................... 40 MM

UNOFFICIAL REPORTS FROM PRIVATE WEATHER STATIONS AND WATCHERS..

WINNIPEG SOUTH ST VITAL....... 90-120 MM

WINNIPEG RICHMOND WEST........ 108 MM /FLOODED STREETS & BASEMENTS

WINNIPEG ST. NORBERT.......... N/A /FLOODED STREETS & BASEMENTS

WINNIPEG WHYTE RIDGE.......... 63 MM

WINNIPEG SOUTH CHARLESWOOD.... 55 MM

BIRD'S HILL................... 54 MM /97 KMH PEAK WIND GUST

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Posted
  • Location: Braintree, Essex. 150 feet (46 m) above sea level
  • Weather Preferences: T/Storms, Snow, Extreme Rain, Anything out of the ordinary!
  • Location: Braintree, Essex. 150 feet (46 m) above sea level

The 87 Storm was the worst (best) for me. I used to do a paperound then as I was only 13 and every morning without fail I would tell my dad that the weather was horrible and he would just ignore me and say "get down the papershop!" It was a good half hour's walk and I still remeber battling against the wind just to walk with trees/walls coming down all around ...it was so exciting! Another highlight of the day was 10 mins after arriving at the papershop my dad turning up in the car red-faced and saying "I believe you this morning...sorry!" Needless to say the papers didn't get delivered! Does anyone think we will get anything like that again in our lifetime or was it a one-off?

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Posted
  • Location: Coventry, West Midlands
  • Location: Coventry, West Midlands

Oh, and I think worst winter event was probably the blizzard of 5-6 April 1997. Blew snow for 24 hours, dumping 48 cm. What really made it "worst" was that it was was very, very badly timed -- we had already had a record year of snowfall and the Red River was already very bloated. Being hit with the worst blizzard in the area for, like, 40 years pretty much made flooding that spring inevitable. (Surprisingly, Winnipeg doesn't really get blizzards that often.)

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Posted
  • Location: Irlam
  • Location: Irlam

I said the gale of January 2007 which was hairy, another was the Christmas Eve gale of 1997. That was a hairy as well with the power flickering and the sound of the wind whistling down the chimney that evening. I remember the severe weather flash given by Peter Cockcroft, a pretty rare thing to see a weather flash given between programmes. Christmas morning was a bit of a mess, trees down, slates on the ground etc.

Edited by Mr_Data
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Posted
  • Location: G.Manchester
  • Location: G.Manchester

Since 1990 some of the worse events

The freezing temperatures of December 2009 (-6.0c at around 7AM to 0.5c at 10 on the 23rd) followed by mist and light rain around 10 ish causing everything to become an almost unwalkable icerink combined with a few centimetres of frozen snow from the week previous - that was bad.

There was a bad ice episode in January 1996 (Or February)

1990 heatwave, August 2003 and July 2006 heatwaves were bad enough. Summer of 1995 was way to hot and dry

1990 Gale

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Posted
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: Cold & Snowy, Summer: Just not hot
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire

Portugal in August 2003. The whole of Europe was suffering from the heat as I'm sure everybody will remember. The temperature regularly hit 40c, and we had NO air conditioning. But that wasn't the worst part. Our villa was in a very remote area of the Algarve, surrounded by vegetation. Forest fires were raging just a few miles away, and at night you could actually see the glow over the hills. The air constantly stunk of smoke and there was a layer of ash an inch deep at the bottom of the pool. One night when we got back from an evening out, there was a police car at the start of the road we were staying on (well, I say road, more of a dirt track). Thankfully the road wasn't closed, they were just warning us. We didn't have to evacuate but it was still pretty scary.

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Posted
  • Location: Camborne
  • Location: Camborne

I was on a weather ship out in the Atlantic in the early seventies and a depression of 923mb (from memory) went shooting through. I drew the short straw and had to fill the upper air balloon. No joke being out the lower open deck with the wind gusting over 100kts and seventy foot seas crashing over the ship. Looking back it amazes me that no one was killed on weather ships over the years.

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Posted
  • Location: Pant, Nr Oswestry
  • Location: Pant, Nr Oswestry

Its difficult to pin down specific events as there's been a fweover the years and the memory fades with time. HOwever, I do remeber the October 87 storms - we got the tail end in Manchester which wasn't too bad but it was still incredibly windy, my bus route home from school took an exposed bridge over the Mersey, I can remember the driver fighting with the thing to keep it going in the right direction - hairy stuff.

Snow for me has to be the jan 87 event not because iot was the worst but because it was bad and I can remember it better than 8. I can clearly remember the day before when th ewind was biting and dried out all the salt on the roads. The snow came in the early hours the following morning I still went to school and got there and well remember the snow being shin deep walking through Alexandra Park and even deeper in the drifts that had started to accumulate. We got sent home mid morning and it took the rest of the day to get home as the bus timetable had gone out the window, buses were still running though - obviously some of teh journey time was taken up with lobbing snow balls at each other and the buses. - very good fun Going back to 81 though I can remember my mum driving us to the bus stop and the car sliding all over the place as the road was sheet ice, we also managed to break the school bus that day as well by shoving snow up the exhaust I think it stalled the engine and it was so cold the snow only partially melted and then foze solid after the engine stopped so it would start again! That was great I was 9 at the time and the cane was still allowed so I was very glad we never got found out :whistling:

The more I write the more I remember and I could go on all day but I'm at work so I'd better go - happy days though!

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Posted
  • Location: Napton on the Hill Warwickshire 500ft
  • Weather Preferences: Snow and heatwave
  • Location: Napton on the Hill Warwickshire 500ft

Stuck in a blizzard up in the Utah Mountains no fun after watching some of the 2002 winter Olympics.

Of course I had no snow chains etc.

Loads of scaring events driving around USA over the years mainly around snow and one very heavy hail storm (not the fun type the ones you beg your hired car isn’t going to be smashed to bits) the glass held out only two tiny dents.

2007 flood 2hrs to get to Worcester, 9hrs to get home, every ‘puddle’ or lake as I called them I was sure the car would cut out.

Edited by stewfox
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Posted
  • Location: Pant, Nr Oswestry
  • Location: Pant, Nr Oswestry

Yes, same with me, I find it difficult to remember specific events as there have been lot of good ones over the years. I have witnessed some fairly strong thunderstorms and some rather intense hailstorms - one in particular sticks in my mind, which I think occured in June 2005. This particular storm had hail slightly larger than marble size and was accompanied by close, violent lightning and moderately strong winds gusts. If the hail was slightly larger and gusts were somewhat stronger, it may have nudged into the 'severe' category.

But I think the worst weather event that I can remember clearly would be the windstorm on Jan 18th, 2007 which affected pretty much all of England and Wales, with gusts frequently into the mid-upper 70s and 80s across a widespread area. A truly wild day and an incredible experience to be out in! This is followed closely in second by the Oct 27th, 2002 severe gale event, another wild day with gusts into the upper 60s and into the 70s across the Midlands. Quite a few trees were brought down across the Birmingham region from that event.

And of course there's the early Feb 2007 snowfall event across the Midlands, with falls of around 7-8". Rush hour in Birmingham on the 9th was chaos with pure gridlock in the city, and just eerily quiet over this part when normally the roads would be fairly busy. The only sounds that could be heard were a few cars skidding on the roads in the near distance.

Ah yes I'd forgotten the Jan and Feb 2007 events. The Jan event I drove from Oswestry to mansfield in and it didn't seem too bad to be honest, it was windy though. The Feb event I had borrowed a friends Landrover Defender after my Discovery destroyed its engine. Just before the heavy snow came we had a dusting, I was driving this defender down a country lane very slowly and as I turned out of a junction and down a slight hill I could feel the back end start to slide, despite the slow speed it did a full 360 spin, clipped the grass bank at the side and tottered on two wheels before landing back on all fours, how it didn't go over is a mystery to me. As it was happening all I could think of was how was I going to explain to my mate that I'd squashed his landrover!

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Posted
  • Location: Coleraine,Macosquin,County Londonderry, Northern Ireland
  • Location: Coleraine,Macosquin,County Londonderry, Northern Ireland

The one in april, snow flying past me at 70mph and temps of -3c made it feel freezing!?! The snow eventually got upto about 4 foot of level snow at the top of the hill and very high drifts mostly around 8 foot but some very high drifts maybe 15 foot?? It lasted to may, i actually remember seeing snow lying in the middle of april with 21c and wall to wall sunshine, but at night it got down to about -2c (one time -7c, but max that day was 14c.)!blink.gif

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Posted
  • Location: Coleraine,Macosquin,County Londonderry, Northern Ireland
  • Location: Coleraine,Macosquin,County Londonderry, Northern Ireland

Oh, and I think worst winter event was probably the blizzard of 5-6 April 1997. Blew snow for 24 hours, dumping 48 cm. What really made it "worst" was that it was was very, very badly timed -- we had already had a record year of snowfall and the Red River was already very bloated. Being hit with the worst blizzard in the area for, like, 40 years pretty much made flooding that spring inevitable. (Surprisingly, Winnipeg doesn't really get blizzards that often.)

Oooo your from winnipeg, my uncle told me stories about that place apparently they get -50c their and the snow is real bad, i hated it when i was their so flat and depressing could see for hundreds of miles.

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Posted
  • Location: Coventry, West Midlands
  • Location: Coventry, West Midlands

Oooo your from winnipeg, my uncle told me stories about that place apparently they get -50c their and the snow is real bad, i hated it when i was their so flat and depressing could see for hundreds of miles.

Hehe, we do *occasionally* get wind chill readings (not actual temperatures) of below -50 C. Temperatures in winter are frequently below -20, and wind chill readings of over -30 are common. But it varies winter by winter - and temperatures can change quite quickly (for better and worse). Summers are hot and humid, with temperatures often over 25 C, feeling hotter with the humidity.

The truth is, I think I'm probably going to miss the city. The weather can be uncomfortable sometimes, but it can also be unpredictable and interesting, with occasional severe thunderstorms and blizzards, and extreme temperatures.

That said, though, I will still fully enjoy my first winter without said temperatures. :D

Edited by Eabie
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Posted
  • Location: Coleraine,Macosquin,County Londonderry, Northern Ireland
  • Location: Coleraine,Macosquin,County Londonderry, Northern Ireland

Hehe, we do *occasionally* get wind chill readings (not actual temperatures) of below -50 C. Temperatures in winter are frequently below -20, and wind chill readings of over -30 are common. But it varies winter by winter - and temperatures can change quite quickly (for better and worse). Summers are hot and humid, with temperatures often over 25 C, feeling hotter with the humidity.

The truth is, I think I'm probably going to miss the city. The weather can be uncomfortable sometimes, but it can also be unpredictable and interesting, with occasional severe thunderstorms and blizzards, and extreme temperatures.

That said, though, I will still fully enjoy my first winter without said temperatures. :(

Oh yes i heard about the extreme temps apparently rising from -20c to 0c in one night! Ohh dear, bit nuts, i would love that cold but no colder after -40c it starts to get a bit bad!blink.gif

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Posted
  • Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Location: Bratislava, Slovakia

The night of the 4-5th September 1995 saw the worst thunderstorm I've ever experienced: proper horror movie stuff, complete with constant bright flashes followed by violent bangs. I woke up that night and didn't go back to sleep. There was a lot of flooding around Liverpool the following day.

3rd December 1999 was the windiest day I can remember: I went to school in my dad's van and it swayed from side to side in the violent gusts, along with trees and lamposts (many of which were toppled). The 15-minute walk to school having been dropped off was even worse: the rain was hitting the side of my face so hard it felt like I was being hammered with nails, and I had to fight real hard to stop myself being blown into the road. A few people died across Britain that day.

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Posted
  • Location: Coventry, West Midlands
  • Location: Coventry, West Midlands

I just hope you like like 9C and raining for 4 months :cc_confused:

I think I'll still take 9 C over -30 C. :doh: I'm not sure how I'll handle all the rain - I normally like rainy days, but I know they're not exactly the exception in England. We'll just have to see how I adjust, I guess. The one time I was in England, one week last September, I was lucky and got all the gorgeous weather.

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  • 3 months later...
Posted
  • Location: Buckley, Flintshire, 94m ASL
  • Location: Buckley, Flintshire, 94m ASL

Has to camping out in Southern France in May 1975. Got hit by an enormous thunderstorm that was right on top of us, never been so frightened in my life, remember just burying my head in a pillow. Driving home in heavy snow all the way from Aberdeen December 27th, 1978 was scary too, took me 22 hours!!

Pete

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Posted
  • Location: Rangeworthy, South Gloucestershire
  • Location: Rangeworthy, South Gloucestershire

worst weather I have ever experienced was when I was driving home from work between Bristol and Yate and suddenly was driving through horizontal rain and high winds. took ages to get car going as water got in the points. the local news reported a tornado had touched down about a mile from where I was damaging a pub roof.

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Posted
  • Location: Southampton, Hampshire
  • Location: Southampton, Hampshire

The worst weather event I ever experienced was when I was working as a weather observer for the Met Office, in January 1976. I was on evening duty around January 6th, between 2100 and 2200, I recorded a wind gust of 82Kts, it was a new record for the weather station (Cardington in Bedfordshire, home of the old R101 airships). It blew heavy metal gantries around outside and it took me and my night-shift relief to open and close the Stevenson Screen! Very scary!

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: South East Essex - Southend/Thorpe Bay
  • Location: South East Essex - Southend/Thorpe Bay

I dont remember the year however in the 90s sometime and I was walking to school after my lunchbreak, Weather was calm and Sunny then the sky went black within minutes, winds were the strongest Ive experienced in my life, and the hail and rain was so hard, it cleared and calmed down after only around 10 mins. We were sent home as everyone was drenched. If only I knew the date.!

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Posted
  • Location: Hanwell, west London
  • Location: Hanwell, west London

Definitely February 2003.

Snow hit north London around lunch-time on a Thursday afternoon. By mid-evening there was six inches and driving snow in a strong wind. I decided to take a short-cut home from sixth-form through a park in Hendon, the snow was so bad it was virtually a whiteout and I lost my bearings completely, couldn't make out paths or grass from the snow. Eventually found the exit but it left me pondering how easy it is to get disorientated in snow. To this day I've never seen more intense snow, really was incredible.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: West Malvern, West Midlands, 280m ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Snow! Severe storms.
  • Location: West Malvern, West Midlands, 280m ASL

For me the worst weather experience was being caught out in a nasty thunderstorm. I had travelled a couple of train stops to an evening doctor's appointment and whilst in the waiting room heard the rumbles of thunder approaching. It had been one of those humid summer days with thunder in the offing. As is often the case, my appointment was running late, and I sat and sat whilst other patients shuffled in and out, meanwhile the storm was getting closer and closer. I thought perhaps it would pass by before I'd been seen. Eventually I was the last person to be called into the surgery. After being seen I came out and the surgery was preparing to close up. The storm by now was almost overhead. I dreaded having to walk to the station, which was about a quarter of a mile away. I don't like thunderstorms at the best of times and if I'd had any chance of doing so I'd have loitered in the doctor's till it had passed, but as they were closing up I had no choice but to go out.

Emerging from the surgery I cowered and jogged my way towards the train station, feeling terrified, the lightning now pretty much too close for comfort as the storm reached its peak. I got to the station and... unfortunately had to cross the tracks to get to the right platform, and that entailed going up an open flight of metal steps, across a metal bridge, then down to the other platform! I really couldn't imagine anything I'd less like to do at that point. I waited near the bottom of the steps until there was a bright flash of lightning followed by a crack of thunder, and immediately ran up the stairs, over the top and down the other side, sheltering under a perspex seating area that was still open to the front. I cowered in the corner as the storm raged and I had to wait 20 minutes for my return train to show up! I'll never forget that experience. :shok:

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Posted
  • Location: Sunderland
  • Weather Preferences: cold
  • Location: Sunderland

I've not really experience much, but the Heavy Rainfall of July 2009 over here was mad! I had a tennis match during it, and 5 minutes in, my shorts and top were totally drenched, the tennis balls had shrunk and softened, and it was like a Rainy version of a Whiteout, couldn't see a thing. Luckily in North Durham, we don't get flooded much (or at all), but the River levels had hit the top of the bank round here, and parts of it was spilling onto the nearby lanes. Luckily the rain stopped then...

Best event has to be July 2006, aw lovely!

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