2010: Lacking In Thunder

[Cookie]

none here as far as I can recall!!

[Mesoscale]

2 Days of thunder if you can really call it that, in early spring we had one tiny clap of thunder I did see the lightning and I literally ran for the back door but I was very disapointed by the lack of bass in the thunder plus it wasn't very deep but thunders thunder ay? Either early august or september I could hear some thunder in the distance but it didn't get very close and I didn't see any lightning from the dark cloud.

Lack of thunder last year was vey disapointing but Mexico made up for it after we had a whole night of thunderstorms and the 3 consecutive days after was just torrential rain nonstop for 72 hours.

[Terminal Moraine]

8 days with thunder heard here in 2010, only 1978 and 1995 have recorded fewer days (7). The average over the last 35 years is 13.

There were no notable storms during the year and all the days recorded were either distant rumbles in showers or storms moving within 10km of the station but not actually here.

[Alex95]

The only big storms (by NE England's standards anyway) occurred in late September, then in late November - there were three spectacular storms on the 28th/29th November, and they all delivered significant snow.

[Evening thunder]

Very poor here too, just 4 days, 3 of which were distant and a few rumbles at most, including a distant flash and rumble in the heavy snow on the 20th December.

The 8th September produced a more overhead storm, but I only saw the end of it being stuck indoors at school, very heavy rain at home though as my weather station recorded 15-20mm in about 20 minutes, and the highest rain rate it's recorded (over 200mm/h peak!)

Since 2006 all years have seemed poor to very poor here (last year the worst though), and the rare occasion when a 'decent' storm has arrived I've been stuck somewhere like in the middle of an exam! very frustrating.

I've been wanting to film or try and photograph night time lightning since 2006, but there simply haven't been any decent chances.

[MP-R]

Since 2006 all years have seemed poor to very poor here (last year the worst though), and the rare occasion when a 'decent' storm has arrived I've been stuck somewhere like in the middle of an exam! very frustrating.

Totally agree! 2006 was the last thunderstorm fest with 11 here within May to September alone. Of course October delivered 3 as did 1 in November.

Last year however we only had thunder on 12th May, 22nd July, 21st August and 23rd September. Neither of those days produced any lightning shows, just 1, 5, 10 and 4 rumbles respectively.

[Supercell 89]

Last year was dreadful for these parts again. Only had one storm in the entire year and that was a hailstorm on 20th December, so we very nearly had a thunder-less year. At least going to the states made up for the year long storm drought .

2009 was just as bad, in fact it was worse. We had a thundersnow on the 5th Feb and another thunderstorm in April, that was it. Every storm potential we had that year, which was quite a few none delivered, last year we didn't even get any potential. We even had a spanish plume in June 2009 that did nothing but bring abit of cloud, normally we get our best and biggest storms from those set ups.

2008 wasn't much better we had three storms that year, and 2007 we had five which is around normal.

I'm not holding out much hope for this year, since we started getting these cooler summers and winters our storms have disappeared. Still roll on June and the states

Edited January 30, 2011 by Supercell 89

[The PIT]

8 days with thunder heard here in 2010, only 1978 and 1995 have recorded fewer days (7). The average over the last 35 years is 13.

There were no notable storms during the year and all the days recorded were either distant rumbles in showers or storms moving within 10km of the station but not actually here.

Oh come on TM we had a warning for two distant rumbles and light to moderate rain what more do we want. Kept the Met Office excited for a bit.

[Supercell 89]

2006 and 2005 were both brilliant years. In 2006 we had a storm every month from June 06 to Feb 07, strangely October was the most thundery-est month of the year. 2005 we had the most fantastic Spanish plume on the 24th June, where we had six storms within 8 hours and still managed to reach 24c under cloudy skies.

[Evening thunder]

Yes 2006 and 2005 were good here too, Certainly remember that 24th June 05 event! was up watching lightning most of the early hours, then more in the morning, close strike a few fields away which I didn't know at the time hit someone house who I knew. Torrential rain too of course.

I can remember a very good local storm sometime in June 2006 too, moved in from the SW or SSW at 4-5am and lasted a good hour with lightning every few seconds I think! and an inch of rain.

Used to think we had a few events like that every summer, but that's not the case as I've found out.

2008 was slightly better than the last 2 years here, with a few more (distant) storms and this notable exception! http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/interesting/oct2008/ Forgot about that one, totally unexpected I was staying at a friends house. There was lots of rain and heavy hail, and bright lightning about every 10 seconds. But was surrounded by trees so couldn't see much. My house 2-3 miles away didn't get any hail then.

Dates and rumbles here last year were, 14th Jul (4 or 5), 8th Sep (about 10-15), 23rd Sep (3), 20th Dec (1)

[AderynCoch]

I can recall two days in 2010 when I heard thunder: one in July (a few rumbles accompanying torrential rain which caused flash flooding in the area) and one in August (an actual thunderstorm, though it didn't last long).

Of course there may have been other days when it thundered but I didn't hear it with my own ears.

[Stargazer]

I recorded only 4 days with thunder in 2010 in this area and 6 in 2009, certainly below average. According to the MetO maps we should expect around 12 days per year on average.

[Jane Louise]

A couple rumbles of thunder in June 2010 and hardly anything a few years before.

[Snowyowl9]

5 days in total...June 3 days flow 1 day from the east and 2 days came from the NW most lively thundery shower it was cold.

1 day in august which came from the east/NE,and 1 day in september.

No thunderstorms though.

Nothing from the south which is unusual.

Not a bad year with other wind direction though considering.

No thunder heard in any winter months which does sometimes happen.

Edited February 1, 2011 by Snowyowl9

[Snowyowl9]

Yes I remember someone (might have been yourself?) saying how much they had in common with the winter "Bartlett" setups- the latter rarely if ever allow in either convective polar/arctic maritime or cold continental air. The same airflows that in their summer guises can set off storms. The difference is that winter Bartlett months can sometimes be relatively sunny and dry here, perhaps because the greater pressure gradient (deeper Iceland low) leads to more of the rain emptying out over the Welsh/Scottish mountains, whereas the slacker summer setups seem to spread the cloud all over the W Midlands and northern Britain, often with the rain reaching these parts.

One thing all the summer "thunderstorm setups" charts posted on here have in common is the lack of a large anticyclone over France, even if some show low pressure NW of the UK.

Here is a rare date when something very special especially for the time of day came in from the west/SW here and it all happened in the morning only.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/2009/Rrea00120090724.gif

Did you have any torrential thundery showers that morning 7 flashes of overhead lightning.

2009 yes otherwise a SW-ly does kill thunder or snow off but it can happen on occaisions.

I do remember a decent thunderstorm from the west a number of years late 90`s maybe after frontal rain.

[Mesoscale]

Has anyone got any links to lightning strikes in the past 10 years?

[Coast]

In the United Kingdom thunder is a variable element, the highest and lowest annual totals of

thunderstorm days at many individual stations ranges from less than 5 in a quiet year to 20

or more in an active one. One consequence of this is that published maps showing the

average frequency of days of thunder differ considerably in detail according to the period of

records used. They agree, however, in showing that the average annual frequency is less

than 5 days in western coastal districts and over most of central and northern Scotland, and

15 to 20 days over the east Midlands and parts of southeast England. There is relatively

little seasonal variation on the western seaboard but elsewhere summer is the most

thundery season.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/library/factsheets/factsheet02.pdf

[Snowyowl9]

Yes overall 2010 was certainly much more below average,12 days in 2007,13 in 2008.

These charts must be hibernating for the winter as they only go as far as 2007 the year of the great floods and memorable torrential thunderstorms 2 dates in June.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/2007/sfloc/Rsfloc20070619.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/2007/sfloc/Rsfloc20070615.gif

Edited February 1, 2011 by Snowyowl9

[Thundery wintry showers]

While I think their other maps are excellent, the MetO thunder frequency maps are rather over-generalised, perhaps due to having a much smaller spatial coverage, with underestimates of the mean frequency in some northern and western areas.

I think of the TORRO map as the best indicator that we have at present (the general geographical distribution is similar but there are some regional differences):

http://www.torro.org.uk/site/tstorms_info.php

[Mesoscale]

14+ days of thunder a year on average? the last couple of years has been less then 5 with last year having a miserable 2 days of 'thunder heard'

[Snowyowl9]

Average days of thunder since 1990 as I`ve recorded is 9.4

2004 gave 16

1999 with 15.

Actually I made a mistake with 2007 and 2008...11 and 10 days

2002 the least with only 3 days

1980/81 were certainly the best times but how many days those days I have no idea.

5 days of thunderstorms in one week in 1981 June

Late edit 2003 gave 6 days it was 2002 the least amount.

I would say the late 80`s were poor too.

And 1982-86 all gave something much better to 87-90.

2004 could well be one of the top be interesting to see what number of thunder the 80`s gave.

Edited February 2, 2011 by Snowyowl9

[Thundery wintry showers]

At Cleadon the least thundery year since I began recording was 1993 (2 days) with 2001 (3 days) in second bottom spot. The most thundery year was 1999 with 13 days, and it seems that 1999 was a pretty thundery year over much of the country. I'll have to check what the 1993-2010 average is but I suspect it's between 7 and 8 days.

I recall that when I browsed the Lancaster stats, 1994 was the most thundery year there, but the Tyne and Wear area missed most of the storms during that remarkable period from 24 June to 4 August (the ones on 24 June 1994 are covered in another very recent thread). Even so, the summer quarter of 1994 had 6 thunder-days at Cleadon which was still above the long-term average of 4 days, and was exceeded only in 1996, 2007 and 2009.

[Evening thunder]

Just had a look at the records on this site http://www.tutiempo.net/en/Climate/Exeter_Airport/38390.htm and interestingly (if they are correct) Exeter Airport recorded a dismal 1 day of thunder in the entire summer quarter of 1994.

If that is correct then its not a summer I would want to repeat if I was stuck here, as it wouldn't be very good for my frustration levels!

[Thundery wintry showers]

Tutiempo's stats aren't 100% reliable but they are pretty good- I remember comparing my own observations of sleet/snow/thunder at Cleadon with the Tutiempo.net ones for Newcastle Weather Centre and they were very closely correlated.

Given the high frequency of southerly winds perhaps a lot of the storms in Summer 1994 may have developed to the north of Exeter and tracked northwards, with continental imports adding to the total over East Anglia and the southeast but not the southwest. Many southern coastal areas missed out on the thunderstorms in the first half of August 2004 for this sort of reason.

Fortunately I wasn't as big a fan of thunderstorms back then and wasn't as aware of the regional variations across the UK- I'm pretty sure I'd otherwise have found July 1994 quite a frustrating month in the North East as there was thunder on only 1 day and sunshine was only 10-15% above average, compared with 20-40% excesses and 4 to 8 thunder-days in many other regions. That said, it would've been even more frustrating in Exeter!

[Evening thunder]

I'd imagine that was the case, as of course it's common for them to do that in convective southerly flows here, and we rely on imports/elevated storms that cross the channel in that airflow, and it looks like not many made it to the Exeter area.

For the same reasons I'm glad I was too young to have this interest in thunderstorms back then. I think I remember 1 or 2 events in August 2004 but can also remember them forming further inland from the South coast.