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Thunderstorm and lightning capital of the UK?


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Posted
  • Location: King’s Lynn, Norfolk.
  • Weather Preferences: Hot and Thundery, Cold and Snowy
  • Location: King’s Lynn, Norfolk.

Hello everyone. Where would you name the thunderstorm capital of the UK? I would love to hear everyones feedback :)

Lets hope this 2014 season is a cracker!

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Posted
  • Location: Belper, Derbyshire
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms
  • Location: Belper, Derbyshire

This will be hard as it tends to change year on year. A couple of years back it was a great year for NE England but traditionally the NE of England is not one of the best areas for thunderstorms. Overall, I would say an area encompassing the SE Midlands up into Lincolnshire across to the Wash and up to the Humber with Lincolnshire probably top of the list and Leicestershire/Nottinghamshire not far behind.... I will go with Lincoln as the top city (my guess).

Edited by Supacell
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Posted
  • Location: Shrewsbury
  • Location: Shrewsbury

Going by recent years, Birmingham! Always seems to get hit from every direction. Lincolnshire for some reason gets a lot too, along with the SE (but no one place seems favoured there, just the general area)

 

And the least- north and central Shropshire and south Cheshire. Hardly ever gets hit these days, especially compared to the 90s. Even the NE gets more.

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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

I think Lincolnshire and East Anglia are probably the most reliable regions of the country, as they rank among the highest for thunder frequency (upwards of 15 thunder-days per year on average) and are particularly well-placed to pick up thunderstorms from showery westerly or north-westerly flows.  RAF Waddington (Lincs.) was regularly the most thunder-prone station, out of 21 stations scattered across the UK, in the Weather Log when it reported days with thunder.  The eastern Home Counties have a comparable average thunder frequency but it may be more variable as it relies more on imports from the continent- the last half-dozen years have often been unusually thunder-free in that area of the country. 

 

There are areas further north and west that locally have a higher mean annual frequency of thunder, such as the high ground to the north-east of Manchester, but their storms tend to be weaker on average.

 

Parts of NE England have ranked among the most thunder-prone in the UK during the past half-dozen years or so, but I don't expect this to continue- the mean long-term annual frequency of thunder at Newcastle, which was sometimes the UK's thunderstorm capital during that run of wet summers from 2007-2012, is only approximately 8 days per year and it is slightly less than that nearer the coast.

Edited by Thundery wintry showers
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Posted
  • Location: King’s Lynn, Norfolk.
  • Weather Preferences: Hot and Thundery, Cold and Snowy
  • Location: King’s Lynn, Norfolk.

Must say, these are similar thoughts to mine too. I always thought that the SE would be most prone, as it is right next to the continent etc. But after a number of years radar watching, it appears that Lincolnshire really does rake the storms in! A notable convective area or corridor seems to be the A46 running from Leicester area up to Lincoln. On a typical UK storm day, its rare to not see a beast travelling somewhere between those areas! 

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Posted
  • Location: North York Moors
  • Location: North York Moors

It's all about converging air masses, you get far more on the western escarpment of the North York Moors than towards the coast, as hot air from the Vale of York can meet cold air from the North Sea and there's updrafts from the steep hillsides too

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Posted
  • Location: Belper, Derbyshire
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms
  • Location: Belper, Derbyshire

Tampa Florida gets an average of 100 thunder days a year! I would love to live there :) However, this topic is relating to the UK. It does not surprise me that somewhere such as RAF Waddington would rank highly in thunderstorm days. I regularly use the A1 when out chasing, cuts straight through Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire then up into Yorkshire. Another good road is the A14 for south to north storms coming up through the East Midlands.

 

Me personally, I have seen more storms around Ashbourne than anywhere else in the country... but where I live obviously influences this.

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Posted
  • Location: King’s Lynn, Norfolk.
  • Weather Preferences: Hot and Thundery, Cold and Snowy
  • Location: King’s Lynn, Norfolk.

Tampa Florida gets an average of 100 thunder days a year! I would love to live there Posted Image However, this topic is relating to the UK. It does not surprise me that somewhere such as RAF Waddington would rank highly in thunderstorm days. I regularly use the A1 when out chasing, cuts straight through Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire then up into Yorkshire. Another good road is the A14 for south to north storms coming up through the East Midlands.

 

Me personally, I have seen more storms around Ashbourne than anywhere else in the country... but where I live obviously influences this.

May join you if a really good day is forecast! Im right near both the A1 and A14 :D

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Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset

I would have thought somewhere that benefits from a fair number of thunderstorms in the convective season but also gets hit during the autumn and winter.

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Posted
  • Location: Leeds
  • Weather Preferences: snow, heat, thunderstorms
  • Location: Leeds

In recent years? Lincolnshire and the Newcastle area. Even parts of Scotland have done well. Usually, we do very well for thunderstorms, but since 2011, we've done really poorly. 2012 was the first year where we didn't have an overhead storm at all.

 

Prior to 2011, I remember some really cracking storms in and around Leeds, including the storm of September 2006, which may have been a supercell, but I am not certain. Many more spring to mind, but the dates are fuzzy. Leeds and the area can benefit from orographic uplifting.

 

Last year broke the storm curse, but we didn't do as well as I had hoped - we mostly missed out on the July storms, with a little bit of lightning largely hidden by the low-level cloud and fog. The late-August storm was a cracker though!

 

Let's hope 2014 is a great year for storms, but I'm hoping the areas that have done well do not do well this year, because I am selfish.

Edited by cheese
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Posted
  • Location: Belper, Derbyshire
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms
  • Location: Belper, Derbyshire

In recent years? Lincolnshire and the Newcastle area. Even parts of Scotland have done well. Usually, we do very well for thunderstorms, but since 2011, we've done really poorly. 2012 was the first year where we didn't have an overhead storm at all.

 

Prior to 2011, I remember some really cracking storms in and around Leeds, including the storm of September 2006, which may have been a supercell, but I am not certain. Many more spring to mind, but the dates are fuzzy. Leeds and the area can benefit from orographic uplifting.

 

Last year broke the storm curse, but we didn't do as well as I had hoped - we mostly missed out on the July storms, with a little bit of lightning largely hidden by the low-level cloud and fog. The late-August storm was a cracker though!

 

Let's hope 2014 is a great year for storms, but I'm hoping the areas that have done well do not do well this year, because I am selfish.

 

Not sure if it was supercellular but I think the storm you are talking about was on the 14th September and it brought a tornado to Derby.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/derby/content/articles/2006/09/14/derby_tornado_sept_2006_feature.shtml

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  • 2 months later...
Posted
  • Location: The North Kent countryside
  • Weather Preferences: Hot summers, snowy winters and thunderstorms!
  • Location: The North Kent countryside

I think the SE used to be very storm prone. I remember regular MCS during the summer months. But now I think the Midlands and Lincolnshire way get far more. I went to uni in the midlands and there were far more storms than back home.

Here's hoping the SE gets its crown back.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: King’s Lynn, Norfolk.
  • Weather Preferences: Hot and Thundery, Cold and Snowy
  • Location: King’s Lynn, Norfolk.

Will be interesting to see what happens this summer. Patterns look quite unusual so far this spring.

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Judging from reports when I used to post on TWO, I'd say the three places that stood out for getting regular thunderstorms were Loughborough, Harpenden, and Peterborough :)

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Posted
  • Location: Ski Amade / Pongau Region. Somtimes Skipton UK
  • Weather Preferences: Northeasterly Blizzard and sub zero temperatures.
  • Location: Ski Amade / Pongau Region. Somtimes Skipton UK

Going by recent years, Birmingham! Always seems to get hit from every direction. Lincolnshire for some reason gets a lot too, along with the SE (but no one place seems favoured there, just the general area)

 

And the least- north and central Shropshire and south Cheshire. Hardly ever gets hit these days, especially compared to the 90s. Even the NE gets more.

I remember many summer storms developing in the North Salops/ South Cheshire region when I lived there , but of course cannot vouch for the past decade. Warm air advection from the south hit the southern Pennines and met the cooler sea breeze from the Irish Sea with the convergence zone over South Cheshire. Saw it many times develop as a youngster on the farm in the Cheshire Plain and later from the control tower at Manchester Airport looking due south towards the Midlands. So that would be favourite spot to see storm development in England away from imported storms along the south coast, especially Worthing.

 C

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  • 4 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: The North Kent countryside
  • Weather Preferences: Hot summers, snowy winters and thunderstorms!
  • Location: The North Kent countryside

Certainly seems Wales and Central England have been capitals again this year so far.

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  • 2 weeks later...

In recent years? Lincolnshire and the Newcastle area. Even parts of Scotland have done well. Usually, we do very well for thunderstorms, but since 2011, we've done really poorly. 2012 was the first year where we didn't have an overhead storm at all.

 

Prior to 2011, I remember some really cracking storms in and around Leeds, including the storm of September 2006, which may have been a supercell, but I am not certain. Many more spring to mind, but the dates are fuzzy. Leeds and the area can benefit from orographic uplifting.

 

Last year broke the storm curse, but we didn't do as well as I had hoped - we mostly missed out on the July storms, with a little bit of lightning largely hidden by the low-level cloud and fog. The late-August storm was a cracker though!

 

Let's hope 2014 is a great year for storms, but I'm hoping the areas that have done well do not do well this year, because I am selfish.

I also live in Leeds, and remember 2012 was quite disappointing, even though the rest of the country seemed to have a record year for storms!

 

Last year did take a while to get going, but we had a spanish plume in late July after the heatwave, which brought an interesting thunderstorm, although, like you said, it was mainly obscured by fog. There was also a spectacular storm in early august, which whilst it didn't go over us, it produced some quite vivid heat lightning. October was an interesting month, with a possibly supercellular storm on the 25th, which brought some spectacular C-G's, and torrential rain. November saw a squall line on the 2nd, closing the storm season!

 

This year has been very active south and west of the pennines, especially on the 22nd May, and 7th June, but these storms seem to have missed us. Fingers crossed for a more active summer!

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  • 4 weeks later...

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