The decline in thunder days.

[Turquoise]

50 minutes ago, Weather-history said:

Manchester Airport reported no thunder during the summer of 1989 and thinking about it I don't recall any thunder here as well but there was thunder during the May of that 1989.

2010 was a very bad year for thunder, but there was a thunderstorm during July. Even the really bad years, there has been at least one thunderstorm but this year has been extraordinary.

 

No thunder in my area now since August 2020. 25 months since our last rumble of thunder. Pretty impressive really.

[Eagle Eye]

22 minutes ago, Azuremoon2 said:

No thunder in my area now since August 2020. 25 months since our last rumble of thunder. Pretty impressive really.

Well, 1 rumble in the last 25 months , still very bad though.

[Summer18]

2019-2021 weren’t bad at all here, we had multiple decent storms in each year. This year has been appalling though, literally nothing at all. The hottest heatwave on record producing a bit of  cloud was the low point. 

[Weather-history]

Just noticed this Met Office study and there does seem to be a general decline in thunder days, although they are regional variations 

"“Our study has shown that in the United Kingdom we are less likely to see a thunderstorm today than we were 30 years ago."

How many days of thunder do we have in the UK?  | Official blog of the Met Office news team

BLOG.METOFFICE.GOV.UK

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The heatwave ended with a bang for many of us earlier this week as thunderstorms hit the UK after several weeks of record-breaking hot and dry weather. According to the Met Office's next generation lightning location...

 

[Methuselah]

The 'Ed Stone' who led that study is most definitely not me, BTW!

Though I have, like most everyone else, noticed the northward shift!

Edited October 23, 2022 by Ed Stone

[Weather-history]

Its now approaching June and still not heard a thunderclap this year. Last year, it wasn't until September.  Hardly anything, thunder wise since autumn 2021.

 

 

[Sunny76]

6 minutes ago, Weather-history said:

Its now approaching June and still not heard a thunderclap this year. Last year, it wasn't until September.  Hardly anything, thunder wise since autumn 2021.

 

 

Give it time.

Still convinced this season will be a classic for thunderstorms. 

[Rufus Butterfield]

Had 2 thunder days this spring, which is double what I had last summer, so I’m not complaining. September really carried last year with 4/5 thunder days.

[Sunny76]

8 minutes ago, Rufus Butterfield said:

Had 2 thunder days this spring, which is double what I had last summer, so I’m not complaining. September really carried last year with 4/5 thunder days.

Last year wasn’t too bad in London for thunder. We had a string of thundery evenings in late august, plus the October thunderstorm, which I think was probably more widespread.

[Weather Enthusiast91]

Not just thunderstorms, I think interesting weather as a whole is on the decline. 

Summer thunderstorms, autumn windstorms and winter snow were once almost a guarantee but nowadays are more few and far between.

[ANYWEATHER]

1 minute ago, Weather Enthusiast91 said:

Not just thunderstorms, I think interesting weather as a whole is on the decline. 

Summer thunderstorms, autumn windstorms and winter snow were once almost a guarantee but nowadays are more few and far between.

The media would have you think extreme weather in Britain is on the increase

[Sunny76]

15 minutes ago, Weather Enthusiast91 said:

Not just thunderstorms, I think interesting weather as a whole is on the decline. 

Summer thunderstorms, autumn windstorms and winter snow were once almost a guarantee but nowadays are more few and far between.

Yes recent years have seen more benign periods of weather. Like someone above said, the media would like to have us believe it’s getting more extreme in the U.K.

Storms are not as severe as they used to be in the 80s and 90s, and snow events are less widespread. 

[Weather Enthusiast91]

You never know, providing it gets enough signatures. 

Petition · Bring our interesting weather back · Change.org

WWW.CHANGE.ORG

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During our childhoods, interesting weather events such as summer thunderstorms, autumn windstorms and winter snow were almost a guarantee. But in recent years we have been seeing less of these and a lot...

 

[matt111]

2 minutes ago, Weather Enthusiast91 said:

You never know, providing it gets enough signatures. 

Petition · Bring our interesting weather back · Change.org

WWW.CHANGE.ORG

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During our childhoods, interesting weather events such as summer thunderstorms, autumn windstorms and winter snow were almost a guarantee. But in recent years we have been seeing less of these and a lot...

 

I wonder if the weather takes more notice of petitions than the government does?  

I’m yet to see anything resembling a thunderstorm here this year, although I did hear a distant rumble of thunder a few weeks ago but that’s it so far. I did manage a couple of storms last year but overall activity has been rather lacking. 

[cheese]

7 hours ago, Weather Enthusiast91 said:

Not just thunderstorms, I think interesting weather as a whole is on the decline. 

Summer thunderstorms, autumn windstorms and winter snow were once almost a guarantee but nowadays are more few and far between.

I’ve not noticed a decline in winter gales here - they still seem as frequent as they ever have been. I’d be very happy if there was a decline in windstorms though! 

Edited May 30, 2023 by cheese

[Met.]

Yorkshire/Derbyshire, the places I've lived in since 2003, are definitely not places to be if you want thunder - on average anywhere from 0-2 thunderstorms per year. Perhaps 3 in a "busy" year. 

[Snowyowl9]

This year started strange thunder on new years day..

1 day in may thundery showers broke out east of here..

I did record the most thundery april  on record a few years back..

Anyway this june has been the second most thundery I ve record most thundery since 1992..continuous thunder 

And we are getting something not seen before continuous thunder for long periods..

Happened in august a couple or 3 years back very strange..

Edited June 26, 2023 by Snowyowl9

[Azazel]

48 minutes ago, Snowyowl9 said:

This year started strange thunder on new years day..

1 day in may thundery showers broke out east of here..

I did record the most thundery april  on record a few years back..

Anyway this june has been the second most thundery I ve record most thundery since 1992..continuous thunder 

And we are getting something not seen before continuous thunder for long periods..

Happened in august a couple or 3 years back very strange..

The opposite here

plume storms seemed to die a death after 2007, experienced a renaissance from 2013-2019 and now they don’t happen anymore.

The best chance I get for any thunder is spring/autumn in the form of showers

[Snowyowl9]

The worst year for lack of thunder was 

1993 and 1991 and 2002 maybe another in the 00s also just 3 days..

The later third of the 80s were poor too..except 1989 mays outstanding thunderstorms..

1987 and 88 were dire..

Edited July 10, 2023 by Snowyowl9

[Robbie Coldrain]

I remember these huge storms coming up from France in the past, but that rarely seems to happen these days in the this part of the world.

Now the most likely breakdown from hot spell is either a dry cloudy breakdown, or a light rain breakdown. Strange how that has changed quite dramatically in the last few decades.

[Metwatch]

A fairly recent publication by Stephen Burt, Reading university's meteorology department in 2021 of thunder days in Oxford now going back for the last 200 years, and a decrease is evident in recent years. Some other interesting data put into each month for Oxford within in the paper.

200 years of thunderstorms in Oxford.pdf

Edited Sunday at 11:30 by Metwatch

[ChannelThunder]

 Metwatch while the data there is disappointing, it's at least good to know we're not all mad/delusional/overdramatic in commenting on a decline.

[Thunders]

even ive noticed it and really started paying attention 2015 onwards