Best storm you've ever seen in the UK

[Midlands Ice Age]

Just looked through this thread, but could find no mention of 'El Brummo'.

Probably due to the fact that it struck from Worcester NNE towards Birmingham   and then up the M42 towards Nottingham, and it was probably at its height as it crossed to the south of Birmingham about 11:00 in the morning when at its most intense. I can find no one from the area hit that has reported on here.

This storm was totally home grown,

DATE -  Thursday 28th 2012........

Day started fairly clear across England after a fairly warm spell. Met O put out a thunderstorm warning the previous evening.

Fairly early (around 08:00) the first signs of a storm ocurred over Brecon Beacons when the first spots of rain were reported on the Radar.

By 09:00 lightening was being shown fairly widely in the area up to the M5. The local radio started to go quite beserk with lightening hits.

Further north around Birmingham we saw the first sign of the anvil as high stratus blocked the sun.

BY 10:30 the first thunder was heard, shortly followed by the first lightening flashes. Turns darker and darker as the lightning becomes brighter. 

Around 11:00 the torrential rain appears and visibility drops to less than 50 meters in the heavy rain and strengthening winds from the SE,.

 Flooding occurs widely on local roads  -  as the storm drains blew their heads.

Gets darker and darker with extreme lightening ( I counted 1 every second) despite visibility being only across the road. Thunder and rainfall noise on the roof became  severe. Then suddenly the wind rose to gale force and changed round to the NW. This lasted around 20minutes before brighter weather appeared and the wind and rain eased. It was still thundering constantly and we could now see the fork lightening to the east of us as the clouds became visible again.,

A Tornado was reported (and I am sure their was photos on here) in Coalville.

 I recorded 1.75 inches in just 50minutes of chaos.

All the local roads were flooded,  as has happened since - but not so deep, and i was able to float the kids yachts on the road outside..

A worthwhile and slightly scary storm, though not quite the worst I have experienced in this country. That belonged to a storm around 1956 in Louth in LIncolnshire when driving home with my father in his Morris Minor. We had 4 flashes (CG's)  land in trees on the roadside around us as we parked up, at its height..

Also a few years before the apple tree in our garden was struck.

The poor cat ran around the house with her hairs on end for a couple of minutes afterwards. As a 10tyear old it quite shocked  me as well.

MIA

Edited July 10, 2023 by Midlands Ice Age

[Midlands Ice Age]

Sorry  but too late to edit the above. The date was the 28th June 2012.....    EL BRUMMO

It actually was given its own name and was nothing to do with the more recent tornado in south Birmingham 2 -3 years later.. Moseley district ,etc.

(which believe it or not was quite mild in comparison).

 

Edited July 10, 2023 by Midlands Ice Age

[Weather-history]

2nd July 2006 was a beast. It was a hot sultry day,cumulus clouds were developing during the afternoon then all of a sudden, it was like as if some had turned the tap on suddenly and it absolutely tipped it down. The rain was phenomenal, there was pea-sized hail and intense CG lightning, flash flooding.

3 hours later, it was sunny late evening and it looked as though nothing had happened. 

[Sunny76]

On 10/07/2023 at 20:45, James1979 said:

Thanks matey, I have seen that before as I think I've googled the 94 storm to death to be fair!! Not seen anything like it since so often revisit both in memory and online. Bit sad yes.

June 24th 1994 was a classic storm.

It moved towards the London area from the south around 8-8:30pm, and lasted until 10:30 or 11ish.

I was sitting down watching the Brazil v Cameroon match during the USA World Cup at the time.

Remember the week being hot and sunny and reaching mid to high 20s a few times. Think it was easily 29-30c during the time. This all came about just a couple of weeks after the chilly May, and early June was still chilly.

[A Face like Thunder]

On 10/07/2023 at 19:55, Midlands Ice Age said:

Sorry  but too late to edit the above. The date was the 28th June 2012.....    EL BRUMMO

It actually was given its own name and was nothing to do with the more recent tornado in south Birmingham 2 -3 years later.. Moseley district ,etc.

(which believe it or not was quite mild in comparison).

 

'Thunder Thursday'. I never tire of watching 'Amazing Storm Newcastle, 28th June 2012, YouTube', 3-4 minutes of pure magic! My nearest equivalent during daylight hours has to be 6th August 1981 in S London / Surrey, when day turned into night, quite literally. Sadly, this event preceded the days when smartphones could be switched on instantly to record the mayhem. 

[Sunny76]

21 minutes ago, A Face like Thunder said:

'Thunder Thursday'. I never tire of watching 'Amazing Storm Newcastle, 28th June 2012, YouTube', 3-4 minutes of pure magic! My nearest equivalent during daylight hours has to be 6th August 1981 in S London / Surrey, when day turned into night, quite literally. Sadly, this event preceded the days when smartphones could be switched on instantly to record the mayhem. 

I’ll never forget the August 81 event, despite the fact I was 5.

I used to think that storm occurred during the summer of 1982 for some reason.

Just remember the outside being completely dark as nighttime, while sitting in the living room with the lights on. 

[Cheshire Freeze]

Aug 2020 locally. Clear of everything else in my lifetime.

[Freeze]

18/19th July 2017, the most prolific lightning I have ever seen ever, and I've been to florida a few times, large hail also.

[Turquoise]

11th August going into the early hours of 12th August 2020. The best storm I have ever seen. For the first hour we were treated to elevated brown and pink inter cloud lightning which was pretty much a flash a second, I remember the thunder was non stop but quite muted and then it absolutely thrown down. I was walking home with water up to my shins within 20 mins, and I remember the lightning turning into bright purple and blue flashes with regular CGs as the core passed overhead, with shotgun thunder. The storm continued for about 2 or 3 more hours with a brilliant lightning display as it moved off to the North East.

[A Face like Thunder]

19 hours ago, CreweCold said:

Aug 2020 locally. Clear of everything else in my lifetime.

I think we must have been away for that one but I remember the storm being mentioned. 12th June 2023 comes to mind as the worst storm in my 20+ years in Crewe. Certainly beat the storm of 19th June 2007 which devastated parts of the Severn Valley before moving east over us during the evening.

[SilverWolf]

Sure I’ve told this story somewhere here before..Best ‘unexpected’ storm (pre internet!) was in Glastonbury, think it was late summer ‘99. Was at the top of Glastonbury Tor watching the sun go down, with perhaps a dozen other people there I didn’t know. A storm broke out towards Bridgwater and rushed over towards the Tor very quickly. Frequent forked lightening, and loud thunder. Within minutes it was all around the hill, lightning was almost blinding, and was going all directions - up/down/sideways. Saw lots of different colours - purple, white, blue and I’m sure one was green, but at its most intense it was hard to differentiate colour. At one point it felt like there was no air when lightning flash and thunder were instantaneous - thunder was so violent it shook my rib cage several times. Some of the people up there were terrified, and we’re about to leave, but I saw a couple of lightning strikes further down the footpath down, and said they may be better off where we were! One woman who was coping better was laughing hysterically and running around. One of the most amazing experiences of my life, it genuinely felt dangerous for probably 15 mins, but truth is I didn’t care! Was epic rain towards the end, but it was a very hot day and was actually welcomed. Whole thing lasted maybe 45 mins. After the walk home, didn’t sleep until early morning after that, and my memory of a lot of that night is very clear nearly 25 years later. Words don’t do it justice. 

[Alex Thompson]

In about June 2013 I saw a very big thunderstorm in Atherstone, where I went to school. I had a fear of thunder at the time rather than my current fascination and love for it. The storm was so extreme it saturated the fear to the point I no longer felt it at all. The sky looked like it was night at something like 11am. I had to go across a field between classes and it rained and hailed with strong winds. Some of the hail it produced was apparently large but I'm not sure I necessarily saw large hail, mostly just very heavy rain. The sky went bright orange during the rain. The lightning was very frequent and intense. It's not my favourite storm in terms of how it looked alone but it did seem to be the most severe. 

[SnowBear]

1974...maybe, I was a child at the time and we were living near Marazion, Penzance. 

All hell let loose, we lost power, went into Penzance and all power out there too, constant lightning and torrential rain. Went on all night too. 

 

[cheese]

Not the best thunderstorm in general I’ve seen in Leeds but definitely the most frequent lightning. 13 September 2016, after a hot day. 
 

 

Edited August 12, 2023 by cheese