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Best storm you've ever seen in the UK


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Posted
  • Location: Whaley Bridge - Peak District
  • Location: Whaley Bridge - Peak District
4 hours ago, mikeofmacc said:

Keen to know about this Manchester supercell you mentioned if you have any info!

Confirming (thanks to google) that the date for this one was on 01 July 2015, there's a few video clips taken by people around the Peaks & Manchester showing the cell which I believe ended up being a split-supercell as it passed around the Stockport area and was noticeable not just for the lightning-rate but downbursts that swept from the Cheshire border up to Lancashire although the cell was still active even all the way up to Edinburgh. The last 2 pictures are my own (I was just getting into lightning photography at the time) but the Mam Tor video shows the structure perfectly.

11.thumb.JPG.96488e3f0175f0c034b0016649463465.JPG13.thumb.JPG.1f971faa36aa0e1b24fced528131ab6a.JPG

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Posted
  • Location: Barton on Sea, Hampshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snowy winter, warm/hot summer with the odd storm thrown in
  • Location: Barton on Sea, Hampshire
On 29/05/2020 at 23:34, matt111 said:

Not sure I can recall seeing any decent overhead storms, although I dare say there were some before I started taking a real interest in weather. In recent years the best storm I've seen was the one that hit Bournemouth in July 2015 which while I was about 40 miles away from it at the time, it was the most impressive light show I'd seen from a storm. Had I lived where I do now it wouldn't have been far off a direct hit. 

This is the storm I was talking about, easy to see why I had a good show from where I was. 

 

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Posted
  • Location: St Neots, previously Billericay & Brentwood
  • Weather Preferences: Thunder, snow, gales, all extreme weather really!
  • Location: St Neots, previously Billericay & Brentwood

It was great to read about all those storms and it seems @Supacellthat I should probably start getting in the car and chasing as those are some fantastic experiences you've had!! 

 

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Posted
  • Location: Belper, Derbyshire
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms
  • Location: Belper, Derbyshire
9 hours ago, James1979 said:

It was great to read about all those storms and it seems @Supacellthat I should probably start getting in the car and chasing as those are some fantastic experiences you've had!! 

 

It is definitely worth it if you want to see the storms. I would see very little if I stayed put at home. One storm in the early hours of the 24th July last year is the only storm to hit here since 2015. 

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Posted
  • Location: Thorley, west Isle of Wight
  • Weather Preferences: Spanish plumes & stormy winters. Facebook @ Lance's Lightning Shots
  • Location: Thorley, west Isle of Wight
On 29/05/2020 at 23:34, matt111 said:

Not sure I can recall seeing any decent overhead storms, although I dare say there were some before I started taking a real interest in weather. In recent years the best storm I've seen was the one that hit Bournemouth in July 2015 which while I was about 40 miles away from it at the time, it was the most impressive light show I'd seen from a storm. Had I lived where I do now it wouldn't have been far off a direct hit. 

I was stuck on the Isle of Wight on a night out with friends during that one. I think we can all guess where I'd have rather been! I remember the AC Cas filling the sky earlier in the evening and being convinced someone somewhere around the IOW was going to get a good show. Later in the night we were walking back to my mate's house and I could just see the entire cell lighting up while it was above Wiltshire. I was so annoyed to miss that chase opportunity!

I found the image below on my phone, which clearly shows how that cell maintained its intensity all the way up to the North Mids

 

IMG_20150704_084042.jpg

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Posted
  • Location: South Croydon, 577ft ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms
  • Location: South Croydon, 577ft ASL

19th July 2017 was my favourite - and i got fairly close...

image.thumb.png.86f8a44c69e957340d92fa8d0e7007e5.png

 

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Posted
  • Location: South East UK
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms/squalls/hoar-frost/mist
  • Location: South East UK
On 31/05/2020 at 12:38, Supacell said:

It is daytime isn't it? Surely can't be lightning @WalsallWeather

A man siitng on the plane says to his mate "those people down there look like ants". His friend replies "they are ants we haven`t taken off yet"

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: Andover, Hampshire
  • Location: Andover, Hampshire

A few spring to mind.

End of May 99 - Storms moved up from the SW and hit us head-on one afternoon. Day darkness, green swirling sky, rotating ground dragging scud and then the heavens opened with incredible hail, lightning and thunder.
 

June 2014 and the Bournemouth supercell.

23rd July 2019 - the most recent entry. The lightning was off the hook. War of the Worlds vibes from that one.

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Posted
  • Location: Leighton Buzzard (100m ASL)
  • Weather Preferences: Continental. Dry air, storms and snow.
  • Location: Leighton Buzzard (100m ASL)

One in Ibiza in Sept 96 was that bad (constant lightning and thunder) that there is an article about it..which I can't post for some reason.

But, although living in Leighton Buzzard, my parents live in Poole, so was visiting on the 3/4 July 2015 weekend - lucky me! that storm was incredible and was up here with the Ibiza storm. My mate was also over from Arizona and he agreed that it was up to 'US standards'. I noticed how incredibly muggy it was around 6pm - then by 11pm - it just went nuts. Non stop lightning and a constant roar of thunder. Unreal.

 

 

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Posted
  • Location: Chesterfield, Derbyshire, 110m
  • Location: Chesterfield, Derbyshire, 110m

28th June 2005 for me, i was only a kid at the time but still vividly remember seeing constant flashing on the horizon and then running home just as darkness fell to witness the best barrage of lightning I've seen to this date. 

More recently, 19th July 2014 was a good storm here

710.thumb.jpg.a4944b2b044ab2685ffdb8d8ab6cc935.jpg f00dbca79f35bfef27785bf1485a53bb.thumb.png.c09d471eb7e6312e590e5108a4da73a6.png 0cf383ff14f5298cfec456bf1355f6c5.thumb.png.f948131e4ddf1ccb9560dd42212be7bc.png

I watched the 1st July 2015 Manchester storm from a distance, that was quite an experience. 

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And 13th Sep 2016 was another great storm over the Peak District 

3f7e3bb86ae8058b778162e6b4a865dd.thumb.png.8d261e75e774fbfd11fbe801d54635c3.png e13fc52cf403995fe418a145384646aa.thumb.png.a752a1361f75a81a145c0d8df251721c.png

 

 

Edited by ChezWeather
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Posted
  • Location: Leeds
  • Location: Leeds
On 31/05/2020 at 13:18, SNOW_JOKE said:

Confirming (thanks to google) that the date for this one was on 01 July 2015, there's a few video clips taken by people around the Peaks & Manchester showing the cell which I believe ended up being a split-supercell as it passed around the Stockport area and was noticeable not just for the lightning-rate but downbursts that swept from the Cheshire border up to Lancashire although the cell was still active even all the way up to Edinburgh. The last 2 pictures are my own (I was just getting into lightning photography at the time) but the Mam Tor video shows the structure perfectly.

11.thumb.JPG.96488e3f0175f0c034b0016649463465.JPG13.thumb.JPG.1f971faa36aa0e1b24fced528131ab6a.JPG

Yep, this is the one for me, bloody incredible. I could still see strikes at the cloud tops from Leeds when the centre of the storm was near Hartlepool.

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Posted
  • Location: Andover, Hampshire
  • Location: Andover, Hampshire

This one was the last good SB storm I’ve seen. Definitely a tilt to the updraft and I’ve often wondered if it could’ve been perhaps briefly supercellular.

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Posted
  • Location: Cheshire
  • Location: Cheshire
On 29/05/2020 at 17:44, mikeofmacc said:

Got a top two of storms, neither I can decide between:-

  1. 13th September 2016 in Wilmslow - Came out of work after a horrifically humid day, when you knew it was a case of when, and not if, it cracks off, and had been watching huge storms develop up out of the Midlands and coming this way. Leaving work it was dark and the whole way to the South was so incredibly dark, it genuinely looked like storm chasing in the states. The sky also had that smoothed look across the front like a supercell in the states can do sometimes. Needless to say a mile or two from work and the heavens opened, you could see trees disappear into the wall of water coming my way. Lightning started appearing too, and rather than what I usually see in the UK, with C-C and I-C, this seemed to be aggressively pelting the ground with pink C-G's and a stroke would pulse and last for long enough to focus on it. Torrential rain and thunder and lightning for around 2 hours as it passed off over the Pennines, even got a chase out of it in the car. Lots of flooding and debris afterwards.
  2. Tempted to say this was around 20-22 July 2006 in Rugby, Warwickshire - Away for a day but as I was only 15 and still kind of scared of storms, I stayed away from this. Remember it being a very hot and sultry day with no breeze, and then it clouded over, before starting to rain and then thunder. I remember looking out the window and the edge of the storm I saw racing overhead from the right towards the left, which is when the torrential rain started to fall with lots of thunder and lightning. I'm assuming now, with 15 years more obsessing over severe weather it was some sort of gust front or shelf cloud racing over on the front of the storm, but there was a massive downdraft, tall thin trees were bending to 45° during the initial downburst. Again, an hour or so of thunder and lightning afterwards and still a little muggy. The year could be wrong here, but 2006 or earlier and definitely July.

Mike.

Ah yes, I remember the Sept 2016 storm now. I was returning to Crewe from a meeting at Winsford and the thunder, lightning and rain was pretty epic. It resulted in one of the few weather-related postponements in football's Champions League history when the game at Manchester City that evening was postponed due to flooding. We headed south the following day to a hotel near Winchester prior to a cruise from Southampton, and got caught up in an even more epic storm that night which I have described elsewhere. Clearly the weather was following us around!

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: Onchan Isle of Man
  • Location: Onchan Isle of Man

IOM June 25th  - we don't normally see anything exciting here but see attached especially at aabout 23 / 24 secs in

 

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Posted
  • Location: on a canal , probably near Northampton...
  • Weather Preferences: extremes n snow
  • Location: on a canal , probably near Northampton...
1 hour ago, monty2k13 said:

IOM June 25th  - we don't normally see anything exciting here but see attached especially at aabout 23 / 24 secs in

 

You certainly dont hear anything exciting either.....

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Posted
  • Location: London
  • Weather Preferences: Lighting and sunshine
  • Location: London

@monty2k13

We'll have to change the thread title to include IOM lol.  Thanks for posting the footage though, I was keen to see some given the number of strikes on the radar.

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  • 1 month later...
Posted
  • Location: Northants
  • Location: Northants

The storm I remember most is from quite a while back - 24th May 1989 (give or take a day, but I think that's correct). While I've seen a handful of storms of similar intensity (eg, early hours of 4 July 2015 was probably about the same), what I recall most about 24/5/89 was the total lack of build-up. The whole of May 89 was warm and sunny, and that day was the same. Not particularly humid, didn't have that "pre-storm" feel. At about 16:30 the sky was nice and blue, then on the southern horizon a flat, straight line of sheer darkness appeared and approached rapidly. I don't recall seeing the shape of a cum-nim cloud, just this completely flat zone of storm in complete contrast against the blue sky. The weather went from one extreme to the other just like that. I've not seen a storm approach in that way since then. The storm itself was a belter and it put an end to the warm spell.

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Posted
  • Location: Woodchurch, Kent.
  • Weather Preferences: Storm, drizzle
  • Location: Woodchurch, Kent.

I remember a storm can someone please tell me which year there was a waterspout in Dover it was 2014,2015 or 2016

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  • 1 month later...
Posted
  • Location: Scarborough, North Yorkshire - 80m ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Tornadoey
  • Location: Scarborough, North Yorkshire - 80m ASL

This evenings was something to behold, especially given the incredibly marginal conditions apparent this morning. There was probably always going to be a few sparkers around but nothing with the structure or lightning of the cell near Brid this evening!

 

 

 

 

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Posted
  • Location: North Leeds
  • Location: North Leeds
3 minutes ago, Gorky said:

This evenings was something to behold, especially given the incredibly marginal conditions apparent this morning. There was probably always going to be a few sparkers around but nothing with the structure or lightning of the cell near Brid this evening!

 

 

 

 

Yes I would definitely say today’s storm is one of the best ones I have ever seen. Never seen so much hail before. Didn’t expect that when I woke up to 9C and steady cold rain this morning! 

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  • 2 years later...
Posted
  • Location: Coventry, 96m asl
  • Weather Preferences: Snow in winter, thunderstorms, warmth, sun any time!
  • Location: Coventry, 96m asl
On 31/05/2020 at 12:06, Metwatch said:

Anyways i think that july 23rd of 25th was best storm at night. Constant lightning, gust front, heavy rain, Was quite a powerful storm. Affected such a large portion of the Uk too.

Thought I'd update this since a fair amount has happened during 2020 and 2022.

13th June 2020, first thundery shower arrives but narrowly misses. Then around an hour later the main group of storms arrive with frequent lightning and a decent looking shelf cloud with gust front (1st picture and 1st video)

16th June 2020 growing cumulus congestus surrounds my area, I decide to go for a mini storm chase and intercept a storm west of home, to then come back to another thunderstorm reaching home with torrential rain and frequent thunder. (2nd and 3rd pictures)

August 2020: no photos as abroad but some rather strong storms narrowly missing home 10th-12th

September 4th/5th 2022 - strong thunderstorms develop at night bringing a spectacular light show and gust front; very decent for September. (2nd and 3rd video, the 5th of September)

September 9th 2022 although not the strongest of storms I finally managed to capture a very nice daytime cloud to cloud strike. (4th picture)

 

Could contain: Neighborhood, Architecture, Building, Housing, House, Roof, Outdoors, City, Nature

Could contain: Nature, Outdoors, Sky, Cloud, Cumulus, Weather, Sunlight, Scenery

Could contain: Outdoors, Nature, Construction Crane, City, Metropolis, Urban, Car, Weather, Storm, Office Building

Could contain: Nature, Outdoors, Storm, Thunderstorm, Lightning

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Posted
  • Location: St Neots, previously Billericay & Brentwood
  • Weather Preferences: Thunder, snow, gales, all extreme weather really!
  • Location: St Neots, previously Billericay & Brentwood
21 minutes ago, Metwatch said:

Thought I'd update this since a fair amount has happened during 2020 and 2022.

13th June 2020, first thundery shower arrives but narrowly misses. Then around an hour later the main group of storms arrive with frequent lightning and a decent looking shelf cloud with gust front (1st picture and 1st video)

16th June 2020 growing cumulus congestus surrounds my area, I decide to go for a mini storm chase and intercept a storm west of home, to then come back to another thunderstorm reaching home with torrential rain and frequent thunder. (2nd and 3rd pictures)

August 2020: no photos as abroad but some rather strong storms narrowly missing home 10th-12th

September 4th/5th 2022 - strong thunderstorms develop at night bringing a spectacular light show and gust front; very decent for September. (2nd and 3rd video, the 5th of September)

September 9th 2022 although not the strongest of storms I finally managed to capture a very nice daytime cloud to cloud strike. (4th picture)

 

Could contain: Neighborhood, Architecture, Building, Housing, House, Roof, Outdoors, City, Nature

Could contain: Nature, Outdoors, Sky, Cloud, Cumulus, Weather, Sunlight, Scenery

Could contain: Outdoors, Nature, Construction Crane, City, Metropolis, Urban, Car, Weather, Storm, Office Building

Could contain: Nature, Outdoors, Storm, Thunderstorm, Lightning

Very nice, here's hoping for an epic season!! 

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  • 5 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland 20m ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Snow,Thunderstorms mix both for heaven THUNDERSNOW 😜😀🤤🥰
  • Location: Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland 20m ASL

No question 11th / 12th August 2020, there were a few shortlived small thundery cells mid day 1 min 19 

But little could prepare me for the historic level storms that were to come, a trough developed in the borders and storms began to fire off it from around 6/7pm. By 11pm the first supercell was arriving 

Then another supercell followed on its heels 

The volume of rainfall had cars floating down the streets and I remember on twitter a pro scientist from Edinburgh saying the crazy amounts of lightning strikes were far more frequent than any storms she'd ever seen even in Asia. The trough behaved very strange as it drifted west then back east with storms lasting 12 Hours! And the severity of flooding and damage to vehicles led to it being declared a major incident 

5f33a50b38f98.jpg
WWW.KINGDOMFM.CO.UK

A major incident has been declared in Fife after the region was hit by severe weather overnight.
pjimage-8-2.jpg?strip=all&quality=100&w=
WWW.THESCOTTISHSUN.CO.UK

AUTHORITIES in Fife have declared a major incident after extreme weather wrecked local towns and left roads underwater. The region was badly hit by overnight thunderstorms – with a...

Truly a surreal event to experience and 100% the most severe storms everyone here have ever witnessed, plus still the only time I've ever had fear due to a weather event. 

 

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