3-4 July 2015 - severe thunderstorm event

[Zak M]

Anyone recall any moments from this particular event?

At the time this happened I was 12, and because I wasn't as interested in weather as I am now at the time, I had no idea that I was going to get battered by a massive storm on that day. All I remember is I randomly woke up at like 2/3am, tried to get back to sleep and there was a huge lightning strike nearby and a massive boom followed, it scared the living daylights out of me, set off a few car alarms down the road and I crapped my pants. The storm literally went berserk shortly after.

Bournemouth and the surrounding areas were battered apparently.

[matt111]

I didn't live where I do now but if I did I would've almost had a direct hit from the Bournemouth storm. I did get a good light show from where I lived though and I can't remember seeing a better one than that. 

[Summer18]

I was on holiday in Lanzarote but I remember seeing videos all over snapchat and Instagram. I was actually jealous of the people back home seeing at how unbelievable the storms looked, I wasn’t jealous afterwards when the weather turned crap though! 

[SummerShower]

Yes the storms missed us here but we got a very good light show to our west as the Bournemouth storm moved northwards.  The overhead sky was clear and you could make out the huge anvil, I think this enhanced the light show.

I think this event was one where storms just developed crazily, roughly north of the M4 and only a few places to the south (ie Bournemouth and I think parts of London) got decent storms.  A bit like 22/23 July 2013, where again we missed out.

[East_England_Stormchaser91]

11 hours ago, Zak M said:

Anyone recall any moments from this particular event?

At the time this happened I was 12, and because I wasn't as interested in weather as I am now at the time, I had no idea that I was going to get battered by a massive storm on that day. All I remember is I randomly woke up at like 2/3am, tried to get back to sleep and there was a huge lightning strike nearby and a massive boom followed, it scared the living daylights out of me, set off a few car alarms down the road and I crapped my pants. The storm literally went berserk shortly after.

Bournemouth and the surrounding areas were battered apparently.

Was the best event I’ve watched unfold from start to finish Zak! You would’ve loved it. Started off in the evening like many other events do, as in the will it or won’t it fire? 22:30 still hadn’t seen one sferic and some were even on the verge of calling it a bust! 23:00 came along, rapid development S of Bournemouth occurred, then the first strike appeared! Within 10 minutes it had gone from 0 to 60 strikes per minute and hit Bournemouth head on! 

A whole series of storms then went on to develop around the London area and trundled NNE and formed a MCS. We got hit head on at around 02:00 until 05:00. Best storm of the decade without any doubt! 

Here is the thread 

Edited August 25, 2020 by East_England_Stormchaser91

[Leveller]

Always been fascinated by the weather and thunderstoms, we had one when i was a small boy where the lightning hit the flagpole of the nearby church and left it swaying from side to side ever since that day Ive had thisthing for anything weather, I used stay up for the shipping forecast had the maps sent to me by the Met Office. Biggest thing in the world today is Global Warming, no doubt, I said to my wife a long time ago that we'll have 70 degrees f on Christmas Day in my life time, I think this will still come to pass. 

[East_England_Stormchaser91]

2 hours ago, Leveller said:

Always been fascinated by the weather and thunderstoms, we had one when i was a small boy where the lightning hit the flagpole of the nearby church and left it swaying from side to side ever since that day Ive had thisthing for anything weather, I used stay up for the shipping forecast had the maps sent to me by the Met Office. Biggest thing in the world today is Global Warming, no doubt, I said to my wife a long time ago that we'll have 70 degrees f on Christmas Day in my life time, I think this will still come to pass. 

Global warming is happening. But 70F in December? I very much doubt that. I will eat my own hat if that comes off. We struggle to see them temperatures even in March or November in setups with winds as far as the Cape Verde islands. The sun simply hasn’t got the power between them months for sufficient heating. 

Perhaps in SW France you would do. 

Edited August 25, 2020 by East_England_Stormchaser91

[Azazel]

I sort of remember these storms well.

I had set up in a field facing south with my mate for the evening. Camping chairs, radio, beers and whiskey.

One of my friends went home at about 10pm calling it a bust - but we kept the faith.

Around 11 I think it was, I was having a wee when I saw a flash out the corner of my eye. I returned to my friend and we silently strained our eyes into the night. I distinctly remember the sky being pretty clear and the moon was big and beautiful, poking its face in between illuminated pockets of Accas(The real stuff, not Grimsley Accas).

After a few moments, there was a distant flash - and then another.

I checked Netweather on my phone and we had lift-off over Bournemouth.

As the storm moved north, it skirted to our west - the lightning was epic and strobing, but mainly high-based. You could see the anvil lighting up and there were definitely visible striations - suggesting a supercell (I've seen pretty conclusive pictures of the same storm from a member on UKWW). I remember turning to my friend and saying "I think this might be a supercell mate".

Unfortunately, I was by this point too wasted to operate my camera properly so didn't manage any in-focus photographs - it's probably a good thing I was so drunk because we were pretty exposed in our location - normally I would've headed for shelter but I just slumped in my chair watching the show.

It was awesome, but probably outdone by the July 2019 storms which had the most intense, ferocious, war of the worlds style lightning I've ever seen in my life.

 

[Eagle Eye]

I remember the exact events as they came to pass.

First off all it was a hot day and I was coming back from seeing my friend everything was quiet there was a small cloud in the distance I hadn't taken notice of the forecast and wasn't too worried but it was very humid.

My mum had to go to a meeting near Dover and I could see the role cloud clearly, the Year before I remember an event where it was going to be marginal and it was a clipper that was expected to miss just hours befre it happened and was a night long event.

It began to rumble with thunder and was raining lightly, I was up in my room reading about my favourite thing at that time cars because I couldn't get to sleep.

Eventually the storm strayed ver for a while before skirting behind me after about an hour but for some reason there was massive bacckbuilding or it turned as there was quite a few hours of a massive thnderstorm that eventually went away intotthe early hours of the morning and I believe that mty mum said she say a waterspout when driving home and there was one reported.

2018 Was the most incredible storm non stop lighting from early evenng into the early hours of the morning near dawn. 2017 The major storm blew past after a couple of hours but I did see some incredible spider lightning from the back window although I may have mixed up 2017  and 2019 there

Xander

[Daniel*]

Ah yes I remember this well, some of best storms I’ve experienced the frequency of lightning was unreal literally every 2 seconds at times, it went on for 2-3 hours, very elevated I remember despite radar showing biblical rain nothing was reaching ground, it shared similarity with late May 2018 storms the frequency. London got lucky there I recall it all exploded to life in South London. A 3 year storm drought for much of London (good storms) awful run.

Edited February 18, 2021 by Daniel*