Five years on from this wild day - 25 Jun. 2016

[LetItSnow!]

I'm a little late but a browse through the events that happened in Barking remind me of the most severe storm I've ever witnessed in my life so far, the absolute madness of the 25th of June, 2016.

 

Jun. 2016 had already been a very wet, dull & thundery month for many, and up in NW Kent it was no exception. We'd had a couple rounds of thundery weather at many times during that month, but none akin to what was coming. The 24th had been an almost dry day, bar a light shower. Indeed it was a restbite from the storms of the 22nd/23rd which did give us thunder/lighting + torrential rain. I remember it starting out normal but with showers breaking out on the radar quite quickly through the afternoon. I was returning home & the sky was becoming very dark and ominious with a very still feel, like it was about to go off. Indeed once I returned home the heavens started to open. That was the beginning of about an hour long deluge that remains unmatched to this day. I've never seen rain like it. Living in New Ash Green at the time meant it was a elevated area so surface water flooding was never much of an issue, but then came the purple on the radar. It was a backbuilding storm so whenever it seemed like the whites/purples would move away it just kept coming back. Water started to pour down the path and wash against the house & the road quickly became a river. Shortly after the rain turned to hail and left behind what can only be described as chunks of an iceberg which lasted until the end of the day. The temperature during this storm plummeted to around 7C which is exceptionally low for late-June. The entire time the loudest thunder you could imagine seeing as the storm was centered overtop. Eventually the severest of the rain passed but it kept rumbling on and thunder and lightning kept on during the afternoon. The next day all the local area was covered in branches and leaves from the sheer force of the rain and hail. I remember seeing reports of nearby areas that also recieved flooding. Since it's rural a lot of the water had a chance to soak into the surrounding fields but I imagine just how bad it could have been if it hit a urban area. Wish I had some pictures of this incredible storm. In terms of rain, only  August 9th, 2017 and July 20th, 2019 compare in intensity. Ironically, after June was through it then turned very dry and mostly remained so until the (locally) extremely wet summer of 2017.

 

Anyone got any recollections of severe storms during this day, spell or month?

Edited June 26, 2021 by LetItSnow!

[Weather-history]

There was early convection here that day but it died down during the afternoon

 

[SummerShower]

I remember there was thunder here that day, but from memory it was your typical westerly cyclonic sun and thundery showers type set up.

[A Face like Thunder]

And not forgetting the severe flooding which took place on 25th June 2007 in Hull, Sheffield, South and North Yorkshire, with 112mm of rain falling at Fylingdales on the N Yorkshire Moors.

[Timmytour]

Was this the day from which a video went viral, showing a car try to go under a bridge on a flooded road somewhere in London?

 

EDIT:  having posted the above I thought I might try google and it seems like it was the right month but wrong day!
 

Moment foolish driver plunges car straight into two metre-deep flood

WWW.STANDARD.CO.UK

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A foolhardy driver was caught on camera plunging his vehicle into two-metre deep water as flash floods hit south London.

 

Edited July 4, 2021 by Timmytour