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Your Thunderstorm memories (scary or exciting!)


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Posted
  • Location: Cheltenham,Glos
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms :D
  • Location: Cheltenham,Glos

Please post up any memories you have of any thunderstorms , whether they were good, exciting, scary or bad.

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Posted
  • Location: Morecambe
  • Location: Morecambe

My best storm i have experianced in my short life has to be the 31st August 2005 storm, i never even had any idea that there was a risk of storms here so it was a big surprise when it came.

Got dark from the SW around 6ish and the thunder was rumbling which was getting closer. Me and me dad decided to go to the fish shop to get a pizza and watch the storm from there which i saw lots of lightning, the skies was very evil and dark(so dark it was class as night time) and the rain was torrential aswell. The storm lasted for an hour and the garden was flooded quite bad after the storm has cleared. This is no doubt the best storm i have ever witnessed and especially considering i live in a non thunderstorm area.

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Posted
  • Location: Cheltenham,Glos
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms :D
  • Location: Cheltenham,Glos

Well,where do I start lol

I have experienced two separate incidents that were both scary!

The first incident happened back in end of August 2003. I wasn't following storms then,so this storm came as a bit of a surprise.

It had been a very hot and humid day the day before whilst out camping in the caravan. Got up in the morning and there were no indications of any storms about to happen,that was until the clouds suddenly went dark and started swirling just above the caravan. 'Wow',I thought, until a massive strike of fork lightning inches away from our car nearly hit it. That was so scary,I was near to tears and told my partner to get us in the car and drive away from it.This storm was quite vicious and carried on for 3 hours this being the worst storm I have ever seen.After experiencing this I decided to study thunderstorms to help me over my fear of fork lightning. I am not so scared now as long as I am in a safe location.

Incident number 2.

I knew there were storms that night going back a couple of years now,but was to tired to follow them.So went to bed only to be woken up by the Attic roof blowing off and sounding like a bomb had gone off outside in the street.I jumped up in fear.There was also very close lightning which sounded like a shot gun outside. I found out the following day that lightning had hit an Ash tree in the park across the road.I will never forget that and I still wonder today whether that was ball lightning!

I love storms,nothing can beat the sound of thunder rumbling in after a hot and humid day and the coolness of the rain. As long as it isn't to vicious I dont mind lol

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Posted
  • Location: Romford
  • Location: Romford

A lot of my most memorable storms were from when i was too young to really understand what was going on, I sort of remember those MCS storms in the mid to late 90's here that used to start at 7 in the evening and still be going at 7 the next morning.

I also remember a storm, it must have been the late 90's or early 00's, when we had an incredible nightime storms with constant strobing lightning, I've never seen lightning flicker and strike the same place so many times in 10 seconds before or since!

There were a succesion of homegrown storms last year that exploded around 3pm across the SE and East Anglia during a very humid day that dumped some incredibly heavy rain and produced very strong winds, I was watching the updrafts rise before my very eyes out the window during the last school class of the day, and you could actually see the rainshafts dropping and blocking out the sun (although the sky was very 'mushy'), I actually had to stay under the front porch of the school because I would have been washed away had I tried to go home, by the time I left the school was flooded, and as the storms moved off Eastwards most of the roads on the way home were up to a foot deep in water, water was also coming out of the drains! There were actully 2 cells, the first gave a brief downpour, the heaviest I had ever seen, and then the secon surpassed that a few minutes later and lasted mcuh longer! The first cell also gave no lightning, but the second gave off a couple of very strong bolts with rather loud thunder, there was also a pretty mean bolt that must have come out the back of the storm, I thought the storm was long gone but there was a pretty loud blast of thunder (I didnt see thelightning).

My favourite stroms are those cold air mass ones you get rattling in from the West behind a strong cold front, and there was one a couple of years back which gave off a small lightning flash, but this was followed by the most immense explosion of thunder I've ever heard (+ve bolt perhaps??), it turned out later the local fire station training tower had been struck, and one person who was working on it was given a bit of a jolt!

Lets not forget Jan 2004, rain and lightning which was melting the snow that had fallen the previous day (leaving me dissapointed that I wouldn't get a day off school, I come on this place and everyone North of me over Essex is reporting epic wind driven snowfall, and sure enough withing ten minutes the snow came, the transition from rain to snow was so abrupt, it went from rain to sleet and then all of a sudden a massive blast of horrizontal snowflakes within 30 seconds, I though it was amazing also how quickly the sky turned red and visibility reduced to nothing within a few seconds, a once in a lifetime experience (well this far south anyway!). :good:

Some of my favorite memories come from those squalls you get with cold fronts in the Autumn and winter, once I was on the beach in Nothern France when one came ashore after crossing over from England (yes there is such thing as English imports in France! B) ), getting caught in the torrential wind driven rain can be quite fun and amusing! B)

Hopefully Autumn will bring plenty of these!

Edited by jshaw
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Posted
  • Location: Cheltenham,Glos
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms :D
  • Location: Cheltenham,Glos
A lot of my most memorable storms were from when i was too young to really understand what was going on, I sort of remember those MCS storms in the mid to late 90's here that used to start at 7 in the evening and still be going at 7 the next morning.

I also remember a storm, it must have been the late 90's or early 00's, when we had an incredible nightime storms with constant strobing lightning, I've never seen lightning flicker and strike the same place so many times in 10 seconds before or since!

There were a succesion of homegrown storms last year that exploded around 3pm across the SE and East Anglia during a very humid day that dumped some incredibly heavy rain and produced very strong winds, I was watching the updrafts rise before my very eyes out the window during the last school class of the day, and you could actually see the rainshafts dropping and blocking out the sun (although the sky was very 'mushy'), I actually had to stay under the front porch of the school because I would have been washed away had I tried to go home, by the time I left the school was flooded, and as the storms moved off Eastwards most of the roads on the way home were up to a foot deep in water, water was also coming out of the drains! There were actully 2 cells, the first gave a brief downpour, the heaviest I had ever seen, and then the secon surpassed that a few minutes later and lasted mcuh longer! The first cell also gave no lightning, but the second gave off a couple of very strong bolts with rather loud thunder, there was also a pretty mean bolt that must have come out the back of the storm, I thought the storm was long gone but there was a pretty loud blast of thunder (I didnt see thelightning).

My favourite stroms are those cold air mass ones you get rattling in from the West behind a strong cold front, and there was one a couple of years back which gave off a small lightning flash, but this was followed by the most immense explosion of thunder I've ever heard (+ve bolt perhaps??), it turned out later the local fire station training tower had been struck, and one person who was working on it was given a bit of a jolt!

Lets not forget Jan 2004, rain and lightning which was melting the snow that had fallen the previous day (leaving me dissapointed that I wouldn't get a day off school, I come on this place and everyone North of me over Essex is reporting epic wind driven snowfall, and sure enough withing ten minutes the snow came, the transition from rain to snow was so abrupt, it went from rain to sleet and then all of a sudden a massive blast of horrizontal snowflakes within 30 seconds, I though it was amazing also how quickly the sky turned red and visibility reduced to nothing within a few seconds, a once in a lifetime experience (well this far south anyway!). :)

Some of my favorite memories come from those squalls you get with cold fronts in the Autumn and winter, once I was on the beach in Nothern France when one came ashore after crossing over from England (yes there is such thing as English imports in France! :) ), getting caught in the torrential wind driven rain can be quite fun and amusing! :)

Hopefully Autumn will bring plenty of these!

Seems like you've seen some very good storms jshaw.Who knows you may catch some good ones this weekend to. :)

My best storm i have experianced in my short life has to be the 31st August 2005 storm, i never even had any idea that there was a risk of storms here so it was a big surprise when it came.

Got dark from the SW around 6ish and the thunder was rumbling which was getting closer. Me and me dad decided to go to the fish shop to get a pizza and watch the storm from there which i saw lots of lightning, the skies was very evil and dark(so dark it was class as night time) and the rain was torrential aswell. The storm lasted for an hour and the garden was flooded quite bad after the storm has cleared. This is no doubt the best storm i have ever witnessed and especially considering i live in a non thunderstorm area.

Hey Geordie , I thought the storms I've seen in the past were bad,but you and jshaws experiences certainly sounds a lot scarier then what I have ever witnessed.

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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

My house in Tyneside got hit by lightning during a notable storm on 3 August 1994 (it appears that one affected most of the country). There were two separate storm cells, the first produced no rain but a lot of lightning, the second brought torrential rain as well as thunder and lightning. I remember walking outside, seeing lightning right in front of me, then running inside.

My house was also hit on 26 September 1999 and 17 June 2003!

As for big storms in the 1990s, the summers of both 1995 and 1996 had a few decent ones, but the biggest ones occurred in 1999, particularly September 22nd and 26th.

In the 2000s, Tyne & Wear was heavily hit by storms on 2 June 2002 (I remember lightning every few seconds at one point, including a red flash), 10 August 2003, and also 31 August 2005. I was in Leeds on the August 2005 instance, but Leeds got hit by a storm of similar intensity and description to the one that Geordiesnow just described. The storms of the morning of 22 June 2003 was also memorable, mainly because it happened on my birthday and followed an infuriating forecast that said "hopefully north-east England should escape the storms". Served them right I say!

Another memorable storm was that at 4:50am, 29 December 2000. Okay, so there was only one flash of lightning and rumble of thunder- but it also happened to be chucking it down with snow at the same time!

The biggest storms I've seen, though, have occurred in other parts of the country. Leeds, 12 June 2006 & 2 July 2006, Argentat (France), a couple of big storms in July 2007 with lightning every couple of seconds, and also a couple of the August ones in Norwich, which seems to be the thunderstorm capital of Britain. April also had an amazing storm with almost continuous thunder and a hailstorm which covered the UEA campus.

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Posted
  • Location: Ware, Herts
  • Location: Ware, Herts

The biggest and most memorable storm for me was on 28th June 2005. After a day of disappointment with thunderstorms going either side of me to the west and east, I'd given up most of my hope of a storm by this time, but I was just getting my electric toothbrush off the charger when something caught the corner of my eye out the window. I stopped and looked south; I saw flashes of lightning!

I went online to look for a radar image and indeed there was a large cell moving up slowly from NW London, heading directly for me. By this time it was about 2120 and completely dark. As the thunderstorm approached I could see lightning flashing constantly, with thunder soon becoming audible.

By 2130 it began to rain, with the storm getting really close now. The lightning, CG, CC, was amazing. By 2140 the rain was intense, roads flooding. But most of all, the lightning and instantaneous cracks of thunder was breathtaking and it's a moment I will never forget. There was so much lightning all around; my grandmother's house 8 miles away was struck by lightning and it was an enormous storm. Pretty much perfect timing as it had just got dark too.

As the storm passed over, my sister came over to look out too and my parents came upstairs to look out because they knew this wasn't just an average British storm! This was a very powerul electrical storm!!!

In the spur of the moment I wish I'd got my camera out to record some of it, but caught up in the spectacular lightning and deafening cracks of thunder, I forgot :) As it moved away to the north, I continued to watch but I think it died a bit because the lightning faded.

The next day incidentally there was another storm with one of the closest CG strikes I've ever seen! Must have been within 200m of me looking out my window over the field!

So that's my best thunderstorm memory :)

PS - also a strange event was one time it snowed and there was lightning, it seemed strange but I guess it's actually fairly common!

Edited by Tommyd1258
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Posted
  • Location: Cheltenham,Glos
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms :D
  • Location: Cheltenham,Glos

Thanks for posting all. :clap:

Well, I am off in my caravan this afternoon hoping to catch a storm on Sunday.I hope to report back on my experience that's providing of course something happens lol.If anything does happen that I hope to post up a rather exciting event rather then scary one lol.

I guess I am a bit afraid if a storm does occur but it will be really exciting.I don't have a very good view from where I live, so the caravan is my best bet.I will have a view of all the countryside,and the Malvern hills in the distance. Even if nothing does happen it will be fun just watching the cloudscapes.

I will have a Laptop with me which will be charged by 2 caravan batteries and a car battery.I hoping to get at least 6 hours out of it which I will have to spread out over 2 days.10 minutes a time here and there, Check email and forum and radar lol.

Shall hopefully pop on now and then in the Convective discussion thread to see how things pan out!

Have a good weekend all and good luck with a storm :lol:

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Posted
  • Location: Warminster, Wiltshire
  • Location: Warminster, Wiltshire

There may be more to follow, particularly from the last few years, but here are my storm memories...

My Storm Memories

The first storm I remember was an overnighter when I was about 8. I recall walking home from Cubs with my Dad and seeing big clouds to the SW. Within an hour of going to bed I'd crawled into my parents' bed because there was very loud and overhead lightning/thunder. I then remember it still raining the next morning from what I now know to be a decaying CB with Mammatus - amazing how I can just picture the clouds from that eve/morning now!

Another childhood storm was one that began around 10am when I was 10 and in a mobile classroom at school. It was well scary with me and a few others hiding under tables and once it cleared was followed by a second storm after lunchtime.

I was always scared of storms as a child and into my teens, but what changed things for me was a great CG bolt one late August evening in 1993. It struck an electricity box in the field behind my house as I stood in my bedroom looking out of the window. Far from discouraging me further, it heightened my interest and destroyed my phobia. I then recall watching early morning lightning from a hotel room in Falmouth the very next week and subsequent storms throughout the following day that affected the area.

In September 1993 a storm began here at about 08.00 and kept coming and going until late afternoon. This area was featured on the national forecast because 4 inches of rain fell in a nearby village and, recalling the satellite images, it looked like an MCS formed between West Wiltshire/Somerset/Bristol.

The best spider lightning I've ever seen came in late May 1997 when I left a meeting at a pub a few miles away and drove home with several storm cells flashing all around this area. As I sat at traffic lights the spider lightning streaked across the sky and continued to affect on and off as a number of small cells raced North over the next few hours. That was followed by a cracking MCS two days later which was the first time I saw green cloud which I now know to be a sign of hail.

The next major weather event for me was the Westbury tornado on Wednesday 24 October 2001. I vividly recall walking in heavy rain with an umbrella up and hearing what I thought was a freight train on the line a mile away, only to look up and see rubbish swirling beheath the cloudbase. I heard clamking as tiles were lifted and then, to my delight and causing a massive adrenaline rush when I ran the final 200m home, the tube became clear as it raced about 500m from my position and up onto Salisbury Plain.

Since then I have increasingly learned more about the weather and in particular storms, becoming somewhat of a storm nut. I will seldom leave home if storms are forecast simply because I want to know what happens right here in case I miss something!

Storm memories are somewhat vague for a few years until summer 2005 which was awesome....

.... The night of Saturday 30 April into Sunday 1 May provided 2+ hours of non-stop sheet lightning all around this region and with hardly any rain. I stood outside for almost the whole time in between logging onto Net-Weather.

.... Friday 24 June 2005 provided the best series of storms that I've experienced as a virtually stationary Cold Front met hot air over the West Country. The first storm woke me at about 04.00, the second happened around 07.00 and there were 9 overhead storms until they finally cleared at around 14.00 . Most of them had torrential rain, all of them had very close CG lightning. Then, just 4 days later, my brothers birthday provided an evening spectacle as storms developed to the South in late afternoon and then a secondary batch developed just to the North in the evening.

Summer 2005 truly went out with a bang on a hot, humid September night and I can say with certainlty that it provided the scariest storms since I became a 'nut.' I was woken by thunder at about 03.00 but couldn't see any lightning despite it sounding fairly close to the S/SW. I found this odd, but my answer came when we were hit by what in daylight would have probably looked like a wall of rain. As soon as the rain arrived frequent CG bolts became visible - they had been hidden from view by the rain! There were at least 3 very close strikes with immediate cracks of thunder, 1 of which I saw land so very close and strike a tree beside the field behind my house. This was the first of 2 such storms within an hour.

The latest excellent storm happened on Friday 9 May this year when a huge storm erupted virtually over Westbury in the mid-evening and provided an anvil lightning spectacular as it drifted towards Bath/Bristol as I sat outside watching.

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Posted
  • Location: Bangor, Northern Ireland (20m asl, near coast)
  • Weather Preferences: Any weather will do.
  • Location: Bangor, Northern Ireland (20m asl, near coast)

Ive a few memories....

On holiday in Kissimme -Florida, February 1998

Large tornado outbreak, F3 hit 3 miles from where I was staying. Amazing lightning show.

I was only 12 years old at the time yet I was out dancing in the warm dry air watching the lightning and listening to the thunder in the very near distance, I even recall seeing the funnel/tornado during lightning flashes. The news stations had Tornado Watch issued and a Severe Weather Warning. I was amazed and still am to this day.

Summer MCS - Belfast 2004

High based, Low precipitation storm with frequent lightning which was mostly CG. I was getting ready for a snooker match when it kicked off....thankfully it was not overhead but it was slow moving. Lightning and thunder lasted for a good 2 hours. The best home storm I have seen in recent years.

Got a couple more which I'll post up, just have to recall what year they were.

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Posted
  • Location: Maidstone, Kent
  • Location: Maidstone, Kent

I remember a nice storm on Weds 13 Sept 2006. They were actually forecast by the BBC a couple of days before, and it was before I'd heard of netweather, estofex and blitzortung (and the likes) so i only used the met office radar. Anyway, the local BBC team were on a boat on Bewl Water Reservoir broadcasting live. They said that they could hear thunder getting louder near them (this was about 6.50pm).

And sure enough a mamma of a storm moved in around 7.20pm over us in the Weald of Kent, and it didn't stop until 10pm! We had a 2 hour powercut from 7.45pm to around 9.45pm, so i just sat by the window and watched the whole event. Torrential rain flooded the roads in a matter of minutes, constant fork lightning, and a house round the corner was actually struck by lightning and the TV blew up!. In fact, i would say that storm was slightly better than the MCS on 6th/7th Aug that we had here this year! :nonono:

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Posted
  • Location: Sunderland
  • Weather Preferences: Hot Summer, Snowy winter and thunderstorms all year round!
  • Location: Sunderland

The storms that really spring to mind in chronological order would be

firstly.....

Aug 24th 1983 Brixham, Devon.....I remember being woken up by what seemed to be an apollo space rocket taking off outside my house, the loudest thunder I have ever heard! The storm or storms (as I believe it must have been an MCS) carried on until midway through the afternoon (about 8 hours) I'll never forget it as it was my birthday, and my dad took me to see the Star Wars - Return of the Jedi movie...Even inside the cinema, I could still here the booming thunder outside!

Secondly, I witnessed a Supercell, in Sarajevo, Bosnia july 2000...Unbelievable experience, with marble sized hail, a funnel cloud and the most incredible CG lightning, I managed to catch a couple of lightning pics using an antique kodak camera (posted elsewhere in this forum)

Lastly...Whilst living stateside in Pennsylvania, I witnessed a tornadic supercell ( I believe April 2002) in Williamsburg, Blair County, which according to the weather channel spawned an F1 tornado nr Martinsburgh, and unfortunatley this same system spawned an F3/4 tornado causing sadly numerous fatalities in La Plata, Maryland, approx 100 miles to my south-east

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From way back in my childhood I can think of 3 storms that were really scary yet they provided the impetus for my current interest in severe weather. Perhaps I needed to understand them to overcome my fear of thunder. The only other storm that really scared me was in 2004, of which more later.

13th July 1964. Surely the scariest storm of my life until 2004. The memory is vague after 44 years but it began about 21.00 and lasted for 5 hours. We had large hail that broke a neighbour's greenhouse windows, flash flooding, loss of all power for 12 hours and a lot of scared people. The older generation were saying they had never experinced a worse one. Subsequent research has unfortunately failed to find out very much about this storm although it seems a cold front became stationary which accounts for the duration.

22/23 July 1967. After a rather humid, sultry day things clouded up in the evening and as my Dad and I walked back from the village where we had got some fish and chips, we had a few spots of "heat rain". Later as I lay in bed with the curtains open around 22.00 I was startled by a distinct double flash in the Southern sky. The ensuing storm lasted for some 8 hours and produced continuous lightning and thunder at its height and a lot of flash flooding. These storms and the flooding featured on the news next day but I have not been able to find out much about them since except that over 100 mm of rain fell at our local observation station, which is an enormous total.

7/8th July 1970. Another night storm after a sweltering day with temperatures at the mystical 32C - a temperature far rarer then than nowadays. I remember being woken up at about 3am by a strange pulsing light at the window which I didn't at first recognise as lightning! That storm didn't produce any rain just thunder and this amazing continuous blue lightning.

12th May 2004. Near Wichita, Kansas USA. My first storm chase. The massive supercell we were following suddenly changed into a menacing, swirling "mother ship" formation, with cloud scraping the ground as we drove through a deluge of rain and an avalanche of up to 5 inch hail. The noise was incredible and visibility almost nil. That was frightening enough, but suddenly the precipitation ceased, we stopped and looked up to see the clouds literally spinning, and only a few hundred yards directly in front of us the most enormous tornado. We were in the "bear's cage" and it was very, very scary. The realisation that this could easily kill you was both immediate and profound. Then we had to go, as large hailstones began whistling down again. Thanks to the cool headedness and expertise of our crew we made it to safety without serious incident, although the van looked as if it had been attacked with a sledgehammer!!

Edited by LawLord
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Posted
  • Location: Bangor, Northern Ireland (20m asl, near coast)
  • Weather Preferences: Any weather will do.
  • Location: Bangor, Northern Ireland (20m asl, near coast)
From way back in my childhood I can think of 3 storms that were really scary yet they provided the impetus for my current interest in severe weather. Perhaps I needed to understand them to overcome my fear of thunder. The only other storm that really scared me was in 2004, of which more later.

13th July 1964. Surely the scariest storm of my life until 2004. The memory is vague after 44 years but it began about 21.00 and lasted for 5 hours. We had large hail that broke a neighbour's greenhouse windows, flash flooding, loss of all power for 12 hours and a lot of scared people. The older generation were saying they had never experinced a worse one. Subsequent research has unfortunately failed to find out very much about this storm although it seems a cold front became stationary which accounts for the duration.

22/23 July 1967. After a rather humid, sultry day things clouded up in the evening and as my Dad and I walked back from the village where we had got some fish and chips, we had a few spots of "heat rain". Later as I lay in bed with the curtains open around 22.00 I was startled by a distinct double flash in the Southern sky. The ensuing storm lasted for some 8 hours and produced continuous lightning and thunder at its height and a lot of flash flooding. These storms and the flooding featured on the news next day but I have not been able to find out much about them since except that over 100 mm of rain fell at our local observation station, which is an enormous total.

7/8th July 1970. Another night storm after a sweltering day with temperatures at the mystical 32C - a temperature far rarer then than nowadays. I remember being woken up at about 3am by a strange pulsing light at the window which I didn't at first recognise as lightning! That storm didn't produce any rain just thunder and this amazing continuous blue lightning.

12th May 2004. Near Wichita, Kansas USA. My first storm chase. The massive supercell we were following suddenly changed into a menacing, swirling "mother ship" formation, with cloud scraping the ground as we drove through a deluge of rain and an avalanche of up to 5 inch hail. The noise was incredible and visibility almost nil. That was frightening enough, but suddenly the precipitation ceased, we stopped and looked up to see the clouds literally spinning, and only a few hundred yards directly in front of us the most enormous tornado. We were in the "bear's cage" and it was very, very scary. The realisation that this could easily kill you was both immediate and profound. Then we had to go, as large hailstones began whistling down again. Thanks to the cool headedness and expertise of our crew we made it to safety without serious incident, although the van looked as if it had been attacked with a sledgehammer!!

Awesome stories....certainly loved the Bears Cage one, would have loved to have been in it myself.

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  • 1 year later...
Posted
  • Location: Newbury Berkshire
  • Location: Newbury Berkshire

Hi just a couple of quick stories:D . Many years ago when i was fishing a local lake. I was sat there on an otherwise uneventfull day when it suddenly got dark and very threatening looking but being young carried on regardless when suddenly an almighty flash which blinded you and the loudest clap of thunder i have ever heard{the lightening and thunder were simultanious}i jumped out of my skin and thought blimey perhaps we had better pack up and go home;) ?

Second story - I was watching a storm aproaching Newbury from the south,it was just after tea time 7pm and was quite a spectacular show,i tried to film some lightening on me mobile phone and wow got a perfect shot of some fork lightening C/G,then the storm passed over and was gone,but on watching the news later a golfer had been struck and killed by lightening that very evening at 7-30pm - when i checked my footage on me mobile phone the time of the fork lightening was 7 - 30 pm:shok:

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Posted
  • Location: West London - ASL 36.85m/120ft
  • Weather Preferences: Cold/stormy
  • Location: West London - ASL 36.85m/120ft

Well, i was in dunkurke . Me and my family were camping. It was a hot humid day, we went to sleep only to be woken by our tent which is a X - army tent so its big and tall collapse, i went outside and got us all in the car and went to pack up the tent then did i relise it was STRUCK...

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Posted
  • Location: Cheltenham,Glos
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms :D
  • Location: Cheltenham,Glos

Well, i was in dunkurke . Me and my family were camping. It was a hot humid day, we went to sleep only to be woken by our tent which is a X - army tent so its big and tall collapse, i went outside and got us all in the car and went to pack up the tent then did i relise it was STRUCK...

I can understand how scary that was for you all !! :pardon: Camping can be dangerous when there is a storm as I well know lol. Always best to jump in the car and head away from the Storm.

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Posted
  • Location: West Bridgford, Nottingham
  • Location: West Bridgford, Nottingham

Ive a few memories....

On holiday in Kissimme -Florida, February 1998

Large tornado outbreak, F3 hit 3 miles from where I was staying. Amazing lightning show.

I was only 12 years old at the time yet I was out dancing in the warm dry air watching the lightning and listening to the thunder in the very near distance, I even recall seeing the funnel/tornado during lightning flashes. The news stations had Tornado Watch issued and a Severe Weather Warning. I was amazed and still am to this day.

Summer MCS - Belfast 2004

High based, Low precipitation storm with frequent lightning which was mostly CG. I was getting ready for a snooker match when it kicked off....thankfully it was not overhead but it was slow moving. Lightning and thunder lasted for a good 2 hours. The best home storm I have seen in recent years.

Got a couple more which I'll post up, just have to recall what year they were.

I was also in Kissimmee Florida in February 1998 staying on a campground in an RV and do recall a pretty scary evening / night with all the tornado warnings in the area. I was spooked too and hoped I would still be there in the morning as we were flying back to England a few weeks later.

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Posted
  • Location: Stanwell(south side of Heathrow Ap)
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms, squally fronts, snow, frost, very mild if no snow or frost
  • Location: Stanwell(south side of Heathrow Ap)

Great stories! violent storms July 2006 - the long hot drought summer , mid july violent thunderstorms broke out across surrey(i was/am now weybridge)

the storms had hit out west england earlier think it was a cold front or trough from west, the most loudest violent storm since the 80s that i remember, ive actually got and audio recording of it, must upload it at some point on netw , it was forks every few secs and was the air expanding ripping crackers of thunder ,very scarry ,houses were set alight at walton and weyb there were many sirens and we had flash floods had inces of water at my door almost needed fire truck but someone sorted drains, it made the tv news.

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Posted
  • Location: West London - ASL 36.85m/120ft
  • Weather Preferences: Cold/stormy
  • Location: West London - ASL 36.85m/120ft

I can understand how scary that was for you all !! :lazy: Camping can be dangerous when there is a storm as I well know lol. Always best to jump in the car and head away from the Storm.

Did'nt even know there was a storm that night the radar said NO STORM litrally :lol:

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Posted
  • Location: Stanwell(south side of Heathrow Ap)
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms, squally fronts, snow, frost, very mild if no snow or frost
  • Location: Stanwell(south side of Heathrow Ap)

I remember some violent long all night storms this was the 80s and through to early 90s , storms were day turned to night, lasting many hrs but easing off like a quite hr then back again, i know people thats seen ball lightning back then, the nights of red and purple lightning ,ive seen all but red lightning since the 80s i like purple, dont no what caused the red colour in one violent storm late 80s at night (cant remember the year) maybe it folowed a drought and was high upper pollution, it wasnt long after sunset from the se i remember.

i want to research the storms of the old days, the set up ect..

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Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset

So many good memories of storms, mostly before I was following them but even some after, here's a list:

1996/1997 sometime in Brasil. Overhead thunder and lightning, really loud thunder and spectacular anvil crawlers but no rain throughout the storm. Went on for about 4 hours from 10pm when I was supposed to be going to bed until 2am.

27th May 1999 (http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/1999/Rrea00119990527.gif)

Still young at the time but after a very warm and summerlike day and even dinner on the patio in the evening, I remember the sky going very dark from the south shortly before sunset. From about 10pm onwards all hell let loose - spectacular thunder and lightning, window rattling in nature and torrential rain. Living in a house where parts of upstairs had skylight windows sort of let you know about it! It went on for a good 4-5 hours too and having done a bit of research, it could well have been an MCS.

27th July 2000 (http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/2000/Rrea00120000727.gif)

I remember this as this was the day we got back from our summer holiday. The moment set foot into the house, it started rumbling outside. At first I thought it was to the east of us as the sun was shining and there was black sky and rainbow to our east but in fact it was backbuilding. There wasn't much lightning that I can remember but certainly a monumental downpour of hail! My Brasilian cousins were over at the time and had never seen hail before so was quite something for them.

04th July 2001 (http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/2001/Rrea00120010704.gif)

After a few hot and humid days, the sky was actually going rather grey and threatening on the Tuesday evening but I didn't think anything of it. Though an almighty bang of thunder woke me up at about 4am and as per usual I rushed to the window to have a look, only half registering the first bang. When all I saw was grey sky, I went back into bed when there was a flash then a bang. Great! I thought. This was the start of 3 fantastic thunderstorms moving up from the south. The first was from 4.30-6am, the next from 7.30-8.30am and another at 10am. The rain was fantastic, a thoroughly wet day in the school playground and the school was without power until midday when things calmed down. Later that day my tennis lesson was cancelled because all the courts were waterlogged.

28th January 2002 (http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/2002/Rrea00120020128.gif)

A very unexpected one so even more surprising. Having rained to start the day, it went pretty much dusk dark outside when an almighty downpour of hail preceded a good half hour of blue lightning and crashing thunder. I do love the sound of winter thunder, so different to summer thunder. All this accompanied by a strong gale too. It was then sunny all afternoon lol.

09th August 2002 (http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/2002/Rrea00120020809.gif)

I was sailing on a reservoir in Oxford on this day. There was no wind but whilst out in the middle of the reservoir I noticed the sky to the south and east turning a greenish colour. I got worried when I saw the first streak of lightning not too far and the first crackling thunder sounded. Our sailing instructor had to quickly get us off the reservoir as the storm very quickly caught up with us with some wonderful CG and CC strikes. Then the rain started in tropical proportions but by that stage the best of the storm had gone with only odd rumbles of thunder to follow.

30th April 2003 (http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/2003/Rrea00120030430.gif)

Again, not following the weather by forecast, this one caught me out big time! The day started bright and sunny so I packed shorts and tee-shirt for an afternoon of outdoor pursuits. Sitting in lessons all morning I wasn't taking much notice of outside until I heard a rumble of thunder. At the start of lunch break about 12.30 it went very dark outside, people were standing in the playground pointing and looking at the sky to the southwest. Now I can say that it was quite definitely a roll cloud with frequent flashes underneath. It was after the rain and hail had hit that I began to see actual lightning structures, not just flashes. Our outdoor activities were cancelled and instead the lightning set off the fire alarm.

2004 was a good year for storms, 2 were already in the bank by the end of January. The 11th Jan one was accompanied by a waterspout going up the Severn Estuary and I don't think anybody who experienced it will forget the thundersnow on the 28th - that was incredible! Then a gap before the 10th/11th May ones. They came after rather hot and sultry days but unusually, from the north - a direction I had not previously associated with storms at all. The summer had quite a few storms, including a particularly heavy one on 16th Aug (Boscastle Day).

13th September 2004 (http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/2004/Rrea00120040913.gif)

An ordinary day of sunshine and blustery showers turned into something else on the bus ride home from school. A wall of rain and large hail hit the bus going up the Long Ashton bypass. Apart from feeling the wind rocking the bus slightly and sitting on the upper deck, the bus had to pull over and wait at the next bus stop to let the storm ease. Looking out the window, the wind was incredible with leaves and smaller twigs flying everywhere and surface water mounting the pavements. When I got off the bus further along the bus route on the other side of the storm, the sun was shining and the roads were soaked but you could hear the storm rumbling on to the northeast.

Haven't time now to share memories of more recent ones but there are a few above. :rolleyes:

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Posted
  • Location: Sandown, Isle of Wight
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms and snow
  • Location: Sandown, Isle of Wight

I have 1 very special storm I remember:

1st one, 26th July 2006- This is probabaly the best storm I have ever seen. The day started off on a very warm and humid note and felt very uncomfortable as the day went on and was like that Hot and sticky feel. By about mid day onwards some AcCas was starting to form and the afternoon became hotter and temperatures was actually in its 30's. By about 4pm me, my Brother and my Dad went down to ventnor for a nice walk,when we got there I looked over out to sea and it was very dark out there and there was distant rumbling going, I said to my dad i can hear thunder in the distant and he was na its not thunder as he couldn't hear it and I said it is the thunder becasue it sounded exactly like thunder and it kept doing it ever few seconds or a few minutes. Anyway after we had our walk we headed back to the car and then finally my dad gave in and said actually that is thunder and i was like I told you, unfortunatly the storm was not coming our way and then i started to lose hope if we was going to get any storms.

At about 6pm we got home and it felt very humid and muggy still but still no sign of any storms coming our way, had diner about 7:15pm and then went to the carnival which was right behind my house. As we got to the carnival it came over very dark but only gave a few spots of rain then moved on i felt disappointed becasue i thought that was it, Then we went home at about 8pm or 8:30 can't remember. We went in the house and i got told to take somet out into the Garden so i did and as i went out in the garden I heard a crackle and then rumbling and my thoughts was THUNDER!! I ran upstairs into my bedroom and with in 5 seconds of opening my window A huge CG hit to the Left of me with some loud thunder and i was WOOO bring it on, It was very dark to my east and thats where i saw the CG but that was just 1 Storm cloud, it produced quite a few beutiful CGS for about 10 minutes. Then I was hearing thunder to my south and looked that way and all I saw was this Huge Thunderstorm coming right towards me and then connected to the other storm to my east and I shouted to parents "I THINK WE ARE IN FOR A BIG SHOW". They laughed and said looks like we are not going to see you all night then considering you will be weather watching all night and I was like yup :rolleyes:.

Anyway back to the Storm, As i said this storm from the south had connected with the storm to my east so basically we had 2 storms turn into 1 mega one, I started to see Lightning flashing to my South, East and South West. As the storm was getting closer the Lightning was becoming very frequent but there was hardly any thunder and for the first 2 hours it was just like 1 big Lightning show but the Lightning was flashing anywhere between 0.5 seconds and 5 seconds with no gaps at all and was producing the best CG's and CC'S I have ever seen with somtimes about 5 or 6 strikes all at once and next to each other. The storm was very slow moving and then after about 2 hours the Thunder started to get frequent and very loud and the thunder was constantly grumbling, crackling non stop, then the rain started but strangely was not very heavy it was more like an electrical storm with hardly much rain. This went on for about 3-4 hours and there was even spider Lightning as well and Lightning just traveling across the sky in some style. Thunder was Just shaking the whole area, My brother could not sleep with it going on and my mum was watching it with me and then my brother Joined and they was like WOW!!!

This storm will take some beating for a while from what I have seen in my life time which is only 17 years.

I probably posted this before but can't remember lol. I do have another one I remember but will post that later on today :lol:

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