28 replies to this topic

[IanR]

I blame the BBC for less thunderstorms, its since they removed those black cloud symbols with a yellow zig zag and put on those patches of blue and green'puddles'

[Coast]

Are we just better off digging a big ditch on the French side, flooding it and using the spoil to extend our coastline towards these Euro-storms?

[Aaron]

The heat isn't here for storms in France to sustain themselves. As they move over the channel, they will die out, they are fueled by the current heatwave on the continent.

[Robbie Garrett]

Harry, yes I remember very well. I am guessing because of these slack pressure systems the air masses are not strong enough to cause fantastic thunderstorms, that we are used to having. I am overly anticipating what this winter will do, but I am sure Autumn can bring more storms than Summer, from what I remember most of these night storms where late September/early October as very strong lows from the Atlantic moved in over the warm air situated over the UK/Europe and can give some nasty home grown storms.


So what's the likely chances of some more Plumes?

Last year, I can only remember 1 or 2 single-cell thunderstorms. This year I can count 6-7 single cell thunderstorms, and one MCS. So comparatively, it's not been as bad as last year, but still not where it should be.

Regards,

R..

Edited by Robbie Garrett, 24 August 2011 - 19:35 .

[Robbie Garrett]

I found a video of what we used to have in the late 90s, albeit this is 1994 but I was only 1 then lol!




I can't believe that's daytime, but I remember stuff as intense as this but all night!!

[Victor Meldrew]

^ there were some pretty deadly storms in the 90's for the south and south east, then something changed in the world all that talk of 2003 heat being a common place was utter rubbish

[Phil UK]

Yes, Victor. I can't remember the exact year, but an evening/overnight storm over London caused a massive increase in athsma* atsthma*... Breathing difficulties due to airbourne pollen being washed down. Might have been 1995-96 unless someone can clarify that specific point in time for me. So that could have been very detrimental to many with lung disorders. But I think apart from June 27th/28th this year over London and the south east, it has been somewhat pretty tame compared to a couple of decades ago.

Phil.

[staplehurst]

To put it simply, we never had the conditions to sustain them when they crossed the Channel. SST's in the high teens sustained them initially, but as they got closer to UK shore our surface temps were around 13/14C, whilst warmer at 850mb due to the plume, and this created a shallow inversion at the surface. We can't really expect any good imports when our daytime maxes during the day were just 21C. We were the wrong side of the cold front throughout and thus were not in the proper warm and humid airmass sadly. Always next time I guess!

How I long to see imports like those on 6th Aug 2008...

[Coast]

staplehurst, on 27 August 2011 - 07:53 , said:

To put it simply, we never had the conditions to sustain them when they crossed the Channel. SST's in the high teens sustained them initially, but as they got closer to UK shore our surface temps were around 13/14C

I've just selected this set of data from my local monitoring buoy to show the recent and more historic SST's to see if the Channel has become colder in the last few years:

Here's this year and the previous 2 years:







and here is the first 2 years of readings from when the system was put in place:





They seem to be quite consistent and with little variance (+/- 1.5 Dgc ish), but just that smidgen cooler of late - were 2003 and 2004 any better for imported French storms does anyone remember?