I've always been fascinated by adverse weather, thunderstorms in particular. I lived in Eastern Europe for a while and really enjoyed watching the (at times violent) storms, sadly, here in the UK getting a good storm is quite rare in comparison. I see that the UK weather is supposed to improve this weekend so it's possible the heat will trigger some convective weather though usually anything of note tends to be further south or clipping the Kent coast. A couple of good sites that forecast stormy weather (for anyone who hasn't seen them) http://www.convectiveweather.co.uk/ this site is usually pretty good at giving the prospects of lightening/thunder within a +24 hours period. My favourite site is: https://www.lightningmaps.org/?lang=en#x=;m=oss;r=0;t=3;s=0;o=0;b=0.00;n=0;d=2;dl=2;dc=0;ts=0; This site shows actual lightening strikes in real time, one of the things you can do is zoom into your map/local area when it's convective weather and watch the lightening strike and then view circular expending sound wave of the thunder travel over your house as you can hear the actual thunderclap. Anyhow, anyone have good stories or memories of adverse weather?
I was in a big thunderstorm in Guyana many years ago. The lightning strikes were vicious, killed one dog and laid an army lass out. She was really lucky; got told afterward it was only because her heart was on the in beat she survived.
I would love to visit a Tropical country to experience a vicious storm. It must have been a pretty harrowing experience? Was you outside at the time?
Aye, outside. Had shelter like, there were open sided buildings with corrugated rooves. When the lightning hit the roof, the electric would arc down and run through the standing water on the concrete base giving a mildish ground shock. The army lass took a direct hit to her watch as she was running to get under cover. I was one of the lads who helped stretcher her into the back of the pick up. That was a bit sketchy tbh, about five of us loading this unconscious lass into basically a big lump of metal with the sky booming and lighting up. Glad to be able to say she made a full recovery. Not sure the watch made it. The camp dog definately didn't make it, poor little barker.
Worst I've ever seen was that downpour a few years back. Rained for about 45 minutes. Water was pushing up the manhole covers and I remember wheelie bins floating down Newcastle City centre. Never seen a sky colour like it.
I was in the US (Philadelphia) when Hurricane Sandy hit the north east of the States. The worst damage obviously was in New York and New Jersey. But the force I witnessed in Philadelphia was the most scared I have ever been, never want to be anywhere near a Hurricane again.
Belize 1982. Watched a localised storm pass over the jungle (in the distance) the cloud continually flashed and seemed alive; I thought of it as a Tasmanian Devil. Wonderful to watch, but glad I didn’t get in it’s way. Some absolute monsters of storms used to rattle around the hills of Sek Kong in Hong Kong; kept well away from your balcony’s........demons in the sky
I remember taking a short cut across Tilbury Marshes (Essex) to a mates house, when I was quite young, around 15 years old - I was later going camping with some mates; it was an early start around 4 AM. The weather was horrendous,sticky and humid it was an extremely hot July at that time. Halfway across the marsh, out of the blue (dark indigo even ), a bolt of lightening struck the ground in front of me, it was more like a dazzling orb or ball , incredibly loud, the ground shook, it scared me senseless, so bright, the flash left an after image at the back of my eyes. It was probably the fastest I've ever ran, even whilst carrying a heavy rucksack at the time. Ever since, I have a part of me that wants to experience that phenomena again... albeit, tucked away in a safe environment.
we've just watched the perfect storm, we've nothing but green fields for miles in every direction, and this lightening storm was proper scary! its rumbling around now but the black skies are everywhere
Reminds me of a night drive across the moors from Whitby to Rosedale a few years back, in a vehicle with a history of breaking down at the wrong times, but thankfully he kept on running that night, then broke down the next day.
I love lightning maps, it's mesmerising - especially when it's thundering and lightning locally. Check out www.windy.com if you haven't already.. there's all kinds of layers available for different things like wind, waves, storms etc.