Another post on the severe thunderstorms of August 31 2005.

Stundon93

Hello everyone. 

A few months ago, I made a post on here about the severe thunderstorms that developed over parts of Ireland on August 31 2005. 

Excluding the thunderstorms of June 2023, especially June 17th in Limerick, The August 31 2005 event was one of the most outstanding and violent thunderstorms i have experienced here in Limerick. I wrote that the convective outlook that was issued by estofex was very interesting, and that I have rarely seen a synoptic situation comparable to the 2005 event for Ireland, perhaps the July 25 1985 would be something comparable. 

Upon doing my own research and further investigation, it looks like this event came under the category of the classic Spanish plume, but what I find most interesting, is that thunderstorms in the classic Spanish plume most often effect southeast England, and not necessarily northern England and Ireland, so I am wondering, what was different in this case. 

I am wondering do we have any charts for that day, other archived forecasts?  

The thunder in Limerick that afternoon was some of the loudest thunder I had ever heard in this area for many years. It’s a pity that there doesn’t seem to be any footage of those storms. Estofex did a very good job at forecasting that event, but it would be interesting to see do we have any radar images etc. I am visually impaired so wouldn’t be able to see them, but it would be very interesting to see what transpired , what areas were the hardest hit etc. 

M.T. Cranium

I found a chart on wetterzentrale for the day in question, looks like a cold front slowly pushing into a very warm air mass, and a wave formed along the front in west-central Ireland around mid-day, so I imagine what made it severe around Limerick was that cooler marine air flowed in and lifted the unstable air with developing storm cells, pushing them to severe levels. The map I saw did not look like recent super heat waves drawing air up from south of France and Spain, it was likely a widespread warm air mass in place over the region for several days before, and just enough frontal instability to set off a line of storms, my guess would be they were severe mainly in midlands, possibly north Cork and Tipps also, as any cells would likely be drifting along rather slowly once formed.

I have a link here to charts:

http://wetterzentrale.de/reanalysis.php?map=1&model=noaa&var=1&jaar=2005&maand=08&dag=31&uur=1200&h=1&tr=360&nmaps=24#mapref

Stundon93

Very interesting. Have there been similar severe events around Limerick like the August 31 2005 event? Were there any storms that day around the west coast, areas like Kilkee for example?

M.T. Cranium

Well this weather forum was active in Aug 2005 and there were discussions of severe storms on 23 and 28 Aug but not on 31st. Net-weather had discussions of severe storms on 31 Aug including two reports from Antrim and Down sounding very similar to your recollections. There were also a few reports from various western counties of England.

Stundon93

Were there convective outlooks issued by net weather at that time? I could find the convective outlook issued by estofex, but that was pretty much it. Of interest to me was the mention in the estofex outlook of a low pressure system moving from northern bay of biscay to southeastern Ireland. That is why it remind me of the July 25th 1985 event.

Jpmarn

I live near Limerick City and I don’t particularly remember that thunderstorm event on the 31 August 2005. But I do remember the July 1985 event.

Stundon93

Curious to know if Limerick was effected much by the 1985 event? From my research it seems to have been mostly over eastern and central Ireland. The August 31 2005 event I remember really well. It was an extremely humid and sultry day. I was in my grandmothers house and nearly every window in the house was shaking with the thunder.

Jpmarn

The 1985 event was pretty bad in the Limerick area. I think there was at least a lightning strike every minute if not more frequent. I remember going to bed and falling asleep during the event. I know of myself being able to sleep through thunderstorms. I was 14 in 1985. Although in recent years I have found myself being awoken by thunder.

Stundon93

Interesting. I wonder if certain parts of the country are more prone to severe thunderstorms than others. I suppose Limerick would be one of the places in summer, due to its inland location. the August 31 2005 event was a primarily evening event. In 2020 there were severe thunderstorms in Limerick on the night of June 12th 2020 and again on August 12 2020, both of those were also Spanish plume setups.