Thunder & Lightening, why do we get so few "proper" thunderstorms in Ireland?

LordSutch · 25-04-2013 09:13PM #1

Is it my imagination ot are we somewhat shortchanged in our quota of real "Hammer horror" type thunderstorms in Ireland?

Having lived & traveled around Britain + continent for many years I can safely say that most, if not all the major thunderstorms I have witnessed over the decades have been outside of Ireland, but is that just my experience or is the Irish climate just naturally a thunderstorm light climate?

Last Big Thunder & lightening storm I witnessed was in southern England, and I can honestly say that I have never seen anything like that here.

Curious.

25-04-2013 09:54PM

One of the main reasons is that Ireland is a small landmass surrounded by water, and so in summertime its still relatively cool, unlike on the continent where you have a large land area, in summer the surface heats up and you get a lot of convection ( air getting warmed at the surface and moving upward essentially) which allows large thunderstorms to form. In Ireland we are reliant on storms coming in off the atlantic which probably wont have the same intensity.

I havent studied thunderstorms for a few years but I think of them forming like this: you get large amounts of rapidly rising air, which will have a lot of friction with the air it moves into, causing electrons to be stripped from the air particles, resulting in a static electricity build up in the air, which then discharges as lightning.

Here in Austria during the summer months you get periods of daily storm, with really cool lightning

Oscar Bravo · 25-04-2013 10:07PM

Theres been plenty of examples of Proper Thunderstorms over the years,of course not as widespread as other countries, one such event here http://www.met.ie/climate-ireland/weather-events/July1985_Thunderstorm.PDF

cml387 · 26-04-2013 08:13PM

Thunder seems to be more of a winter phenomenon in Ireland.

That being said I can remember some extremely violent summer thunderstorms, one being the day we finished school for the summer holidays. It was probably July 1967 or 1968.

amadangomor · 28-04-2013 12:14PM

Oscar Bravo wrote: »

Theres been plenty of examples of Proper Thunderstorms over the years,of course not as widespread as other countries, one such event here http://www.met.ie/climate-ireland/weather-events/July1985_Thunderstorm.PDF

I remember the one in 1985 well,my mother took us to the circus that evening and we called in to our Aunts house on the way back and had to stay there all night.Didn't let up all night,was hard to sleep.

Gonzo · 28-04-2013 09:44PM

last one I remember is 1985, since then we've had a few but nothing more than a few rumbles and the odd flash of lightning, my area missed out on the thundersnow about 2 years ago, we got the snow but missed out on the thunder. One of the main reasons we dont get thunderstorms in summer is Ireland rarely get's warm enough for a 'thundery breakdown', South-eastern england gets it much more regularly due to the heatwaves they get every summer, they have the classic saying 'three hot days and a thunderstorm'. Any decent thunderstorms ive encountered since 1985 have always been in Spain and they get some great ones!

thomasj · 28-04-2013 11:57PM

riffmongous wrote: »

One of the main reasons is that Ireland is a small landmass surrounded by water, and so in summertime its still relatively cool, unlike on the continent where you have a large land area, in summer the surface heats up and you get a lot of convection ( air getting warmed at the surface and moving upward essentially) which allows large thunderstorms to form. In Ireland we are reliant on storms coming in off the atlantic which probably wont have the same intensity.

Have to agree with the atlantic element.

But I've been in the Netherlands, nearly half the size of Ireland and also surrounded by water and the last few years I've been over its got decent summers (compared to ours) and some amazing thunderstorms. (there was one that struck the aircraft as we went out to board it we were huddled back into the airport!)

Danno · 29-04-2013 12:11AM

England can get stronger storms due to them flaring up over France and moving north into SE England (only a 20 or 30mile water body to cross)

Rarely we can get the Spanish plume, involves a strong southerly drift at high altitudes. Often these can be dry storms... a real treat as no rain curtain hides the lightning.

We can and do get some severe homegrown storms, for this we need a weak high pressure centered over us allowing heat to rise quickly and not be blown on by winds higher up.

MidMan25 · 29-04-2013 01:00AM

The best thunderstorm I ever saw in Ireland was June 2002 on the eve of the Ireland Cameroon game.

Where I live in Cork we heard the first rumblings at 4pm and there was no let up until about 2 in the morning!

It was very frequent lightning too, don't think it rained much if I recall correctly.

29-04-2013 01:13PM

thomasj wrote: »

Have to agree with the atlantic element.

But I've been in the Netherlands, nearly half the size of Ireland and also surrounded by water and the last few years I've been over its got decent summers (compared to ours) and some amazing thunderstorms. (there was one that struck the aircraft as we went out to board it we were huddled back into the airport!)

Hm, I wouldn't describe Netherlands as surrounded by water though, plus there's a much shorter distance to a large land surface area than from ireland.

Elmer Blooker · 29-04-2013 02:13PM

How many times have I seen a bog standard Atlantic cold front cross Ireland during the summer and giving rain in the west, little or nothing in the east and then when it hits the 30c heat in SE England turns explosive. We just don't get the heat.
The July 1985 storm was a very rare and unusual event as it was a very cool summer.
This was a good one, the night of Aug 25-26 2000.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/2000/brack/bracka20000826.gif

Super-Rush · 29-04-2013 02:47PM

I remember i thunderstorm from 96/97 that started at about 9pm and went on for a good few hours into the night. I fell asleep around 3 and it was in full swing. You could hear distant rumbles the next morning and around midday it started again. Our house was struck and we were without power for a few days. Thats the last big event i can remember.

29-04-2013 03:15PM

Just to give people an idea of what its like on the continent, here is the yearly flash statistics for Austria, broken down by province

http://www.aldis.at/statistics/main_e.php

so per year for the country it can be from 100,000 to 280,000!

Some interesting info here
http://www.aldis.at/statistics/multiplicity.html

weisses · 30-04-2013 03:23PM

riffmongous wrote: »

Hm, I wouldn't describe Netherlands as surrounded by water though, plus there's a much shorter distance to a large land surface area than from ireland.

Most of the more severe thunderstorms that hit The Netherlands form over France and then move northeastwards

Gonna spend a good part of May and June just south of Budapest .... Sweet-spot for Nice Thunderstorms

Pa ElGrande · 14-05-2013 06:50AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9xzU0xjlhE

Rikand · 14-05-2013 08:32AM

wow, when that first started up, it was like a portal to another world opening up

celt262 · 16-05-2013 04:04PM

Big rattle of thunder in Cavan just now with a heavy down pour of rain.

Thunder & Lightening, why do we get so few "proper" thunderstorms in Ireland?

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