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weather-uk press pack

Ready-prepared articles on thunder, lightning and hail

• 990612 Early-summer storms Late-May and early-June often bring some of the most severe thunderstorms that we experience in the UK. For instance, storms that swept
• 990821 Ball lightning A worker at a Tewkesbury factory saw “a dazzling blue-white ball bounce along the roof and then pass into the building” where it was seen by forty of
• 990911 Hail in the UK When you think about it, the weather we get on our planet is not very friendly at all. Even in this country we endure a constant sensory irritation, and
• 000722 Thunder makes the milk go sour “Didn’t you know, milk goes sour when there are thunderstorms around.” I was surprised to hear this old canard during a spell of
• 010721 The storms of July 1951 A remarkable swarm of thunderstorms and fierce downpours which swept a large part of the country from Aberdeenshire in the north to
• 010804 August, the thunderiest month of the year Thunderstorms rumble around Britain most frequently between May and September, and over a large part of the country
• 010929 Thunderstorms, an overview Most of us learn what thunder is at a very early age: it is the noise caused by clouds colliding, or it is simply God moving his furniture
• 021026 October thunder-showers The disturbed weather earlier this week brought a concoction of rain, snow, hail and thunder, and there were even a few reports of funnel
• 030719 French storms, July 2003 Britain rarely experiences thunderstorms as violent as those which struck south-western France on July 14. Worst hit were the southwestern
• 040229 Electricity without lightning Have you found this week’s weather shocking? In many parts of the UK the atmosphere has been so dry over the last few days, the
• 990606 “Freak electrical storms” You might have noticed that “thunderstorm” is one of those words which are no longer good enough for the tabloid newspapers, sports
• 000716 The brontometer My Collins desk dictionary does not mention the “brontometer”. Nor does it appear in the Met Office’s “Meteorological Glossary”. But there is an entry in the OED, and
• 010708 Violent thunderstorms in Wales, July 2001 The main features of the weather in July 2001 were the sauna-like heat and humidity of the first week, and the violent
• 010812 Hot summers are not the thunderiest One of the most commonly held myths about the British climate is that severe thunderstorms occur most frequently during hot
• 020421 Being struck by lightning I had a fright on Thursday. Following a short break in France the aircraft I was returning home in was struck by lightning during its descent
• 020811 Intensity of rain in a thunderstorm As a rule of thumb, half an inch in an hour is sufficient to cause sudden short-lived flooding in an urban area; road travel is thrown
• 9607xx Night-time thunderstorms Flickering lightning at the horizon, distant thunder grumbles long and low, the first huge drops of rain the size of half-crowns splatter on the slates of the kitchen roof below;