The UK's worst convective storm of
the last 200 years? - 9th August 1843
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These accounts
convey the fury of a particularly severe convective storm
that affected S England in August 1843 (most reports cite
the 9th as the date). The storm had all the hallmarks of
a severe supercell more like those met with in
"Tornado Alley" - and a noteworthy one by that
standard. It is worth reading these to appreciate what
can brew up in favourable conditions in the UK. Thanks to
TORRO, Shena Mason, Peter Bradley, Trevor Harley and
members of UK Weatherworld who assisted in compiling this
page.
Account no. 1 - Trevor
Harley's weather archive pages:
1843: The Great Hailstorm on the 9th with a hailswath
across the Midlands and East Anglia, from Oxford to
Norfolk. It was perhaps one of the most severe, and
perhaps the most detructive,hailstorm ever recorded in
Britain. It was extremely destructive, destroying glass
and flattening crops. 25 cm hailstones were recorded, and
in places the stones lay 1.5 m deep. The thunderstorms
were accompanied by tornadoes. Trees were uprootted and
crops were ruined, and the General Hail Insurance company
(later the Norwich Union) was formed as a consequence.
Account
no. 2 - from the Wimpole
village web site:
'A most dreadful storm passed over this parish and caused
the most serious destruction of property. It began about
4 o'clock p.m. and lasted several hours - the lightning
and hail were terrific, the former like sheets of fire
filled the air and ran along the ground, the latter as
large as pigeon's eggs; some larger and others large
angular masses of ice....
The destruction of property was dreadful! All the windows
on the north side of the Mansion [i.e. Wimpole Hall] were
broken, all the hothouses, and every window facing the
north in many of the cottages!... The storm entered from
the north sea and passed through the land in a SW
direction, spreading ruin in its progress - "the
land before it was as the Garden of Eden, behind it a
barren and desolate wilderness". The corn over which
it passed was entirely threshed out, boughs and limbs
torn off the trees, pigeons and crows killed, many sheep
struck by lightning, and what the hail and lightning did
not utterly destroy, the rain which fell in torrents
finished.
Such was the violence of the rain and its continuance
that a stream rolled down Arrington Hill four or five
feet deep, washed men off their feet, and carried away 30
or 40 feet of the Park wall. But amidst all this
affliction God was merciful; no human lives were lost,
and the destruction of property, although grievous, was
partial.' (Rector H.R.Yorke writing in 1843 in the Church
Registers, Wimpole, Cambridgeshire)
Account no. 3 - from the Torro
journal, Convection (500K PDF
file):
9 August 1843 Taking into account the length and width of
the hail swath, and the mean and peak intensity, this was
probably Britain’s most destructive recorded single
hailstorm. Near Enstone (Oxfordshire), Welsh and
Stonesfield roofing slates were “pounded to
pieces”. The city of Cambridge experienced
widespread destruction of glass, chimney pots, and
slates. The hail and wind storm caused massive
destruction to trees and window glass in the vicinities
of Biggleswade (Bedfordshire), Thetford (where “the
hail and hurricane broke every window which faced the
onslaught”), and Norwich (intensity H7, swath length
255km).
Account no. 4, from the Birmingham
Archives:
JWP [James Watt Papers] MII/10/5 (27a): C.H. Turner
(London) to James Watt junior (Doldowlod), 25 August
1843:
'...Mr John Wilkinson writes, that 9 days after the Hail
Storms at Tew, he took up Hail stones 6 1/2 inches diam.
and sent 2 Cartloads of Ice to the Ice House - I have
requested Symes to have this attested!!! Damage to crops
estimated at 3000£....'
On 28 Aug. James Watt jun. replied to this [27b]:
'...Mr Jones Wilkinson's account of the Hailstones at Tew
is certainly of the marvellous kind, and it is lucky for
him he was not struck by any of these 6 1/2 inchers!! The
storm did not reach us here...'
Analysis
Sadly, searches to date have failed to turn up much
contextual data to accompany this event. All we can say
is that a massive storm, probably supercellular in
nature, tracked for 255km in a reportedly WSW direction
from the North Sea into the S Midlands. Violent
straight-line and possibly tornadic winds accompanied the
system. The synoptic set-up in which the storm occurred
would have to account for severe instability. Such setups
are most frequently associated in Summer with so-called
Spanish Plumes - where heatwave conditions are associated
with shallow low pressure systems developing in the
Iberia - NW France area moving north across the UK, to
collide with colder air to the N and W.
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