"Tudor Hughes" wrote in message
...

Seriously, I think that thunder has been displaced northwards in
this country in the last 25 years or so as part of the general
drying
up of summer down here though I don't have any figures to prove it.
Does anyone?

.... using the figures in the COL book of means for 1981-2010 (and
within that period, 2001-2010), there is some evidence for that
deduction:

I meaned-out five stations with 30 years-worth of 'thunder heard'
observations in the southeast against five stations in a composite of
the Midlands & NE England, looking at the annual and 'summer'
statistics [ all stations contributing to the full 30 year record ].

The five stations for the southeast we Maidenhead, Crowthorne,
Wokingham, Coulsdon & Warlingham.

Over the thirty years, the mean annual was 15.0 (summer 7.0); for the
last ten years (2001-2010), the figures came down slightly to 14.3
(summer 6.9).

The five stations for the 'north' (as defined above) we
Carlton-in-Coverdale, Middlesbrough, Whitby(WC), Wirksworth & Weston
Coyney.

Over the thirty years, the mean annual was 9.6 (summer 4.8); for the
last ten years the *annual* figure came down to 9.1 but the *summer*
figure *increased* to 5.9.

Whether these changes are statistically significant would take a much
deeper analysis than I can do with the data available to me, but I
would subjectively tend to agree with you that in recent years I've
watched situations where summer storms should have 'hit' places in the
south where I've been living ... only to see the activity focused
somewhat further north (and particularly east - ex-continental
activity grazing the eastern counties of England in particular).

Martin.





--
Martin Rowley
West Moors, East Dorset (UK): 17m (56ft) amsl
Lat: 50.82N Long: 01.88W
NGR: SU 082 023