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Severe Thunderstorm July 25th/26th 1985

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  • Posts: 21,179 ✭✭✭✭ Lilly Nutritious Needlework


    Rrrrrr2 wrote: »
    I don’t remember the 85 one but remember one around June 22nd 1986? My brother was born and our phone was blown off the wall by lightning. Wall was marked for years with the smoke stain!
    Remember a few severe ones like late August 91 and also August or July 1995- living in Kilkenny.

    Yeah the mid to late 80's were a good time for Thunderstorms, even the early 90s Unfortunately a lot of People won't remember these and think that a thunder shower with a couple of claps of Thunder = a Thunderstorm.


  • Registered Users Posts: 982 ✭✭✭Rrrrrr2




  • Registered Users Posts: 982 ✭✭✭Rrrrrr2


    Yeah the mid to late 80's were a good time for Thunderstorms, even the early 90s Unfortunately a lot of People won't remember these and think that a thunder shower with a couple of claps of Thunder = a Thunderstorm.

    All I remember is adults talking about how dangerous they were (remember being warned not to sit near the window as a thing!) so given the lower safety standards of the time it’s safe to say people were genuinely concerned. Plugging out all appliances I can remember as very much a done thing in our house as a kid during thunderstorms


  • Registered Users Posts: 982 ✭✭✭Rrrrrr2




  • Posts: 21,179 ✭✭✭✭ Lilly Nutritious Needlework


    Yeah I remember the crop damage it was extensive but wasn't unique to the 1985 Storm.

    I remember the noise of some of the downpours/hail in some of these storms.

    If only there was a way People could have recorded some of these storms then like possible today !


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  • Registered Users Posts: 982 ✭✭✭Rrrrrr2


    Lots of farm animals killed in the 85 storm- they would be especially vulnerable sheltering under trees and fences, wet exposed ground are great conductors


  • Registered Users Posts: 982 ✭✭✭Rrrrrr2


    Yeah I remember the crop damage it was extensive but wasn't unique to the 1985 Storm.

    I remember the noise of some of the downpours/hail in some of these storms.

    If only there was a way People could have recorded some of these storms then like possible today !

    I know- bar the odd pic and Rte clip we have very little. Culturally, it’s not something people even did then- pics were taken mostly of special occasions. Taking pics of routine items would have been considered odd or a waste of good film!


  • Registered Users Posts: 982 ✭✭✭Rrrrrr2


    Is the south east slightly worse than other parts of the country for thunder and lightning I wonder? We seemed to be at the epi centre of nearly all these worst storms? Or is that just my bias as that’s where I’m from?


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 16,679 Mod ✭✭✭✭Gonzo


    Rrrrrr2 wrote: »
    Is the south east slightly worse than other parts of the country for thunder and lightning I wonder? We seemed to be at the epi centre of nearly all these worst storms? Or is that just my bias as that’s where I’m from?

    The east is rarely great for thunder, particularly the northern half of Leinster. Western areas definitely see more in the way of thundery showers and sometimes the south coast can get some welsh imports or the odd thunderstorm drifting up from France as they die out. Ireland in general is a very poor location for thunderstorms. A clap or two of thunder is not a thunderstorm and that is what we mostly get and even those are rare.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,163 ✭✭✭PokeHerKing


    Yeah the mid to late 80's were a good time for Thunderstorms, even the early 90s Unfortunately a lot of People won't remember these and think that a thunder shower with a couple of claps of Thunder = a Thunderstorm.

    Does the data back this statement up? I was born in 85 but can't say I remember much in the way of a difference re thunderstorms over the decades. I'm in Dublin though which in general doesn't get many anyway so maybe that's the reason.


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  • Posts: 21,179 ✭✭✭✭ Lilly Nutritious Needlework


    Does the data back this statement up? I was born in 85 but can't say I remember much in the way of a difference re thunderstorms over the decades. I'm in Dublin though which in general doesn't get many anyway so maybe that's the reason.

    No Idea about that data just what I remember and they were definitely not the thunder shower and 3 claps of thunder we get today at least here in the South East, Carlow Town direction.


  • Posts: 21,179 ✭✭✭✭ Lilly Nutritious Needlework


    Gonzo wrote: »
    The east is rarely great for thunder, particularly the northern half of Leinster. Western areas definitely see more in the way of thundery showers and sometimes the south coast can get some welsh imports or the odd thunderstorm drifting up from France as they die out. Ireland in general is a very poor location for thunderstorms. A clap or two of thunder is not a thunderstorm and that is what we mostly get and even those are rare.

    That's the thing about a lot of the storms we would have got back then that I always remember on the forecast about them moving up from the Bay of Biscay something that rarely happens today but would have given the South East a lot more action than today.

    Even in my part of the country we get a lot less thundery downpours and thunder than we would normally the last couple of years as a lot of the showers would move in from the west directly over the Castlecomer Plateau but now these showers even though much less frequent and intense in General seem not to be moving West/East but more of a North Easterly direction.

    So whether all this change the last couple of years is a direct result of the change in the Gulf Stream I don't know but it's the most logical explanation but I do know our weather/Climate on this part of the Island has changed.

    I've always been weather mad so I pay attention to it and can remember a lot.


  • Registered Users Posts: 982 ✭✭✭Rrrrrr2


    I remember last summer we got a (relatively) intense thunderstorm one night and like that it had pushed up for the south Irish Sea into Wexford Waterford and on inland to us and was quite intense


  • Posts: 21,179 ✭✭✭✭ Lilly Nutritious Needlework


    Rrrrrr2 wrote: »
    I remember last summer we got a (relatively) intense thunderstorm one night and like that it had pushed up for the south Irish Sea into Wexford Waterford and on inland to us and was quite intense

    Ah yeah I remember that, I was out watching the lightning hardly any Thunder it was a good bit away it would have been more over Wexford South of Carlow direction but it did actually look a decent bit wherever it was.


  • Registered Users Posts: 20,323 ✭✭✭✭Rikand


    I was 3 years old and my dad woke me up to come peek out through the curtains of the sitting room window at the storm. We were there for a good 10 minutes until my mother walked into the room and ushered us away because of the danger of being near the windows. The memory is still as clear as the sky was illuminated that night


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,219 ✭✭✭Gaoth Laidir


    Some of the nonsense we were told - and swallowed - when we were young.

    "Don't go near dogs in a storm, they attract lightning"

    "Stay away from herds of cows".

    "Lightning can jump in the window/down the chimney at you".

    "Thunder is God moving the furniture".

    Any others?


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,235 ✭✭✭Oneiric 3


    One trend I have noticed is the decrease in August thunderstorms. I remember when I was wee, that storms in August and even early September were something to be feared. They moved in slowly (adding to the excitment) and lasted for hours on end. Thunderstorms these days seem more confined to June and July (not that we have seen much in this regard here this summer :rolleyes:)

    New Moon



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,991 ✭✭✭Mongfinder General


    One of my earliest memories was being taken to a Leinster Final between Dublin and Laois in July 1985. I think that was the wettest that I’ve ever been at a football match.


  • Registered Users Posts: 982 ✭✭✭Rrrrrr2


    One of my earliest memories was being taken to a Leinster Final between Dublin and Laois in July 1985. I think that was the wettest that I’ve ever been at a football match.

    Yea I believe 85 and 86 were really dreadful summers. Someone can correct me here but wasn’t the weather in September and October glorious after it? 1986 especially


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,339 ✭✭✭esposito


    Oneiric 3 wrote: »
    One trend I have noticed is the decrease in August thunderstorms. I remember when I was wee, that storms in August and even early September were something to be feared. They moved in slowly (adding to the excitment) and lasted for hours on end. Thunderstorms these days seem more confined to June and July (not that we have seen much in this regard here this summer :rolleyes:)

    August really is a s***e month these days. No good thunderstorms anymore and no hot sunny days anymore. All we seem to get now is cool atlantic winds with heavy horizontal rain and if it's not that, it's just overcast with drizzle. Prove me wrong 2021!


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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,339 ✭✭✭The One Doctor


    The 85/86 storm was epic, and left my frightened of thunderstorms for years. Then I moved to Brisbane and experienced some awesome storms. We had a large tower near us and it would take a CG strike every few minutes. It was glorious and cured me of my phobia as I realised that I enjoyed it.


    Hope to have a MCS again in Ireland this year!



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,386 ✭✭✭olestoepoke


    I'm reading peoples posts saying they were 11 years old and remember it well, I grew up on the Northside of Dublin and I can't remember it at all, I was also 11 years old at the time BTW



  • Registered Users Posts: 10,181 ✭✭✭✭greenspurs


    Was camping in Curracloe with scouts.

    I dont think we got it too bad, but i know my parents and aunt were driving back to Kilkenny from Curracloe that night and they were terrified by the thunderstorm.


    (another good storm happened during a Bon Jovi gig in the RDS in early 2000s ?? )

    "Bright lights and Thunder .................... "



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,339 ✭✭✭esposito


    Yes August 2000. Wasn't there but heard it was epic.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,485 ✭✭✭Billcarson


    I remember the night of 25th July 85,thunder and lightning all night and torrential downpours I lived in South Dublin and was 11 at the time.

    Also the around the end of June 86 we had some great thunder storms too.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,485 ✭✭✭Billcarson


    Yes September and October 86 were good. I think if I remember rightly that we had a few frosty nights around the end of September though. Had an Indian summer in October for awhile with temperatures around the mid 20s during a warm spell .



  • Registered Users Posts: 19,369 ✭✭✭✭road_high




  • Registered Users Posts: 19,369 ✭✭✭✭road_high


    Really interesting discussion and folk memories surrounding this storm still around Kilkenny



  • Registered Users Posts: 19,369 ✭✭✭✭road_high


    I can imagine from anything I’ve read it would have been pretty dangerous too- the road up from New Ross is surrounded by massive trees in a lot if it



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  • Registered Users Posts: 8,913 ✭✭✭Danno


    36 years ago today.



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