Hailstorm in Lochee, Dundee, Scotland - 23 June 2011

I work in Dundee and watched all this happen from my window. U could see the clouds rolling in and u knew it was going to be thunder and lighting. Then this hail came so fast that it created all the mess u seen in the video's and picture but it only lasted about 5mins and yes the place looked like it had snowed but it was just cause of the rate it appeared. After a more minutes the sun was back out and the place dried up!

Summertime hail, usually a precursor for thunder & lightening ... well at least in my part of Scotland anyways. I've seen hail countless times in the summer, maybe not always with the ferocity shown on the video.

Somedays it does seem to be colder than what we usually have during the summer, but I only say that because I tend to view June as one of our better months with July and August being slightly wetter / cloudy.

In 40 years I've never known Scotland to be sunny or hot all summer unless we were having a heatwave and the last one of those to last all summer was either 2005 or 2006 (could be wrong but was round about then). Granted the east coast is usually drier and sunnier but usually a bit cooler than its wet and slightly more humid west coast cousin.

If you want sunshine and warmth then your best bet is TIree, but I doubt that even this year its anything but cold and wet :S

UK summers have always been a discombobulated ball-ache.

There was widespread sleet and showers June 2nd 1975 and a little more recently, a sleet shower was reported at Birmingham Airport during the morning of 7th June 1985.

Although unusual, unseasonal sleet and snow showers have been recorded over the century from may through to early november.

There is a distorted view of whats "normal" in the UK - people always remember the hot summers but don't remember the indifferent ones inbetween.

The slightly weakening gulf stream won't help of course, but the weather is always variable - a poster above mentions snow and sleet in June in the UK in '75 - well anyone who is old enough to remember '76 will tell you just how damn hot it was.

Swings and roundabouts I guess - although I do wonder if the seasonal weather variations haven't temporarily slipped forward a month - we seem to get early springs and early winters in recent years.

reply to post by neformore


The Summer of 1976 was extraordinary, wasn't it ? It was so hot & seemed to go on for week after week.

I remember sitting by the side of the road, the surface of which had become so pliable you could make tar balls and roll them into shape. Cars got covered in specks of sticky tar goo. And the drought restrictions, which seemed to cover the whole country ... don't flush the toilet, don't water the garden or wash your tarry car, share a bath (ooh aah) or retain the bathwater and use it again (yuck).

The last two Winters have been severe, in UK terms at least. I can't detect any other trend tbh, it's the same unpredictable weather as ever before.

It's definitely colder than normal in Scotland for this time of year and we've had more hail than usual over the past few weeks but look at that four-week spell of beautiful weather we had in April -- I spent a few days in Ayrshire at the tail end of it and it felt like the height of summer.

For the last few years we've had lots of sun and heat until July, then rain, heat and humidity from July onwards. I'm just hoping this wet spell clears up soon and the sun comes back for a few more weeks (that's kinda the best we can hope for in Scotland).

In any event, nobody's dying from crazy storms or excessive heat. It's just a little bit colder and wetter so I don't think there's any need to go into panic mode just yet.

Im just outside glasgow ... I reckon its been pretty warm the last while ... cant even get a decent sleep at night for the heat .. with a wee thin duvet ..

Im not too great at dealing with heat .. and prefer cold .. and i been struggling for a few month now ...

Even late spring threatened droughts pretty much all over UK i think ..

I ve not been recording any statistical trends as such ... but i would love to get just one day of nice cool air to to breath ...

Not looking forward to august at this rate ...

Dont get me wrong ... i like cold .. but those winters we been havin are just crazy too .... one extreme to the other .. im not too fond of them either, and dread what awaits us this winter .. way things have been past few years ..

reply to post by Niall197


Never experienced anything like it since - it was extraordinary. I remember the council putting sand down on the tarmac to try and stop it breaking up. At one point I think people were being water rationed from standpipes in the streets in part of country - and I'm sure I have a memory of a Look North TV reporter reporting from the bottom of an empty reservoir.

Crazy days.

even if it is global warming or climate change...it doesn't matter, because the regular people DO NOT have the power to change it. either move or learn to live with it, and quit whining.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


wonder how that could have happened

do i need to post a link here to show u how the gom affected the stream ?

didnt think so