Soup of the Day

Manchester goes tropical

After a wonderful week of blazing sunshine and an oven-like weekend, what better way to end Sunday afternoon than with a tropical storm. I have seen plenty of summer storms in my time, but this one was like nothing I have ever experienced in the UK. At 15:00 we could clearly see a huge storm cloud approaching us from the south west, flickering every few seconds from the internal discharges.

Then at 16:15 the storm cloud made itself known to Manchester with a giant discharge over the Salford Quays area, followed by an enormous boom. Shortly after that the rain came, horizontally no less, falling for about 30 minutes. By 17:00 the worst of the initial storm had past, the rain subsided and everyone stepped back out onto their balconies to survey the damage.

By 18:00 a second storm was upon us and this time the rain really fell, falling with such force that it bounced several centermetres back up off the ground as it fell. This time the storm didn’t hold back with two or three strikes every ten seconds. Manchester’s skyline is famously full of construction cranes presently and they certainly took a number of strikes.

At 19:00 the sky was calming and blue patches were beginning to return. By half past the sun re-emerged and the ground began to steam, but for many this was just the beginning of the real problems. As Sian and I stepped back out onto our balcony, we saw the River Medlock below. The river that is usually no more than a stream had risen over two metres and was flowing ferociously, pieces of tree and a picnick cool box raced by at about 15mph.

The whole experience was completely alien to me in this country. I had certainly experienced storms of that nature in Southern France, but never before in the UK had I seen such an amazing spectacle. Tomorrow night we are promised further storms, so I’ll try and catch them on camera this time.