>>>>>>>I don't remember any other August here where the temps fluctuated so wildly in August:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>As opposed to "...any other August here where the temps fluctuated so wildly in March"?: :-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Obviously you've never been in GB during August (or any other month for that matter!) :-)
>>>>>
>>>>>+30 here today. Sky were clear until an hour ago. Weather warning is up as a cold air mass from the west is passing over the warm air. Thunderstorms, large hail and tornados are a possibilty, but usually they do not occur in this area . . . well, except for the F5 about 19 years ago.
>>>>
>>>>UK receives more tornadoes per year than kansas.
>>>
>>>Got a link to support that?
>>>
>>>My sister graduated from the University of Oklahoma, which is in Norman, the center of gravity of tornado reports in the US, and the home of the NSSL. I went down for a couple of days in mid-May one year for her convocation. The first evening I was there a front rolled through and several funnel clouds formed. During events like that the local TV broadcasters overlaid a local Doppler radar image in the top right corner of their regular programming. All the locals were VERY experienced at interpreting these images.
>>>
>>>Kansas is next door to OK and AFAIK gets its fair share, and more, of fronts and severe weather. I find it hard to believe Blighty would get more. Maybe Bill Kuhn or someone else from Kansas could chime in.
>>
>>Interesting information is here .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_climatology
>>
>>Apparently UK and Netherlands are big tornado areas although they are just barely tornados (what we call light breezes here).
>>
>>Oklahoma and Kansas are the biggies for BIG, MEAN, POWERFUL tornados. Florida gets the most in the US, but most are weak or waterspouts. I saw a bunch of waterspouts and tornados in Florida - some looked fairly impressive but they were very skinny - didn't cover much area. I've seen a few out here in Kansas that were at least a few hundred yards across - scary!
>>
>>>
>>>Maybe what happens is that the population density in Kansas is low, so some tornadoes go unreported because they aren't seen or don't damage structures (because there is a low density of structures, too).
>
>Something many in Kansas and Oklahoma have that most in North Carolina and Florida do not: basements! :o)
>
>In Wisconsin, we would run to the basement when a tornado was nearby, but that is not an option here. :(

A college buddy lives in Cary now. They had a house built and he insisted on a basement. He said it was the second in the history of North Carolina. I know he was exaggerating, but probably not by much.