CB's causing havoc in London TMA last night!

[Uplinker]

Hi folks,

Last night a couple of (admittedly huge) CB's in the SE of UK seemed to cause a large amount of disruption in the London TMA.

We and several others were held at UNDUG for a while, and other aircraft were being vectored all over the place. At one point the controller was telling aircraft that EGBB and EGNX were not accepting any diverting traffic.

While waiting in the hold, we could see a path to our destination, EGGW, completely clear of weather, and I am just wondering if anybody knows:

a) Why did these storms seemingly cause so much more havoc to air traffic last night than CB's usually do?
b) What was the reason that EGBB and EGNX were not accepting diversions, were their ramps already full of aircraft?

Thanks.

[Del Prado]

a) It seemed like they were stronger CBs than we might normally be used to in the UK. Severe turbulence reported with aircraft unable to maintain level flight. Plus it was a busy day in the London TMA, possibly with some knock on effect from the previous day's distruption caused by Gatwick runway closures.

b) it could be the ramp was full or there was no handling available or some other reason but generally it's down to not having enough resources one way or another,

[Zaphod Beblebrox]

I know the feeling. I was stuck on the ground in NY Laguardia, KLGA, on Monday trying to get home to Pittsburgh after a 4 day trip. It didn't happen.
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