Astronomy, Photography and Weather

General Category => Weather & Atmospherics => Topic started by: martinastro on July 20, 2010, 11:08:58 pm



Title: Convective Outlook - UK/Ireland - Wed July 21st
Post by: martinastro on July 20, 2010, 11:08:58 pm
(http://i26.tinypic.com/f3id6x.png)

Storm Forecast Issued: 2010-07-20 20:49:00
Valid: 2010-07-21 00:00:00 - 2010-07-21 23:59:00

Regions Affected
Wales, SE Northern Ireland, N + W Midlands and parts of NW England (Wales, Northern Ireland, S Scotland and majority of England, excluding SE/E, are included in the WATCH)

Synopsis

Complex area of Low pressure "Quendeline" (FU Berlin) situates itself across the United Kingdom, dominating the weather on Wednesday.

Overnight heavy rain and thunderstorms associated with the cold front continue to drift across the North Sea during daylight hours towards Scandinavia.

In the Returning Polar Maritime airmass, numerous showers and thunderstorms are expected to develop as instability increases, aided by daytime heating, these mainly across central and western Britain and most of Ireland. Showers/storms may perhaps become locally severe in nature, with gusty winds, moderate-sized hail and a chance of a weak tornado, particularly over Wales and western England.

The showers/storms are expected to decrease in coverage during the evening hours, becoming mainly confined to the coasts overnight where the thunder/lightning risk continues.


Title: Re: Convective Outlook - UK/Ireland - Wed July 21st
Post by: scott86 on July 21, 2010, 12:41:28 am
The one day ive had off in 3 weeks, let there be storms!!!  :)


Title: Re: Convective Outlook - UK/Ireland - Wed July 21st
Post by: martinastro on July 21, 2010, 11:04:04 am
TORRO are going for E and SE areas of NI this afternoon for storms and funnels/weak tornadoes, I'm heading out now to the E side of the Lough, probably just NE as fuel is low.


Title: Re: Convective Outlook - UK/Ireland - Wed July 21st
Post by: martinastro on July 21, 2010, 05:15:57 pm
Just back from an entire day spend in the Co. Antrim area, it was definitely worth the trip, the convection was quite phenomenal, the towers and cbs were the largest, tallest, and most explosive I have seen this year, I was able to watch non stop convection and cells on a convergence line for hours, got torrential rain, hail, thunder and flooding, roads were that bad drivers had to pull over. The convection between 15.00 and 16.00 was fantastic, observed a huge cell with strong inflow motion, intense precip core, and scuddy black base almost touching the ground, the updraught tower was gigantic and completely solid, thunder boomed from the core in the distance. On the way back between Antrim and Toome I could see the anvil of this cell at the zenith with solid mammatus, they must have been well in excess of 30,000ft high, or at least they seemed like that. A good day for storm cells.


Title: Re: Convective Outlook - UK/Ireland - Wed July 21st
Post by: Padraig OBrien on July 21, 2010, 05:33:23 pm
Some pics i got today
this was the storm that passed by earlier saw multiple cg's from it and a few nearly covered the entire sky underneath the cell.
(http://photos2.pix.ie/3C/69/3C69A1C92C0F4883A663BDE8E5F6181B-800.jpg) (http://pix.ie/pad199207/1808783)
this was(http://photos3.pix.ie/F5/75/F575F53036724BB9A2FF1F883B2210A9-800.jpg) (http://pix.ie/pad199207/1808782) the main centre of rotation that i thought was goign to drop a funnel


(http://photos3.pix.ie/B6/55/B6552D7CBDE74D9D8CAA32E42D75C21B-800.jpg) (http://pix.ie/pad199207/1808421)

(http://photos4.pix.ie/49/B2/49B2F89418684E7FB4D74C1C7D575467-800.jpg) (http://pix.ie/pad199207/1808335)


Title: Re: Convective Outlook - UK/Ireland - Wed July 21st
Post by: martinastro on July 21, 2010, 06:19:07 pm
Brilliant Padraig!, that looks like a beast of a cell, look at the strong precip core on it!, great images, seems there's been action for many today, the sferics charts are great, must post it up...

(http://i26.tinypic.com/2qbxcgp.gif)


Title: Re: Convective Outlook - UK/Ireland - Wed July 21st
Post by: John9929 on July 21, 2010, 08:11:38 pm
We've just had a mighty wicked storm pass over Maghaberry. I was standing at my back door talking to my neighbour when this ball of blue light lit up the sky in the NW followed by instant sharp crack of thunder which made the both of us jump, it was that loud! Power went off and house alarms went off everywhere. I haven't seen anything like that in a long time, not since I was a kid. Ball lightning, thunderbold call it what you will, it was darn frightning for both of us!


Title: Re: Convective Outlook - UK/Ireland - Wed July 21st
Post by: martinastro on July 21, 2010, 09:09:05 pm
Thanks for the report John, that sounds scary, radar and sferics looked very nasty in your area, in fact all the way from NE Lough Neagh to the SE and below the border. Those are very strong cells!

Here's a pic of the Antrim storm today, it was too big to fit in the frame, this is the side and back of it, thunder boomed out from the darkness, it's precip was flooding the roads at this time.

(http://i29.tinypic.com/2rh9t7b.jpg)


Title: Re: Convective Outlook - UK/Ireland - Wed July 21st
Post by: martinastro on July 21, 2010, 09:26:58 pm
Here's a video clip from today showing the great convection!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s1fa-efCaU


Title: Re: Convective Outlook - UK/Ireland - Wed July 21st
Post by: John9929 on July 21, 2010, 10:35:22 pm
It was scary! Just as the storm was coming from the SSW I watched this guy develop over in the E, this was taken shortly before it was blocked by the storm cell. I watched it grow over a good half hour. Then as the storm passed this thing appeared on the back of it.
(http://i32.tinypic.com/24gt9x4.jpg)

(http://i26.tinypic.com/2w4juy9.jpg)


Title: Re: Convective Outlook - UK/Ireland - Wed July 21st
Post by: Padraig OBrien on July 21, 2010, 10:53:56 pm
This is the funnel i caught near my house late this evening it was a real bender
(http://photos2.pix.ie/B7/EE/B7EE8BA4F73449448E09DC723FF3C973-800.jpg) (http://pix.ie/pad199207/1809033)


Title: Re: Convective Outlook - UK/Ireland - Wed July 21st
Post by: martinastro on July 22, 2010, 12:08:03 am
Two great pics John, that looks like a beast of a cell in the first one, bet those cloud tops were extremely high. Very interesting lowering at the back of it, any rotation with that white feature John?

There's been many funnels over NI the last two days, getting many emails from the public about them, Antrim was a hot spot on the 20th and now more have formed on the 21st. Unconfirmed tornado report near Ballymena but it was probably a funnel too.

Padraig, another great catch, you have been producing cracker images today!, first storm structure and now a funnel, well done on seeing that slim guy twisting from the rear of the cell, classic rope funnel, bet your happy today  :)


Title: Re: Convective Outlook - UK/Ireland - Wed July 21st
Post by: John9929 on July 22, 2010, 12:35:57 am
Thanks Martin, and to answer your questions. This was the first image I took of that mushroom, I stood and watched it shoot up visually in real time, it was moving some speed. Unfortunately I couldn't get where I wanted to be so as to see the bottom of it.
(http://i27.tinypic.com/35at4dy.jpg)
This was the leading edge of the storm as it passed over me, this is looking NW. The white feature appeared on back of the cell as it crossed the E, it seemed to be rotating but then so was that whole mass, it was strange looking, and the movement in realtime unreal. I am 50/50 sure it was a funnel but it only laster a few minutes and disappeared back into the cloud. I have a wider shot of that mass if it'll help? Hope some of the above helps?
(http://i30.tinypic.com/25ztjy9.jpg)
This was the leading edge as it crossed the S, quite a hefty front edge. Thats the main storm on the right.
(http://i32.tinypic.com/2hnp340.jpg)


Title: Re: Convective Outlook - UK/Ireland - Wed July 21st
Post by: martinastro on July 22, 2010, 12:43:11 am
Very dramatic storm shots there John!, looks nasty indeed, would love to see the wide angle one if you don't mind, if you reckon it's a funnel then that's good enough for me, it's at the correct location.


Title: Re: Convective Outlook - UK/Ireland - Wed July 21st
Post by: John9929 on July 22, 2010, 01:15:56 am
I don't mind as long as somebody's interested. This was the widest shot I got probably close to 18mm, That whole area seemed to be rotating from my vantage point, as I said above I noticed it strange, there was no wind though!
(http://i27.tinypic.com/2r4ommw.jpg)
This brute passed shortly before the big storm but didn't seem associated with it. Wonder is that the base of the mushroom on the left underneath it?
(http://i32.tinypic.com/2dqqalk.jpg)


Title: Re: Convective Outlook - UK/Ireland - Wed July 21st
Post by: markt on July 22, 2010, 07:36:36 am
Fantastic images all of you - great reading them!  I managed to get sunburnt yesterday despite the weather that was predicted  ::)


Title: Re: Convective Outlook - UK/Ireland - Wed July 21st
Post by: martinastro on July 22, 2010, 01:04:34 pm
On the last image John you have a fantastic rain free updraught base (RFB) covering a large area, that's the inflow part of the cell which sucks air in and upwards into the base, it's also the location where funnels and tornadoes can form. There's great slolid structure under it too, nice one. It should have been calm when that passed near. The large area of rotation was probably due to a convergence zone, there where several of them in E and SE NI that day which is why TORRO had a tornado risk issued. The wind fields meeting from two different directions must have been close to your location, that explains the rotation and the big storm. Hope this helps. Good to know someone else was going imaging the amazing sky that day.  :)


Title: Re: Convective Outlook - UK/Ireland - Wed July 21st
Post by: John9929 on July 23, 2010, 01:50:45 pm
Thanks Martin, very educational!