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General Category => Weather & Atmospherics => Topic started by: martinastro on October 26, 2008, 10:22:51 pm



Title: Convective Outlook - Mon Oct 27th
Post by: martinastro on October 26, 2008, 10:22:51 pm
(http://i33.tinypic.com/t4v5l5.png)

Storm Forecast
Valid: Mon 27 Oct 2008 06:00 to Tue 28 Oct 2008 06:00 UTC
Issued: Sun 26 Oct 2008 20:24
Forecaster: TUSCHY
SYNOPSIS

A glance on latest nordhemispheric analysis and forecast maps reveals the development of five dominant longwave troughs with the three strongest ones over the NE-Pacific, NE-USA and NE-Atlantic, so both parts of North-America and parts of Europe face the first outbreak of markedly cooler air.

A strong and constantly amplifying upper trough shifts rapidly to the south over NW and W-Europe for the next 24 hours. Surface depressions should start to evolve along the tip/SE - quadrant of the main upper trough, but they stay in their organisation stage at least until 06Z. Warm and stable conditions persist over far east/southeast Europe with more unsettled conditions over Turkey.

DISCUSSION

... N of Scotland, 00Z onwards ...

Impressive outbreak of polar air is underway from Greenland to the S/SE. Modification of the lower column will be slow east of Greenland due to already extensive ice coverage all the way down to the Jamson Land / extreme northwestern tip of the Street of Denmark. Temperatures at 850hPa stay around or below -20°C quite far to the south (affecting Iceland during the midday hours onwards), and hence a large NNW-SSE aligned baroclinic zone becomes established. A short-wave, rounding the main cyclonic vortex west of Norway, crosses this zone during the morning hours, while racing southwards. The model pool has a bad handling on the track and strength of this feature although GFS and GEM constantly had a rapidly developing surface depression in the past runs, placed just north/northeast of Scotland during the end of the forecast. Due to the very cold mid-levels, a plume of low-end instability should accompany this feature and as the surface pressure gradient tightens, severe wind gusts should be a high risk ( e.g. keeping severe freezing spray conditions for boats in mind ). The evolution of this depression will be monitored and an update may be issued, if the depression moves faster than currently outlined and exhibits signs for enhanced deep convection.

... Highlighted areas over W/NW-Europe...

Broad-scale CAA will be underway and the main regions to look for thunderstorm development will be offshore, e.g. Bay of Biscay. Beside the fact that there will be an extensive area with low-end to moderate SBCAPE release under the base of the upper trough, it is more tricky to determine the spots, where electrified convection will indeed occur. It makes no sense to get into too many details as uncertainties of smaller-scale features in such a CAA-regime are high, which could locally enhance convective activity and hence the chance for thunderstorms. The North Sea does not look too promising for much activity until about 21Z, but then GFS continues to show a short-wave, dropping south over the SW North Sea, enhancing the thunderstorm chances along the coastal areas of the Netherlands and N-Germany. The English Channel was excluded due to persistent offshore flow of dry air, but otherwise, large thunderstorm areas were drawn. Small hail and strong wind gusts will be the main risk.