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Severe Squall Line Hits N. Ireland - Sat March 7th 09

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Author Topic: Severe Squall Line Hits N. Ireland - Sat March 7th 09  (Read 2539 times)
martinastro
Martin Mc Kenna
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« on: March 07, 2009, 07:31:01 pm »

From UKWW...

Well marked cold-front will cross the British Isles overnight, with quite a pressure kick. A strong cross-frontal 850 hPa flow may allow for 'rear inflow' to develop, with a forced line of shallow convection marking the surface front. Gusty winds are likely with this, along with brief heavy rain.

Post front, plenty of squally showers will pile into western and northern parts, especially western Scotland, with hail/thunder/sleet/snow all possible. This will lead into a very showery day on Sunday as a cold pool passes over. Thunder is possible almost anywhere, and a more marked band of showers, some with sleet/snow, looks like pushing SE through Scotland during the day, ending up in N England. Also, an area of more frequent showers may spread east across central/southern England and Wales. With fairly strong tropospheric flow, some of these could organise into small bows/clusters, and produce strong winds/heavy hail. Fairly strong low-level shear also looks like bringing the risk of brief tornadoes.

« Last Edit: March 10, 2009, 06:52:24 pm by martinastro » Report Spam   Logged

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martinastro
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« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2009, 07:34:05 pm »

Lightning in W N. Ireland now. Intense radar returns from approaching cold front which is moving E!
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martinastro
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« Reply #2 on: March 07, 2009, 08:23:11 pm »

Holy sh**t!!!. I happened to check the radar and seen severe radar returns on the leading edge of the approaching cold front, it looked to me like a powerful squall line forming. It was raining here at the time so I went to the back door to see if anything cool could be seen in the dark, just before 20.00 UT - BANG!!!we got hit by the most incredible downburst/squall of violent winds I can recall in a long time. It blew torrential rain side-ways and become so powerful that my house began to shake violently (witnessed by my family members), I couldn't believe the horrific power of that wind and honestly believed a tornado was about to hit, I actually screamed at my family to get down!. It was absolutely incredible but stopped after a few min's then back to 'normal' rain. This was followed by 4 bright stropes of blue lightning and thunder. That is one severe cold front moving through...watch out! I have some video of this but it's handicaped by darkness. Only a portion of the rain and wind can be seen below the shaking streetlights. - WOW
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scott86
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« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2009, 08:36:44 pm »

hi martin, was just standing outside there after reading the convective forecast you issued, torrential rain, big wind gusts, then a crazy bolt of lightning out of the blue, was like a set of spiders legs covering the sky, excellent stuff,,, pity i didnt have my camera at hand! hopefully theres more to come!
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stuart2588
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« Reply #4 on: March 07, 2009, 08:51:59 pm »

Martin think I experienced something very similar to you at around 826pm in Newtownabbey.

We were sat watchin tv and I was havin a look at the rainfall radar. The wind had picked up and the rain was getting so hard we decided to turn the tv down to have a listen.

Then all of a sudden the roar that came down the chimney was unbelievable. I ran to the front door to look out and as I opened it the rain almost hurt as it hit me in the face. It was almost a struggle to stop the front door from blowing backwards and my bro then came running in as the wind comming through the door was rattling the blinds all over the house.

It only lasted a few mins and all is quiet here now. I didnt manage to see any lightning but there is always next time.

For a moment I also imagined a tornado was about to hit lol. Really cool stuff.

Stuart
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martinastro
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« Reply #5 on: March 07, 2009, 09:03:46 pm »

Thanks very much Scott and Stuart for your excellent valuable reports. In what descriptions they were too!. Love the description of the lightning and winds. Glad you thought a tornado was hitting too Stuart, I certainly wasn't exaggerating and hoped others would take the report seriously. I'm just off the phone from talking with John McConnell on here and he and his brother reported the same thing, severe winds, horizontal rain, hail, lightning and thunder. We agreed that there is probably damage done somewhere tonight and a tornado event is quite likely somewhere if it hasn't already occured!. John and I reckon those winds could have been greater than 80mph, they reminded me of the severe winds I have seen on videos showing the RFD on US Supercells or the winds of a mesocyclone. Awesome forces.

The UKWW guys are trying to get some radar data on this. Looks to have been a very violent fast moving squall line which formed on the leading edge of this intense cold front. Imagine seeing that in daylight, it would have a stunning shelf cloud on it!.

Keep your eyes open for more reports. An amazing, and quite unnerving experience!
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martinastro
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« Reply #6 on: March 07, 2009, 09:06:27 pm »

Sferics charts from the time. Matches perfectly with what was observed...

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martinastro
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« Reply #7 on: March 07, 2009, 09:09:05 pm »

Pause this radar at 20.00 and you can see the radar returns of the squall libe hitting my area....

http://www.raintoday.co.uk/
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brianb
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« Reply #8 on: March 07, 2009, 09:14:19 pm »

Quote
just before 20.00 UT - BANG!!!we got hit by the most incredible downburst/squall of violent winds I can recall in a long time.
Got similar here. Did not hear thunder or see lightning but we did have the power knocked off.
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stuart2588
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« Reply #9 on: March 07, 2009, 09:16:01 pm »

Those links are great Martin. It all matches exactly with what was reported.

If you look at my area in Newtownabbey at 826pm thats when i experienced it. You can actually see it moving right through from your area to mine.

great!
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martinastro
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« Reply #10 on: March 07, 2009, 09:23:44 pm »

from John Mason of the UKWW...

Martin - have archived radar images every 5 minutes 2000-2020. 2015 shows some exceptionally heavy precip - almost off the scale! All show >70mm/hr echoes along a thin and obviously intense line-echo, with wave features. Not surprising to see what you report given these.


Cheers - John


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« Reply #11 on: March 07, 2009, 09:31:27 pm »

It hit here at 8-20 pm an easy jet on final approach to land had to abort i was listening to it on the air band the wind gusts where the strongest i have felt along with the lighting it was a wild weather event,all calmed down now.

jonathan.
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stuart2588
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« Reply #12 on: March 07, 2009, 09:54:29 pm »

On raintoday at 8pm and 815pm is that a broken s feature? Im not very familiar with the radar terms and what they look like.
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martinastro
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« Reply #13 on: March 07, 2009, 10:06:05 pm »

It sure is Stuart, it's a 'bowing segment' when can indicate tornado formation  Smiley

Had severe hail storm pass through recently.

Thanks for the reports Brian and Jonathan!
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stuart2588
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« Reply #14 on: March 07, 2009, 10:38:53 pm »

Thanks for the info Martin.

I just read on UKWW that a weather station at Cloughfern (just 5 mins from my house), recorded winds of 95kph!

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