Thursdays Storm

[paulster78]

Just two shots for now because heading out soon.    First one from todays thunderstorm as it approached and the second from a very ominous looking lowering, i was sure it was gonna drop a funnel any time but nothing.






Will add more tomorrow 

[martinastro]

These are fantastic Paul, the 2nd image with the lowering is brilliant, looks really chuncky as well, surprised a funnel didn't drop out from that beast. Looking forward to seeing more images. I was thinking about you today and wondered if you had been out with the camera - looks like I got my answer 

[paulster78]

A few more images to add to yesterdays chase.



The day started for me chasing the rear of this cell up the cookstown road. You can see the heavy precipitation core to the left. I did see a fair bit of scud but no funnels or rotation.  I knew more cells were arriving to the south of Omagh so i made a decision to turn around and drive to one of my usual spots were i would have a good view of these cells.





What a great decision that was as no sooner had i parked up and stepped out of the car i could hear a low rumble in the distance to my South-West.  The storm wasn't very photogenic as there was just so much other cloud around it really did look a bit messy.  I observed 10 c-g strikes and a few c-c strikes.  






In the evening the skies darkened again and i hopped in the car and drove after another cell, i was sure a funnel was gonna drop out of this but not today!




Video of the storm with cgs visible at 0:43, 1:25 and 2:16.   Not great quality but anyway enjoy!

[Padraig OBrien]

Nice pics there Paul oh so your the STORMNUT on IWN lol

[martinastro]

Man, that was a treat to watch!, you did a fantastic job to catch those c-gs on vid, the bit where you got 3 at the same time was thrilling, and judging by your reaction you thought so to 

Images are great, I know what you mean by all the cloud around blocking things but you got nice structure along the base on the 2nd image which I really like, very solid looking. I love the structure in 4, that has funnel potential wrote all over it. Impressive chase Paul, you delivered the goods!. That time you where on the Cookstown road we where on the other side of Slieve Gallion, we heard thunder rumbling from there, wish we had been at your location though.

[paulster78]

Thanks Pad yes thats me

Thanks Martin it was an enjoyable day alright, those c-g strikes were awesome to watch!  Just wish now i had of chased that storm and got into position to watch for funnels. Im going to look into this mobile broadband because in conditions like yesterday it would have been very useful.

[martinastro]

I know what you mean Paul, we missed the best storms of the year over NI on Thurs because we had no mobile internet, visual works well much of the time but when you have bad visibility or mid/low level cloud blocking the cells it can easily turn into a disaster.

What video camera did you use for that?, the quality is very good, was that a camcorder or the video mode on your DSLR?

[paulster78]

Im using a sony handycam camcorder there Martin, not a bad wee camcorder-it uses mini-dv tapes which is a bit of a pain when transferring to computer as you need  a separate firewire cable, which i only picked up this week.   Im gonna use it more often from now on.

[JohnC]

Well captured, Paul. The storm was 3-4 miles away- I counted.

[martinastro]

Thanks for the camcorder info Paul, the results are very good with it. I really need to get myself a decent one - maybe this Christmas 

[rjgjr]

Great shots and video Paul, looks like you had a very productive and interesting day!

[paulster78]

Thanks John and Richard, yes John it was a nice distance away to watch the lightning without being in danger of being struck in that high location.  I thoroughly enjoyed the day Richard and cant wait for the next event.

[markt]

cool shots and interesting read