Cells, Hail & Weak Vortex - March 23rd

[martinastro]

Quite an impressive afternoon here with decent enough convection and lively weather which consisted of icy wind/squalls with hail. Many cells moved in from the N and produced spectacular curtains of hail with amazing structure with primary and secondary bows 'slicing' through the icy precip. A few gust fronts were observed and some OK mammatus under the anvils. The last cell of the day produced a weak vortex to it's rear as it moved E. The vortex could be seen slowly rotating under the poorly defined RFB. At first it was dark, smooth, and quite a large tube, with anti-clockwise slow spin, then later the sunlight struck the region and turned it white as it decayed while still rotating. No doubt it wasn't a proper funnel but it was certainly a vortex of some kind, and my first observed example of 2009 so far. Here's a video clip...

[Tyler]

Great images there Martin! I honestly think you might have done better than me today! lol glad your seeing convection, nice little nub funnel on that. Great storm structure too.

[martinastro]

Thanks very much Tyler, that's the word I was looking for last night and couldn't recall it...'a nub funnel' that describes it very well. Cheers. Staying unsettled this week with better instability on Thurs, Fri, and Sat but nothing really serious just yet. The following week will see high pressure and the Sun returning for many over the UK. Still waiting for a big convective forecast. Thanks.

[Steveo74]

Great shots martin, all of them... nice video too...  I like the #2 shot to show scale of the clouds compared to the houses... so tiny... Keep them coming...