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Immense Thunderstorm In Corfu 30.8.09! Supercell Or Mcs?


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Posted
  • Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms and snow
  • Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

I have been staying in the beautiful island of Corfu this week. We are in my uncle's villa, which has a spectacular view towards Greece and Albania.

Last night we witnessed the most incredible thunderstorm. I checked Sat24 earlier at about 7pm, and could see a large storm (MCS?) over Brindisi and another probable MCS over Albania. What then happened was that these storms both approached Corfu, and merged into a violent thunderstorm, with dramatic cloud formations, rain rates of up to 125mm/hr leading to just over an inch of rain. The rain lasted about 45 mins, but the lightning and thunder remained for about two hours. There was forked lightning at first. When the rain came, the lightning was almost constant, but due to the very low visibility, the forks were obscured. At one point during my 45 minutes!!! of filming, a strike seemed to hit right in front of us but my camera didn't cope very well so I'll never be sure. However the thunder soon after caused me to yell "OMG"! So it was certainly right overhead. The storm then appeared to swivel over to the south of the island, and looking at the satellite, dissipated over us. Once the rain cleared, we then had a wonderful lightning display - many crawlers covering the whole sky, as well as very bright forks of lightning. A night to remember!

I am uploading both satellite screen grabs and pictures for the event and I am welcoming general comments.

However I would be very interested if a knowleadgeable member would advise me based on my description and images - was this was an MCS or a supercell?

I am not sure whether the characteristics were supercellular or not.

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Posted
  • Location: south London
  • Location: south London

well done...did you manage to get any video footage??

love to see it..

Im off Storm Chasing this week in the MED :rofl:

edit...i missed it...you have video...great cant wait to see

Edited by dogs32
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Posted
  • Location: Cheltenham,Glos
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms :D
  • Location: Cheltenham,Glos

Wow James, you are so lucky to see a brilliant storm in a beautiful place too. You haven't missed much here in Glos lol.

Can't wait to see the pics.smile.gif

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Posted
  • Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms and snow
  • Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

I'm just about to upload some vid clips and pics now... taking a while to get them together.

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Posted
  • Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms and snow
  • Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

A short video clip of spider lightning:

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Posted
  • Location: Cheltenham,Glos
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms :D
  • Location: Cheltenham,Glos

Excellent James,well caughtsmile.gif I've never seen lightning like that before. I'm glad you got a stormsmile.gif

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Posted
  • Location: south London
  • Location: south London

A short video clip of spider lightning:

100% excellence...well done...realy nice...

if only...I could of seen some of that after a storm starved Glos

and first class quality!!!!

Edited by dogs32
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Posted
  • Location: Weston-S-Mare North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Hot sunny , cold and snowy, thunderstorms
  • Location: Weston-S-Mare North Somerset

You can't get better than going on holiday & get thunder storms too.

Nice one.

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Posted
  • Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms and snow
  • Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

Some highlights:

3874753971_593d5e102e_b.jpg

3875554516_369583d740_b.jpg

3874775691_f81c0466aa_b.jpg

3875578854_88b0e23e48_o.jpg

3875575184_9d4f02cc0c_b.jpg

3875575948_b4a6cec85e_o.jpg

3875576522_b83690e560_o.jpg

3874787935_b07ca48457_o.jpg

3874788303_1c60ec68a4_o.jpg

3874788669_a718e2f49a_o.jpg

3875578058_ec75d5d128_o.jpg

3875578310_ae8160ff46_o.jpg

So, what do you think?? :-D

Supercell? Or MCS?

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Posted
  • Location: south London
  • Location: south London

Its hard to tell...If you could see a dome shape on top that would be a good indicator..But Paul.S is a expert so he might have a idea...The second pic from the top looks like a sort of shelf cloud..

nice pics....it would be good if you could slow some video;s down if you have the facility or time....Apart from that I bet you dont care now if you see any storm for a while...I was like that after the States...

I bet that was awesome to watch not like the crap here

Supercells have over shooting tops and striations with strong inflow winds to the left and outflow to the right...with beaver tails a possability

again Paul will correct me if im wrong

typical supercells in my SIG

Edited by dogs32
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Posted
  • Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms and snow
  • Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

Its hard to tell...If you could see a dome shape on top that would be a good indicator..But Paul.S is a expert so he might have a idea...The second pic from the top looks like a sort of shelf cloud..

nice pics....it would be good if you could slow some video;s down if you have the facility or time....Apart from that I bet you dont care now if you see any storm for a while...I was like that after the States...

I bet that was awesome to watch not like the crap here

Thanks all for the comments

dogs- I didn't really see the storm until it approached us, so I didn't get a chance to see the top of it, then it intensified right above us. But that reminds me - I'm going to upload some Satellite images!

Edited by 03jtrickey
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Posted
  • Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms and snow
  • Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

Thanks for the comments, all :rolleyes:

Another one showing the electrical activity:

And finally the sat. image at most intense moment.

3874888649_506342c9b3_o.jpg

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Posted
  • Location: Swansea (Abertawe) , South Wales, 420ft ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Storms & Snow.
  • Location: Swansea (Abertawe) , South Wales, 420ft ASL

Amazing! Reminds me when i was in Mexico, used to get spider lightning storms every evening!

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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

I love the cloud formations of those middle photos (in between the lightning ones). No.4 is probably the best IMO as it captures both the spectacular cloud formation and the lightning. Clouds like that occasionally cropped up during the thunderstorms I experienced in France during my occasional holidays there, but they rarely happen in this country (even in the Norwich area).

The lightning ones are also very good- looks like they were captured "as is" (always difficult!) rather than my "cheating" method of taking videos and extracting stills of the lightning.

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Posted
  • Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms and snow
  • Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

Thank you everyone :-)

Thanks fro sharing your experience James.

In the 6th photo I wonder if you've captured a leader, or it may be just a reflection of the actual bolt?

That's what I was wondering Andy, I don't think my camera coped very well at all so I'll never know. It looks like it could be a reflection. The bolt was very close though, because the thunder was extremely loud and soon after.

I've got a couple more videos here:

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Posted
  • Location: Belper, Derbyshire
  • Weather Preferences: Hot, humid & exciting
  • Location: Belper, Derbyshire

Seriously, utterly, amazing! That vid of the highlights, especially the very last discharge, is just brilliant. I live to see lightning like that, next year i hearby swear I will!

Im from Stroud (im sure u know of it) and a friend of mine is out there working for the summer at the moment, his facebook posts along with these vids are making me most jealous!

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