Rotating Updraft - Gloucestershire

[Joey.G]

Strange time of year to see it but it really happened! Earlier on ( ~ 3:30pm 27th Feb) I was cycling to work and was lamenting the weather for chosing that moment to pour with rain on me. Just after it passed over, along with a meek rainbow I noticed a interesting ragged cloud base. On closer inspection it was the back end of the shower that got me wet with a long inflow line. Where this inflow met with the main cell the cloud base was rotating and lowered in a wall cloud. No funnel became discernable while I could see it but it was rotating for a good while as I watched. I dont know how long it had been doing so before I noticed.

Mentioning this later to a co worker they told me they had experienced very heavy rain and some hail from whats most likely the same cell.

Tomorrow I will upload the video I have of the rotation plus some photos and post them here along with any other info I can get to make a little report. Im afraid the vid will be slightly poor quality being as I had no tripod and its only a point an shoot stills cam. Still it is fairly obvious, especially viewed at 3x speed. Ill try and save it as such.

Still, a very welcome and exciting event to whet the appetite for the 2010 storm season!

[weatherevents]

Sounds really interesting Joey, looking forward to seeing the vid!!

[Joey.G]

Ok, Sorry I didn't get to it straight away but like I said I wanted to speed up the vid clips and it took me a while to work out how.

Anyway, I've linked to three videos, two of the rotation and one of the cell with its inflow line. The rotation in the panoraminc one is just to the right of the motorway.

Also, I have posted the radar grabs from the time. I actually first noticed it at around 3:50 pm and stopped filming around 4:05pm. Seems like there was almost nothing there and I feel sure that the reports from my co worker of heavy rain and hail must have been from the earlier cell ~1:30pm as this on didn't cross his area.

The vids are taken from above the M5, just a little further north than where the railway track intersects it just south of Gloucester:

Edit: forgot to mention that the updraft vids are sped up by 4x

Edited March 1, 2010 by Joey.G

[ZONE 51]

wow! INCREDIBLE! thanks for the effort of putting all the data together

[ANYWEATHER]

Brilliant stuff and thanks for sharing! Fingers crossed that it will be a good sign of things to come!! :lol:

[weatherevents]

Wow, brilliant videos.. really interesting to see the rotation so clearly. You did a good job to steady the camera. Were you shooting from a tripod, or did you manage to find something to lean on? The 4 x speed makes all the difference too. Thanks for sharing the videos, hoping to do my first run of storm-spotting this year (not that we get very many up this way )

[Joey.G]

Wow, brilliant videos.. really interesting to see the rotation so clearly. You did a good job to steady the camera. Were you shooting from a tripod, or did you manage to find something to lean on? The 4 x speed makes all the difference too. Thanks for sharing the videos, hoping to do my first run of storm-spotting this year (not that we get very many up this way )

I didnt have my tripod with me unfortunately so I had to rest it on the railings above the motorway :S I did it over the central reservation just incase I did knock the camera off lol

Ive got my heart set on a job up in Scotland actually, find out if ive got an interview in the next couple of weeks so it may be that ill be up there with you getting jealous of those southeasterners and their semi continental climate

Thanks for the kind comments!

Edited March 2, 2010 by Joey.G

[Harry]

Just goes to show, that even in the most plain and dull of weather, you can get something very interesting.

Very clear rotation going on there - in the 2nd vid, it looks like something was close to dropping!

Excellent videos!!

[The PIT]

Brilliant vids. I wonder if it did manage to briefly drop a funnel later???? Very close to doing so.

[DAVID SNOW]

Great capture,well done. :lol:

[Cookie]

nice work mate :lol:

[weatherevents]

I didnt have my tripod with me unfortunately so I had to rest it on the railings above the motorway :S I did it over the central reservation just incase I did knock the camera off lol

Ive got my heart set on a job up in Scotland actually, find out if ive got an interview in the next couple of weeks so it may be that ill be up there with you getting jealous of those southeasterners and their semi continental climate

Thanks for the kind comments!

You've done a great job of keeping it steady on the railings!! Very resourceful of you!

Good luck with the interview too, hope it works out for you. I love living up here (I wan ex-pat Aussie by upbringing) and what we miss out on in storms, we get with highland scenery. :)

Cheers,

Graham

[Greeny]

Sorry for the late post only just saw this. Seen something like that only once round the back of mine although maybe not quite as clear I had to keep looking to verify. Love the vids. Does that look like RFD on that 2nd video?