Convective Storm/Discussion thread - 16/07/16 onwards

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Just looking through footage from a couple of days ago. Got a couple of fantastic frames from a vid I took on my iPhone. Thought I'd share them...

Its amazing the bits you don't see until you scan through footage frame by frame. So many branches my eyes missed!

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And one more too:

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Last one I promise!

[alexisj9]

38 minutes ago, Flash bang flash bang etc said:

Last one I promise!

Blimy that one is huge.

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And from yesterday (would u believe it I didn't manage to get even one fork photo!)

 

[Bolt from the Blue]

@Flash bang flash bang etc  awesome pics, where were they taken? It looks like a good place for storm chasing as there's very little in the way, i.e. trees/hedges/hills etc.

[Speedway Slider]

9 hours ago, alexisj9 said:

Blimy that one is huge.

You see, the strikes I'm talking about, were nothing like these, they are to craggy, and dirty, the ones I saw were ultra clean, thinner both top and bottom and slightly slanted, not bullet straight down.... Never seen anything like them before....

[Flash bang flash bang etc]

1 hour ago, AIRMET said:

@Flash bang flash bang etc  awesome pics, where were they taken? It looks like a good place for storm chasing as there's very little in the way, i.e. trees/hedges/hills etc.

Butser Hill on Thursday. its such a great spot for storms tracking N or NE from the channel near Portsmouth - which is why it's so frustrating we have so few storms like that.

this one only produced a few strikes that I could get - imagine if it was a proper storm like Saturday it would have been paradise!!

it was an elevated storm so the CGs were really long!

NB: No sheep were harmed in the video of this lightning

[sparky1972]

hi all, hope folks dont mind me putting these pics here, this was saturday afternoon, storms were skirting round us before i took these and we took a direct hit around 6pm sat evening, personally i loved watching these form

[Windblade]

Lovely pis there folks.

I've been out this morning on the bike around wrotham way and saw some cauliflowers bubbling up. Things looked increasingly showery to me and sure enough as I was approaching home I got caught in a very brief shower (lasted a few seconds as I rode through it and came out the other side). I've also seen a few towers trying to go up. How accurate is the forecast for today? It seems to have that stormy atmosphere here at the moment. It's very humid, and there is quite a bit of convection around. Not trying to build up hopes for something that probably wont happen, but if I hadn't already seen the forecast I would be fancying my chances today just going on instinct.

[Weather-history]

Can see the lightning from this Turin webcam

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/italia/piemonte/torino/piazza-vittorio-veneto.html

[matty40s]

TURIN HAS NOW DISAPPEARED UNDER A MOINSOON!!

[Harry]

Relatively calm and uninspiring period coming up...drought like conditions continuing in many areas of the south with cooler slightly more unsettled conditions further north and west.

Synoptics on both GFS and ECM showing ridge domination by and large over the coming weeks, but what has caught my eye is tentative agreement from both GFS and ECM for the potential of a brush with a plume middle of next week. Otherwise not seeing any notable storm potential for quite some time, boooo 

[Harry]

53 minutes ago, matty40s said:

TURIN HAS NOW DISAPPEARED UNDER A MOINSOON!!

While I know blitzortung can be quite crude data wise, if it is to be believed the Turin storm alone is kicking out almost as much lightning as all of the storms active in the US currently (and there are many)!!!

Based on this webcam I can well believe it 

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/italia/piemonte/torino/ponte-vittorio-emanuele.html

Edited August 29, 2016 by Harry

[Windblade]

Ok, so sunday mornings dark, showery looking skies cleared in the afternoon to leave a convectionless, cloudless sky. I thought things looked good for a bit (probably wishful thinking on my part - I am now desperate), however we've had the usual hot and sunny conditions since then (although it hasn't been as scorching as it was, thankfully). I've seen reports of this hurricane on the homepage (first I'd heard of it as I don't read newspapers). The article mentions it could draw in some warm moist air if it does come this way. Could this unstable air mass kickstart some storms or is this the wrong setup?

[Flash bang flash bang etc]

8 minutes ago, Windblade said:

Ok, so sunday mornings dark, showery looking skies cleared in the afternoon to leave a convectionless, cloudless sky. I thought things looked good for a bit (probably wishful thinking on my part - I am now desperate), however we've had the usual hot and sunny conditions since then (although it hasn't been as scorching as it was, thankfully). I've seen reports of this hurricane on the homepage (first I'd heard of it as I don't read newspapers). The article mentions it could draw in some warm moist air if it does come this way. Could this unstable air mass kickstart some storms or is this the wrong setup?

Everyone in the SE is getting desperate at this point so don't feel like your alone!

i'm really hoping there's something in this!

[alexisj9]

3 hours ago, Windblade said:

Ok, so sunday mornings dark, showery looking skies cleared in the afternoon to leave a convectionless, cloudless sky. I thought things looked good for a bit (probably wishful thinking on my part - I am now desperate), however we've had the usual hot and sunny conditions since then (although it hasn't been as scorching as it was, thankfully). I've seen reports of this hurricane on the homepage (first I'd heard of it as I don't read newspapers). The article mentions it could draw in some warm moist air if it does come this way. Could this unstable air mass kickstart some storms or is this the wrong setup?

Although it won't be a hurricane anymore they tend to retain some of the heat that formed them in the first place. Warm, humid air with lot's of heavy ppn is common, there certainly should be showers once the main rain is through, thunder who knows.

[East_England_Stormchaser91]

Currently in Rome and I'm about to witness a cracker!!! 

Update: constant rolling thunder. Loving this l!!! 

Edited August 31, 2016 by East_England_Stormchaser91

[Mapantz]

1 hour ago, East_England_Stormchaser91 said:

Currently in Rome and I'm about to witness a cracker!!! 

Update: constant rolling thunder. Loving this l!!! 

When in Rome...

[East_England_Stormchaser91]

Flash flooding and everything! What a storm and compensation for missing out on the UK storm! 

[Speedway Slider]

Ok, question/s about Lightning Evidence.

When you see A bolt of lightning leave a cloud, one that goes straight down, do all of these bolts actually reach the ground/building/tree/other structure...?

It's just that on Saturday, there were over 22,000 lightning events (events, rather than strikes) because I don't yet know if all of them actually hit/struck anything..

For example, if a bolt of lightning hits the ground only (let's say grass) on a sports field or park, does it leave a mark? Similarly, if it hit a road (say tarmac or concrete) would it leave visible marks/evidence of it? 

It's just that you would think that having seen what lightning can do to a building or tree or other structure, the damage is or can be pretty horrendous!! 

My grandad (bless his soul) was a proper plumber, and I once attended a building with him that had been hit by lightning (early 1970's) and it had completely melted the lead guttering!!

I guess, unless you see a structure hit (not a lightning rod) and witness the damage or aftermath, their doesn't seem an awful lot of residual evidence of left from ground/earth surface strikes..?

Or, am I not looking in the right places, like you might expect some evidence of strikes on golf courses or parks... Obviously, I have seen fulgarites from beach strikes, but is there a similar trace left in soil or other ground surfaces....

Any comments would be welcome..

Edited September 1, 2016 by Speedway Slider
No edit, wrong bit of phone screen touched!!

[alexisj9]

tbh be honest I'm not really sure, I know there was a ground strike near my house once, the only evidence was a melted coke can, which might have been why it struck there. I've heard of melted road surfaces during storms before, but not seen it my self. 

[Azazel]

I'm not sure either. I did take a picture of an exchange that was struck by a positive CG in 2007 in Oakley, Hampshire that had literally exploded once.

[Andy Bown]

I would say that given the elevated nature of the storms as well as experience witnessing them myself on Saturday that the majority of those approx 22,000 strikes were CC and IC lightning with a measure of CGs thrown in of which you witnessed some. There were definitely some CGs in my area too, you can tell by the thunder alone during daytime, but my goodness night-time would have been far better!

Had we had approx 22,000 CGs I think there would be some quite obvious evidence!

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3 hours ago, Andy Bown said:

I would say that given the elevated nature of the storms as well as experience witnessing them myself on Saturday that the majority of those approx 22,000 strikes were CC and IC lightning with a measure of CGs thrown in of which you witnessed some. There were definitely some CGs in my area too, you can tell by the thunder alone during daytime, but my goodness night-time would have been far better!

Had we had approx 22,000 CGs I think there would be some quite obvious evidence!

But surely a lot of the blitzortung echoes were CGs? Even if it was only 75% that's still over 15,000! There would have been a lot of coke cans and telephone exchanges to account for on Sunday I'd have thought...