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

[Ben Sainsbury]

39 minutes ago, Speedway Slider said:

So, why was yesterdays thunderstorm/s in the afternoon so violent? Something was different? 

Was it because of the amount of capping over the storm/s area/path it travelled? The amount of available energy? If so, where did the energy originate. 

Also, why was  the whole thing elevated? I thought elevated storms were usually imports, and usually night time storms..

Also, why did all if not most of the CG strikes I saw look different? They weren't the normal tree root system or stepped, but equally, they weren't the straight down strikes with the re strike/flicker types, but more like, well quicker, well defined edges, with no strike -outs to the side. For want of a better description, they looked sharp at top and bottom, slightly fatter in the middle, and seemed quicker strikes, if you know what I mean... Oh, and there also seemed to be constant (in cloud) flickerering strikes, and a constant rolling thunder, with that being regularly punctuated be these CG strikes, with thunder that sounded tremendously loud, like a long line of cannons, say 40+ all in a line and being fired one after another, with only a fraction of a millisecond between each cannon, quite an unbelievable thunderstorm/s!!!!!!

I'm going to do the best I can but I'm not too sure myself...

All the ingredients were in place for severe thunderstorms, we had high CAPE values, good wind shear and high values of storm relative helicity. These values combined along with decent dirnual heating at the start of the day helped fuel the storms. I believe the storm originally was travelling along a warm front not only giving it the trigger to get started, but to support its elevated nature, the storms developed above and in front the warm front (cold section) in the troposphere, if that's right? Elevated storms can happen at any time of day and don't have to be imports at all, that is just what is most common here.

I wouldn't have a clue why the CG strikes were different, I'm not very experienced at all.

If this makes sense read this: http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints/164/

 

Edited August 28, 2016 by Ben Sainsbury

[Flash bang flash bang etc]

37 minutes ago, Speedway Slider said:

So, why was yesterdays thunderstorm/s in the afternoon so violent? Something was different? 

Was it because of the amount of capping over the storm/s area/path it travelled? The amount of available energy? If so, where did the energy originate. 

Also, why was  the whole thing elevated? I thought elevated storms were usually imports, and usually night time storms..

Also, why did all if not most of the CG strikes I saw look different? They weren't the normal tree root system or stepped, but equally, they weren't the straight down strikes with the re strike/flicker types, but more like, well quicker, well defined edges, with no strike -outs to the side. For want of a better description, they looked sharp at top and bottom, slightly fatter in the middle, and seemed quicker strikes, if you know what I mean... Oh, and there also seemed to be constant (in cloud) flickerering strikes, and a constant rolling thunder, with that being regularly punctuated be these CG strikes, with thunder that sounded tremendously loud, like a long line of cannons, say 40+ all in a line and being fired one after another, with only a fraction of a millisecond between each cannon, quite an unbelievable thunderstorm/s!!!!!!

I know the flickering type of lightning (sheet lightning) you see under the main rain curtain of the storm are quite simply CGs (or intracloud along the cloud base) which illuminate the area of rain because of the brightness in contrast to the darkness under the storm.

i noticed that there was a very high level lightning which seemed to flash all around which must have been occurring very high up because it was some way off at that time from the base of the storm. This is what I remember from a lot of the big US supercell videos so that's what freaked me out a little. A very unusual storm for our shores.

[A.J]

22 minutes ago, Ben Sainsbury said:

I'm going to do the best I can but I'm not too sure myself...

All the ingredients were in place for severe thunderstorms, we had high CAPE values, good wind shear and high values of storm relative helicity. These values combined along with decent dirnual heating at the start of the day helped fuel the storms. I believe the storm originally was travelling along a warm front not only giving it the trigger to get started, but to support its elevated nature, the storms developed above and in front the warm front (cold section) in the troposphere, if that's right? Elevated storms can happen at any time of day and don't have to be imports at all, that is just what is most common here.

I wouldn't have a clue why the CG strikes were different, I'm not very experienced at all.

If this makes sense read this: http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints/164/

 

yrsterdays storms formed initially along a shortwave trough behind the warm front, in the warm sector....An encroaching cold front acted as the trigger as additional storms fired along the cold front as the airmass destabilised

Edited August 28, 2016 by ajpoolshark

[lassie23]

Heavy showers here today

[Ben Sainsbury]

9 minutes ago, ajpoolshark said:

yrsterdays storms formed initially along a shortwave trough behind the warm front, in the warm sector....An encroaching cold front acted as the trigger as additional storms fired along the cold front as the airmass destabilised

Yeah I knew I wasn't right, thanks for the professional input! Always learning!

[Thunderstruck]

Seeing all you saying about your storms makes me realise that we haven't had a proper one here since the early hours of June 23rd! There was a few distant rumbles on June 25, but nothing close

[A.J]

33 minutes ago, Ben Sainsbury said:

Yeah I knew I wasn't right, thanks for the professional input! Always learning!

I think you typed the wrong word....lol.....I'm as amateur as they come and still learning all the time! 

[Paul]

Just put together a quick blog looking at yesterday - over 22,000 lightning strikes were recorded. 

http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=news;storyid=7609;sess=

Thanks to everyone who uploaded their photos and reports yesterday, was great to see what was happening. Special thanks also to Madeinholt, who's photo I've featured on there. 

[East_England_Stormchaser91]

Off topic a little, but anyone got a cam for Hamburg? Brutal storm about to commence there! I believe it may well be part of our leftovers from yesterday!!

[Supacell]

32 minutes ago, East_England_Stormchaser91 said:

Off topic a little, but anyone got a cam for Hamburg? Brutal storm about to commence there! I believe it may well be part of our leftovers from yesterday!!

http://www.earthcam.com/germany/hamburg/?cam=hamburg_hd

[Chris K]

Nothing in comparison to yesterday, but some towering clouds certainly looking like they could produce some heavy, perhaps thundery showers as they move East of here. Some showers also moving towards my location from the W/NW

[Weather-history]

Can see lightning on Hamburg Airport cam. There is a delay so storm is already there.

http://www.hamburg-airport.de/en/webcam_apron_south.php

[East_England_Stormchaser91]

My goodness. Just been watching. Looks scary! The rest of Germany now lightning up like its Christmas. Unreal. 

[Methuselah]

All I can do is hope, hope that something convective delivers some much-needed rain today; we've barely had a drop since a thunderstorm back in July...

[rosieposey]

Hi, i was watching this thread a little yesterday as we had the mother of all Thunderstorms here ( i am on the Leicestershire/Rutland border ) and wanted to ask if anyone knew the answer to a strange thing that happened half an hour before?

I was at my riding stables about 20 mins from where i live and very near Leicester and a few of us outside noticed that the sky was getting dark and i saw some mammals clouds in the distance which after spending a couple of years on here i knew meant possible thunderstorms ( apologies but i am still learning all the terminology) I also noticed that everybody's hair was standing on end! This was for about five minutes and there were a couple of rumbles quite close by. 

Anyway i suppose what i am asking is, is it dangerous to be outside when your hair  ( and everyone else's ) goes static for no reason? I did mention this to the lady who owned the place and she just pooh - poohed it and said that the forecast had given rain but nothing else ( i could clearly see that there was a huge storm about to hit ) - i would love to know if i was right to leg it to the car with my son and come home?! I think i might have got this idea from a famous photo of two boys who had their hair on end and then were struck by lightning shortly afterward.

When we got home i had planned on going out and going a bit further south to 'chase' the storm  ( towards Northampton and Corby way ) as i was using Blitzortung and i love a good storm but luckily for me it was pretty epic where i lived. I don't think i have ever heard such loud thunder in my life, I went to the shops in Oakham mid-storm and there was some really severe flash flooding. That really was one of the best storms i have ever seen in the UK but i have never ever seen anyones hair stand on end beforehand!? 

[Weather-history]

1 hour ago, Weather-history said:

Can see lightning on Hamburg Airport cam. There is a delay so storm is already there.

http://www.hamburg-airport.de/en/webcam_apron_south.php

Looks dark looking north

http://www.hamburg-airport.de/en/webcam.php

[Mapantz]

30 minutes ago, rosieposey said:

Hi, i was watching this thread a little yesterday as we had the mother of all Thunderstorms here ( i am on the Leicestershire/Rutland border ) and wanted to ask if anyone knew the answer to a strange thing that happened half an hour before?

I was at my riding stables about 20 mins from where i live and very near Leicester and a few of us outside noticed that the sky was getting dark and i saw some mammals clouds in the distance which after spending a couple of years on here i knew meant possible thunderstorms ( apologies but i am still learning all the terminology) I also noticed that everybody's hair was standing on end! This was for about five minutes and there were a couple of rumbles quite close by. 

Anyway i suppose what i am asking is, is it dangerous to be outside when your hair  ( and everyone else's ) goes static for no reason? I did mention this to the lady who owned the place and she just pooh - poohed it and said that the forecast had given rain but nothing else ( i could clearly see that there was a huge storm about to hit ) - i would love to know if i was right to leg it to the car with my son and come home?! I think i might have got this idea from a famous photo of two boys who had their hair on end and then were struck by lightning shortly afterward.

When we got home i had planned on going out and going a bit further south to 'chase' the storm  ( towards Northampton and Corby way ) as i was using Blitzortung and i love a good storm but luckily for me it was pretty epic where i lived. I don't think i have ever heard such loud thunder in my life, I went to the shops in Oakham mid-storm and there was some really severe flash flooding. That really was one of the best storms i have ever seen in the UK but i have never ever seen anyones hair stand on end beforehand!? 

Hair standing up like that is a sign that the ground is becoming positively charged and a strike could be imminent. It was certainly the right idea to make a run for it, to your car.

Back in the 90's, I was Baiter park in Poole, watching a storm with my sister, and that was the first and last time i've ever seen a streamer appear from the ground, literally 20ft in front of the car, shortly afterwards, a big stroke of lightning, luckily further away.

[rosieposey]

Thank you Mapantz, i had a feeling i had seen that advice somewhere before

I also meant Mammatus clouds not Mammals - i have learnt quite a lot on here from lurking the last couple of years, Thanks again!

[wimblettben]

4 hours ago, Flash bang flash bang etc said:

I know the flickering type of lightning (sheet lightning) you see under the main rain curtain of the storm are quite simply CGs (or intracloud along the cloud base) which illuminate the area of rain because of the brightness in contrast to the darkness under the storm.

i noticed that there was a very high level lightning which seemed to flash all around which must have been occurring very high up because it was some way off at that time from the base of the storm. This is what I remember from a lot of the big US supercell videos so that's what freaked me out a little. A very unusual storm for our shores.

I would definitely say that there were some unusually powerful + positive cloud to ground strikes yesterday as the sound of the thunder and look of the lightning was exactly the same as i've seen on storm chase videos which show this type of lightning.

[Eye to the sky]

1 hour ago, Mapantz said:

Hair standing up like that is a sign that the ground is becoming positively charged and a strike could be imminent. It was certainly the right idea to make a run for it, to your car.

Back in the 90's, I was Baiter park in Poole, watching a storm with my sister, and that was the first and last time i've ever seen a streamer appear from the ground, literally 20ft in front of the car, shortly afterwards, a big stroke of lightning, luckily further away.

There is a tragic photo online of 2 brothers standing together laughing with their hair standing on end on a mountain range somewhere.They were both oblivious to the danger they were in as seconds after the photo was taken they were struck by lightening and both died in hospital from their injuries.The cameraman survived.Just goes to show the dangers of Thunderstorms!?.

[Speedway Slider]

Definately not a normal Thunderstorm, I haven't heard thunder like that since I was a kid!!!

And the lightning, well, I cannot remember seeing CG strikes like that, they just looked different, more powerful, with no branching, no re-strikes, just bam!!

Not straight line down, more a slight curve, no steps, incredible..

[Joey.G]

4 hours ago, Chris K said:

Nothing in comparison to yesterday, but some towering clouds certainly looking like they could produce some heavy, perhaps thundery showers as they move East of here. Some showers also moving towards my location from the W/NW

Watched these come in from Painswick Beacon. I was hoping there might be some thunder but seems that today all the convection was too shallow. Some of the showers on radar really look like storms! Some pics here never the less, all taken looking NW over Gloucester at about 3 - 4pm.

Really gutted not to have been able to chase yesterday, was right on the edge of the action at a beer & cider festival (not the worst thing to be stuck at!) but feel like I missed out. Loved the pics posted by others though, good efforts all!

[matty40s]

Driving up the M1 just now was accompanied past Milton Keynes  by the most impressive shelf cloud I have seen for a long time. . The structure was superb but I was driving,it was almost dark, and Newport Pagnell was underneath the edge so a picture wouldn't have worked.

[Thunderstruck]

18 minutes ago, matty40s said:

Driving up the M1 just now was accompanied past Milton Keynes  by the most impressive shelf cloud I have seen for a long time. . The structure was superb but I was driving,it was almost dark, and Newport Pagnell was underneath the edge so a picture wouldn't have worked.

There was something like that in almost exactly the same place yesterday

[Woollymummy]

5 hours ago, rosieposey said:

Hi, i was watching this thread a little yesterday as we had the mother of all Thunderstorms here ( i am on the Leicestershire/Rutland border ) and wanted to ask if anyone knew the answer to a strange thing that happened half an hour before?

I was at my riding stables about 20 mins from where i live and very near Leicester and a few of us outside noticed that the sky was getting dark and i saw some mammals clouds in the distance which after spending a couple of years on here i knew meant possible thunderstorms ( apologies but i am still learning all the terminology) I also noticed that everybody's hair was standing on end! This was for about five minutes and there were a couple of rumbles quite close by. 

Anyway i suppose what i am asking is, is it dangerous to be outside when your hair  ( and everyone else's ) goes static for no reason? I did mention this to the lady who owned the place and she just pooh - poohed it and said that the forecast had given rain but nothing else ( i could clearly see that there was a huge storm about to hit ) - i would love to know if i was right to leg it to the car with my son and come home?! I think i might have got this idea from a famous photo of two boys who had their hair on end and then were struck by lightning shortly afterward.

When we got home i had planned on going out and going a bit further south to 'chase' the storm  ( towards Northampton and Corby way ) as i was using Blitzortung and i love a good storm but luckily for me it was pretty epic where i lived. I don't think i have ever heard such loud thunder in my life, I went to the shops in Oakham mid-storm and there was some really severe flash flooding. That really was one of the best storms i have ever seen in the UK but i have never ever seen anyones hair stand on end beforehand!? 

We were in the Blue Ridge mountains, Appalachians, USA when I was little, summer 1980, I think. We were up near a lookout point, a kind of little metal balcony built into the rock where a man and his wife were taking each other's photo. I remember one of them was laughing at the other one because their hair was standing on end. Then I remember my grandpa telling us all we had to go back down the trail to the car, because there was a storm coming. I cannot remember if we ever found out if the place was struck after we left, but I definitely recall how worried the grown ups were and it made a big impression on me.