Convective / Storm Discussion Thread - 27th Feb onwards

[Allseasons-Si]

It's got busy in here ha! ha!

Showers starting to build out of Le havre France now with sferics

Edit:Harry bet me to it

[A.J]

Currently stuffing my face in Tamworth McDonald's as I contemplate my first chase of the season.....after said stuffing has finished I'll have a bimble along the A5 to Wolvo/cannock, have a regroup, check the radar and then probably a jaunt down the M5 to Bristol.....sounds like a plan and hopefully catch something.......after that, a 30 mile cruise along the M4 back home to late supper, medals and hopefully an overnight import 

Edited May 11, 2017 by ajpoolshark

[ThundersnowDays]

lightning near weston super mare at the minute

[Raidan]

2 minutes ago, ajpoolshark said:

Currently stuffing my face in Tamworth McDonald's as I contemplate my first chase of the season.....after said stuffing has finished I'll have a bimble along the A5 to Wolvo/cannock, have a regroup, check the radar and then probably a jaunt down the M5 to Bristol.....sounds like a plan and hopefully catch something.......after that, a 30 mile cruise along the M4 back home to late supper, medals and hopefully an overnight import 

I'm no expert AJ but I think going to Bristol would be a waste of time...Looking at the radar anything potentially thundery is moving away to the west...I'm personally not expecting anything to happen here.

[andymusic]

4 minutes ago, ThundersnowDays said:

lightning near weston super mare at the minute

Coming my way - here stormy stormy lol

[MP-R]

Hearing thunder to my southwest towards Weston.

[Flash bang flash bang etc]

I'm in Datchet. Muggy and looming skies. Wondering whether to stay put or venture further west...

[Tom Jarvis]

After some advice 

what settings would I set up a cannon 750d if I wanted to take photos of lightning day and night thax 

 

[Chris K]

3 minutes ago, Raidan said:

I'm no expert AJ but I think going to Bristol would be a waste of time...Looking at the radar anything potentially thundery is moving away to the west...I'm personally not expecting anything to happen here.

Possibly - But there are more showers cropping up behind. A proper nowcast as always. Fingers and toes crossed.

[Windblade]

I gotta admit I'm now losing hope somewhat. What initially seemed promising hasn't materialised as of yet and the radar seems to agree with me! Just doesn't "feel" stormy at all at the moment with skies that are still quite mucky and disorganised. Dorset and the west seems to be where its most at. I can't see anything homegrown happening around here. Only chance I think is any evening imports and even then the stuff currently coming out of france seems to be heading to the west of here, so unless the wind shifts slightly I can't see that happening either but we will see. I think the bulk of the action will be to the west (as forecast) but you never know.

Edited May 11, 2017 by Windblade

[Raidan]

6 minutes ago, Chris K said:

Possibly - But there are more showers cropping up behind. A proper nowcast as always. Fingers and toes crossed.

We shall see hopefully we will be reporting something over the next few hours and possibly second storm this month

[MP-R]

Have heard a few long rumbles from the cell over Weston. Looks very dark in that direction but clearing up again from the southeast. Some more sun would be good to get some more cells popping up.

[Flash bang flash bang etc]

13 minutes ago, Tom Jarvis said:

After some advice 

what settings would I set up a cannon 750d if I wanted to take photos of lightning day and night thax 

 

I would always suggest a longer exposure setting for evening shots to get the most from each strike but the exact settings for daytime situations would depend on things like the position of yourself in relation to the storm (i.e. Taking into account if the sun is facing you or if the skies ahead are particularly dark) and the 'type' of storm it is as storms earlier in the year won't strike in the same area regularly and the ISO / F-stop setting would need to account for how steady you're holding the cam.

suggestion is to start a new thread for this as I imagine it'll be quite busy in here with nowcasts and ground reports for the rest of the afternoon.

;-)

 

[Windblade]

M5 corridor storm certainly going crazy! France storms lighting up over the channel as well.

[Thunderstruck]

Good idea about the new thread if things do get exciting later.

Little bit of AC round here now, and the sun has been out virtually all day, so surface heating could potentially play a part here.

My weather station is reading a toasty 24.8C but it tends to read a few degrees high, so the actual temperature is probably around 17-18C

[Dimahop]

27 minutes ago, Tom Jarvis said:

After some advice 

what settings would I set up a cannon 750d if I wanted to take photos of lightning day and night thax 

 

 

Hey buddy. I'm assuming you have no lightning detection rig.

Ideally you need a tripod or base of somesort (to steady the camera).

Set the camera to timer (so you don't jog it when pressing shoot)

Set to manual focus (focus towards a far away object using your live view - or in cam if you can).

So basically what you want to do (ideally) is keep the shutter open for as long as possible. In both day and night instances. More chance of catching a strike.

 

During the day it means - 

ISO 100 (or less),

Very small aparture (F16 or more - although if you go too high you'll get defraction softness). 

At those settings in current light - approx. 1/60 second should give a balanced exposure.

Now you'll want to just keep shooting away (or  set the camera to auto shoot for a given time - say 1 shot per 2-3 seconds, whatver works).

Without a lightning detector you won't know when lightening will strike so you'll have to be lucky.

 

During the night - much easier.

Keep settings as i said...ISO 100, F16, Timer (or remote), Manual focus.

You want a shutter speed of around 6-8 seconds. Thats much more time to get a strike. 

Its best to use a remote in both instances as you won't touch the camera and risk a jog.

 

OH AND REMOVE ALL METAL OBJECTS FROM YOUR PERSON. ALSO WATCH OUT USING A TRIPOD.

IF YOU CAN, USE AN IN CAR CLAMP OR A JOBI GORILLA POD CLAMPED TO YOUR CAR WINDOW.

SORRY...CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH - TRIPODS ATTRACT ELECTRICITY!

 

Edited May 11, 2017 by Dimahop

[Dale Hay]

Well, here in Weston-super-Mare, we got battered. Was amazing! Loads of loud bangs and rumbles, not much in the way of visible 'fork' lightning, oh and slight biblical rain.

The drain in our back garden turned into a weird garden feature too. That was one amazing storm.

 

[Windblade]

 

[Allseasons-Si]

Keep your eye's peeled on the storms coming out of the French/Belgium border,looks like some rapid developements there moving NW.

[Michael Jd Scott]

Sky is starting to turn black and mean looking around me, feeling muggy too ,few spots of rain starting to fall, looks like a flash could pop out of no where 

[Flash bang flash bang etc]

3 minutes ago, Windblade said:

 

[Ben Sainsbury]

What we have to remember is in terms of CAPE, temperatures will reach their peak in an hour or so the most energy in the atmosphere will appear in an hour or so. According to GFS charts the most energy is evident at 6pm.

[Mokidugway]

Sky turning milky now with increased humidity ,warmest day of this settled spell, not expecting anything from this but you never know.

[Flash bang flash bang etc]

5 minutes ago, Ben Sainsbury said:

What we have to remember is in terms of CAPE, temperatures will reach their peak in an hour or so the most energy in the atmosphere will appear in an hour or so. According to GFS charts the most energy is evident at 6pm.

But surely that is dependent on / tempered by cloud cover? I haven't seen a clear spell for nearly an hour now...

[MrNooo]

Can see cells popping up in the cloud gaps, very muggy, some spots of rain but little else yet, very dark indeed west of me.