Storms and Convective discussion - November 2023 onwards

[Eagle Eye]

 Thunderspotter

Tomorrow is a widespread shower risk followed by another night risk but less widespread (also less conditional) tomorrow night that looks like it'll be the coastal grazers with lightning spread out across the channel as it moves east. A fairly common occurrence for early season for recent years and no one really talks about them much but they're great for photography if you've got a camera that works at night with long exposure photos as they tend to be isolated and throw out bright lightning occasionally. We'll see if they're still forecast when I do tomorrow's forecast though. The daytime showers seem nailed on and aren't a half bad start to storm season. 

Edited March 31 by Eagle Eye

[Thunderspotter]

 Eagle Eye I remember there was a massive storm (few years back I think?) and I went down to the solent with my family for a dog walk, but ended up taking videos of lightning over the IOW. It was awesome. I don't use any professional camera but I've got a galaxy s22 ultra which takes great videos during a storm. Have you got any cameras in particular that you use or do you just use your phone like me?

[Eagle Eye]

 Thunderspotter I have a camera but have forgotten the make of it to be honest

I'm trying to take 1 minute exposure pictures with it in practice for bigger storms so when I get to bigger storms I can get more than one lightning strike in a frame. I can also use my phone but I'll probably just video with it, so I don't miss lightning which is a common problem with me and my camera as I keep it on low iso. If you have or eventually get a camera, I'd keep it on quite a low iso even at dark, as otherwise CG's may be overblown. I think I use 800 iso or maybe 80, one of those two and that means the CG's thst surprise you that would be the best pictures show up. That to me, is better than going for the mediocre lightning, I'll miss that for the CG's. 

Edited March 31 by Eagle Eye

[Thunderspotter]

 Eagle Eye haha fair enough!

I generally film in high framerate video (60fps but I'm experimenting with 120fps at times for better slow motion) and put it in some video editing software to slow it down and extract frames from it. I used to use Adobe Premiere Pro but I couldn't justify the price for me using it every now and again for such basic uses. Trying to learn some other software now like Davinci. I'm getting ahead of myself now lmao.

[matty40s]

Still time to jump on a ferry....

 

[Robert1981]

 matty40s that is one thing on my to do list france storm chasing

[CoventryWeather]

Some potent storms over France. 

Can't wait for the summer plumes. 

Edited March 31 by CoventryWeather

[Mapantz]

My detector has picked up a strike from those cells due south of me. Hopefully the trend continues!

[Eagle Eye]

Interested in everyone's thoughts.

The SB storms over France using up the energy currently are very unlikely to make it across the channel. Theoretically elevated storms hopefully form in the mid-channel and go towards the south coast ahead of the frontal system, however, what is the extent thst the SB storms take up the energy. Do storms take in energy not only where they form, but also from around them? If so, we might lose tonight's risk because of this. Similar events have happened before but I've also seen surprise SB storms form instead with weak energy left or stuff in front of the system but bigger events typically. So, wondrring how much storms affect the environment ahead of them or do these become favourable ahead of them with some sort of gravity wave like forcing? 

[The Tall Weatherman]

@Eagle Eye It seems based on soundings that MU Cape does weaken over the channel although not enough to get rid of all the storm activity. As soon as the channel muck reaches southern England the Arome thinks it will explode into life. <1100 J/kg of Surface based Cape and MU cape across much of Central Southern England should be enough to cause some potentially active storms this evening. Personally I think that any storms in front of the band would be stronger than the main band so we should radar watch for the next few hours.

[Thunderspotter]

I'm surprised Netweather have made it this far without issuing a convective outlook. 

[Eagle Eye]

 The Tall Weatherman

Yes pre-frontal stuff does look stronger, often the case. I suspect the main band will become thundery rain and if we don't get pre-frontal then my outlook today looks rather stupid because I'm relying on them  . 

[Arnie Pie]

 Sparkiee storm Nice capture sparky... I  was on a day out on friday in deepest Black Country (Old Hill)..and saw your cells, out to the west

 

[Thunders]

i have a camera but idk what settings to put it on to catch distant lightning at night its not a great camera. if you need to know its a canon EOS 400

[Eagle Eye]

 Thunders

For distant lightning

Iso all the way up and if you can work out where you're pointing zoom in. If that's too much after looking back at what you've captured, turn it down. Slowly turn it down when you get brighter bolts. Or you can also do what @ChannelThundersaid, this is just for if you can't change those other settings or don't know how to yet. 

 

Edited March 31 by Eagle Eye

[ChannelThunder]

 Thunders  You need long exposure times (somewhere in the range of 10 - 30 seconds, depending on the storm's movement etc), quite an open aperture for distant storms to allow light into the camera (5.6 should be fine), and an ISO of either 100 or 200 to lessen noise. 

[Thunders]

thanks, hopefully i can use it tonight then

[Eagle Eye]

We seem to be following the AROME but 2 hours behind schedule. Apart from that not too much going wrong. 

[Thunders]

That tower built in about 2 mins, I'm guessing that it shows we have good enough instability. 

 

[Eagle Eye]

 Thunders

Not much of a tower though and I'd much rather be looking for accas and potentially cirrus. It can just be passed off as afternoon spring energy currently. 

[Eagle Eye]

Cloud height building in front and showers, instability in the channel potentially building. 

AROME upgrade as well. 

Edited March 31 by Eagle Eye

[Thunders]

i feel like this is gonna be a W for quite a few of us tbh. im bad at this weather stuffs aswell lol, what are accas? if cirrus are those thin wispy clouds that i often see in the summer then i did see a few of them earlier when i was in bexhill

[Eagle Eye]

 Thunders

Altocumulus clouds and they look like this. 

[Thunders]

 Eagle Eye  alright, thanks ima look out for those aswell then. i set up a quick timelapse 

[CoventryWeather]

 Eagle Eye seems to linger some instability in East Anglia and the East Midlands during the night - not much (about 300/400) but perhaps the odd flash or two later as the band pushes northwards.