MPR's Weather Journal

[MP-R]

So that I don't have to start new topics and flood the Weather Photography section with my threads, I've made this thread to compress all my weather pics I would like to share into. This will of course be updated every time there are any worthwhile weather photos to show. Hope you enjoy what I post.

Monday was a cloudy day with rain for most of it resulting in leaden skies all day. However clouds cleared just before sunset and this is what resulted.

Tuesday was a warm and humid day with sunshine. Cloud built up later on in the day producing some nice late-afternoon effects.

Wednesday saw a rain front clear in the early hours with some quite heavy rain for a time. This left a mostly bright and sunny and once again warm day.

Thursday came and went with a spell of heavy rain early in the morning clearing to give mostly sunny spells all day. The late afternoon however saw a stray shower from the usual pattern of showers moving north and south with some locally torrential rain and reports of hail over the hills in this picture.

Friday saw slightly warmer air arrive and so it felt rather muggy throughout the day. Despite what was to follow the following day, the day gradually clouded over and darkened. These were taken yesterday evening.

Today saw a marked improvement as cloud cleared properly by 10.30am leaving a sunny day with a high of 20.2C, lovely to sit out in the garden in.

What will tomorrow bring? :blush:

Edited April 26, 2008 by Michael Prys-Roberts

[MP-R]

Sunday

Well, to answer that last question - not a lot, in photogenic terms anyway. After a beautiful morning and early afternoon, things went downhill with very heavy clouds merging together to give flat, dark grey and black bases then eventually torrential downpours through the latter half of the afternoon.

This was when large blobs of rain fell very occasionally and I knew something beefy was on the way.

This was the heaviest part of the shower, very near the end. At this time, there was a rumble of thunder somewhere to the east as clearer skies started appearing to the west.

Monday

Today was a slight disappointment in that many places east, west and north of me received some good thunder and lightning throughout the day whereas Bristol got as far as the torrential rain and hail. Of course, I could see the storm clouds affecting areas to the south and east which is predominantly all I photographed all afternoon.

The day however started off bright with almost clear skies save for a cu-nimb in the distance.

Clouds built up as the morning went on and these pictures show the constant changing shape of the thunderstorms to the east.

There were however two other sharp showers this afternoon, this cloud was responsible for the latter one which was followed by a bright orange sunset.

[Jane Louise]

Some great pics there Michael. Love todays pics.It was a hit and miss day todayfor storms.But great for cloud photographyas you have shown.

[MP-R]

Tuesday

A band of very heavy rain pushed up on Tuesday afternoon to be followed by thundery showers. Unfortunately they arrived just after sunset so photography wasn't that great but these were the shots I got all the same:

South Wales must have had a battering!

Jane Louise Posted 28 Apr 2008, 10:48 PM

Some great pics there Michael. Love todays pics.It was a hit and miss day todayfor storms.But great for cloud photographyas you have shown.

Thanks very much, Jane. I love clear days like that though when the clouds have such excellent definition. Not so good today though with complete cloud cover. :lol:

Edited May 4, 2008 by Michael Prys-Roberts

[MP-R]

Apologies for the delay but I continue with pictures from last Thursday.

Thursday 1st May:

It was once again a scenario of the heaviest and most active downpours running to the south of the city affecting other areas and intesnfying as they moved northwards. There was however a hail shower shortly after the first two pictures:

The hail shower then cleared after ten or so minutes and more cu-nimbs appeared to the southwest, only these ones were to develop much more and pass ten miles to the south and east.

The day then finished with a wonderful red sunset.

[Somerset Squall]

Some great convective shots there Michael, and what a stunning sunset!

[Ilovecornwall]

you took some great pictures there mate.

Edited May 8, 2008 by Wibs
Removed very long quote

[MP-R]

This Week:

Monday was the cloudiest day of the week with high humidity and showers building readily over the West Country. Some altocumulus early in the morning heralded showers to come later:

This radar pictures shows the storm cell later in the afternoon that passed to the south of Bristol, directly over me:

And now for the arrival of the storm, thunder was heard only twice in the distance but the rain that followed was pretty intense with 5.4mm falling in twnety minutes.

Tuesday-Wednesday:

The whole UK bathed in lovely sunshine. Wednesday saw some ncie cumulus build but then dissipate only about an hour later.

Thursday:

The clearest day was Thursday but some pre-frontal cloud spilled in in the early evening producing some nice sunset effects:

Today has just generally been quite boring and cloudy though the sun has shone a little since 3pm.

Somerset Squall Posted Yesterday, 22:18

Some great convective shots there Michael, and what a stunning sunset!

Thanks Somerset Squall, it's not everyday one gets sunsets like that.

Ilovecornwall Posted Yesterday, 22:20

you took some great pictures there mate.

Thank you very much, glad you like them.

[MP-R]

Well, after quite a long break from posting photos, I can finally post some as the problems with my camera have surpassed. I'm just glad May hasn't been a weather-photogenic month. Anyway, these pictures were taken before the breakage of my lens on the 18th, starting with:

Tuesday 13th:

It was a warm day with clear skies for most of the day until late in the afternoon when some unexpected altocumulu sprouted up to the east.

This was then followed by a lovely sunset.

Wednesday 14th:

Today saw the pattern of altocumulus building repeat itself ahead of an area of rather thundery rain in the south. These pictures of altocumulus were taken about ten minutes before this radar picture showing a thunderstorm affecting the Plymouth area.

The first cloud to appear was a long cirrostratus which rapidly dissipated again into strips.

Then to finish the day, another wondeful sunset.

As it was, I left my window open that night to be woken up thunder but none such thing happened. Instead, a slow cloud-over was followed by a period of light rain from 5am to 9am amounting to 4.5mm of rain. The next two days were then grey and cool with the same shade of grey dominating the sky the whole time. Yuck!

Saturday 17th:

Finally the grey murk that had hung over us all day cleared by late afternoon and gave way to cloud with definition to it. The BBC had forecasted heavy showers and the skies later on suggested it but in fact no rain fell and a clear night followed.

[multi cellular thunderstorm]

You've got some excellent photos on here Michael, well done! B)

Some cracking sunset pics too, really nice colours.

[MP-R]

June has been a changeable month so far so here are a compilation of photos so far from this month:

Convective Cumulus - Friday 6th

Sunset - Sunday 8th

Spinal Cirrus - Monday 9th

Wavy Clouds - Wednesday 11th

Early-Morning Frontal Clearance, Signs of Mammatus, Sunset - Thursday 12th

Sunset - Friday 13th

Afternoon-Evening Cumulus Congestus Clouds - Sunday 15th

Late Evening Storm Clouds at a Distance - Monday 16th

Frontal Cloud at Sunset - Thursday 19th

multi cellular thunderstorm Posted 27 May 2008, 12:44 PM

You've got some excellent photos on here Michael, well done!

Some cracking sunset pics too, really nice colours.

Thank you, this year has been great for sunsets so far. So let this continue.

[stormchaser1]

Excellent pictures Michael thanks for sharing, i also like the sunsets

nigel

[Somerset Squall]

Some more really good pics Michael; the sunset in the second pic is truly stunning. Some nicely captured convection too, absolutely love picture 15 from this latest bunch, never seen a cloud quite like that before!

[Louby]

What a great idea, and lots of fantastic pictures!

I love the love heart in this ....

[MP-R]

Sunday 22nd June

The gales yesterday were quite incredible. It is a year on since the last major June gale and it nearly fell on the same day as well as the same date for the June 23rd gale in 2004. Anyway, I was getting worried yesterday that our poor red tree in the back garden was going to be uprooted the amount of battering it got.

Hope you liked the pictures, they're not quite the same in winter as gales are expected and the trees are void of leaves. More than can be said for the roads now!

stormchaser1 Posted Yesterday, 20:48

Excellent pictures Michael thanks for sharing, i also like the sunsets

nigel

Thank you very much, not a problem. Glad you like the sunsets, as do I! This year has been fantastic for sunsets so far.

Somerset Squall Posted Today, 00:07

Some more really good pics Michael; the sunset in the second pic is truly stunning. Some nicely captured convection too, absolutely love picture 15 from this latest bunch, never seen a cloud quite like that before!

Hi there, thanks. Picture 14 and 15 show a cloud that popped up around above Bristol Airport. I'm not sure what could have caused cloud formations like this but it did get breezy for about fifteen minutes. It didn't last that long either.

Louby Posted Today, 00:33

What a great idea, and lots of fantastic pictures!

I love the love heart in this ....

Thanks Louby. It's amazing what shapes clouds can show isn't it.

[MP-R]

Tuesday 1st July

The brief plume that brought very warm sunshine with it, also brought some quite interesting cloud formations taking the undulating effect that doesn't get photographed by me that often. The top temperature was 26.7C, joint highest with that recorded on Sunday 11th May and wonderful blue skies later gave way to cloudier, more threatening skies including a gust front during the early evening preceding persistent rain with one distant rumble of thunder ahead of the rain.

Hope you liked, there is more to come of Wednesday and Thursday tomorrow.

[Mesosphere]

very nice pics Michael , well done

[MP-R]

Wednesday 2nd July

The following morning actually dawned dull and cloudy with unstable looking sky patterns. Plenty of mammatus filled the sky ahead of a thundery shower.

When the shower cleared, so did the skies giving plenty more definition to the clouds. I noticed this one which I thought looked a bit like a man stuck within the telephone wires.

And with lightning and thunder reported across the Severn from Cardiff, I could see the clouds producing it - nice big solid cu-nimbs.

Thursday was to prove another photogenic day too.

Calum Posted Yesterday, 22:21

very nice pics Michael , well done

Thank you very much, glad you like the piccies.

Edited July 6, 2008 by Michael Prys-Roberts

[MP-R]

Thursday 3rd July

There were more showers, more widespread this time than the day before but this time nearly all of them didn't make it this far west as opposed to this far east which was the problem on Wednesday. It did however mean the tops of the storm clouds affecting more eastern areas were clearly visible from my location.

[MP-R]

Sunday 6th July

Within a deep area of low pressure, there were plenty of heavy showers around. Thunderstorm after thunderstorm rattled across areas further inland from me but one particular thunderstorm managed to spread far enough west that it clipped my area. There wasn't much thunder when it arrived but it sure did rumble away over the other side of the Mendips and brought impressive skies. The most incredible thing though was the fact that there were two very clear funnel clouds almost next to eachother as it approahced, one that almost looked like a tornado from Tornado Alley! Only one other time have I seen a funnel cloud like that and it was over the Severn Estuary on Jan 11th 2004.

Then came the first rumbles and occasional flashes of lightning.

Then, ten minutes later, the funnel cloud that had first developed, was accompanied by a smaller one to it's west.

It was on this sighting that I decided to hastily get back home as the one and only defined lightning strike stretched across the sky below the dark base and a loud crack of thunder followed.

And then finally the torrential rain!

Edited July 23, 2008 by Michael Prys-Roberts