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The Thunderstorm(s) Of 16th July 2009


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Posted
  • Location: Home near Sellindge, 80m/250feet, 5miles from Coast
  • Weather Preferences: Severe Storms and Snow
  • Location: Home near Sellindge, 80m/250feet, 5miles from Coast

I woke up in the morning and i could see patches of altocumulus filtering in from the south which gave a good sign for storms during the night. But as the day progressed the humidity increased as did the temps with the odd cumulus cloud floating about blocking out the sun from time to time. At about 5.30pm i left for standford le hope not far from southend to have dinner with my team at a haunted location. Towards west kent and upto essex it clouded over with alot of dark altocumulus however the humidity still remained high. At standford le hope , during the night probably about 9.30pm onwards the sky turned very dark from the south west and the first flashes could be seen from the very old windows.

As i sat with my team with the candles flickering , the lightning and thunder struck. Bright flashes lighting up the old house it was like straight out of a horror movie , the bangs making the old windows shake. I wanted to leave the building and watch but the team meet was more important this time round. I left the house probably at about 10.30pm and i could see the intense downpours had left their mark on the area , most of the roads flooded.

My drive back along the motorway was a scary experience to say the least !.Some of the motorway was flooded and i had IDIOT drivers pulling in front of me and braking hard while spraying all that flood water in front of my car , i couldn't see very well at all . I even had numorus boy racers flying up my bumper jumping across to the next lane probably doing 100mph+ in these conditions! , Maybe they should have a Severe Idiot Warning :|

As i drove back to kent , i pulled over and gave my dad a call to ask what it was like his way. He told me the storm was mighty impressive to the like he had not seen for some time , but i was still a good 40mins away. As i got closer to east kent i could see massive mammatus clouds in the glow of the town lights and strobe flashing to my east/south east. The further i got towards margate way the more the lightning impressed me , forks arking across the sky above the motorway in front of me and rain that made a right noise on my car roof.

I arrived back home and went out for a drive , such is my luck that i got all the camera equipment ready for the lightning became a distant show , gutted :huh: . Dad told me it had been going for a few hours as he was watching it outside , atleast i got to see my first thunderstorm while inside a haunted location really added to the spooky factor :lol: .

If anyone else has could post what happened last night i'd be really greatful , especially from areas of kent :o

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Posted
  • Location: Maidstone, Kent
  • Location: Maidstone, Kent

For me it was the best storm of the year, which isn't hard because I've either narrowly missed them (to my east as always!) or they just die as soon as they get here.

2 initial bands developed over the Channel and moved northeastwards. By the time the first one arrived here, the rotation around the Low meant the line of storms was orientated NW-SE and so they approached from my south. I was hit by the storms around 21:20-21:40, torrential rain, quite a few forks, though the main energy and lightning appeared to be towards the east.

post-8218-1247822995_thumb.png

This storm pulled away, leaving a spectacular anvil against the darkening skies, looked like the top of the clouds that Paul S and the team photographed in the states! :good:

Thereafter an intense line developed over C-E Kent in a N-S orientation, pulsing northwards (so whoever was underneath that had continuous storms for at least an hour). It was only about 10-20 miles away from me, and there was constant flashes of forks and sheet lightning for well over an hour, roughly a flash every 3-5 secs. Very little thunder, but it was really nice standing in the garden watching the constant lightning as the train of storms never got any nearer! :good:

post-8218-1247823001_thumb.png

Flashes then started to appear to my southwest around 11pm, with the thunder getting louder the 2nd line approached. This dropped moderate rain, and although there were a couple close strikes and very loud rumbles, it was considerably weaker than the first storm.

post-8218-1247823006_thumb.png

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Posted
  • Location: Home near Sellindge, 80m/250feet, 5miles from Coast
  • Weather Preferences: Severe Storms and Snow
  • Location: Home near Sellindge, 80m/250feet, 5miles from Coast

Awesome , thankyou maidstone weather!

I can also see with that radar the rain that caused the flooding and the lightning show over stanford le hope(southend way)

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Posted
  • Location: Romford
  • Location: Romford

I'll repost this here.

Normandy had some fun with supercell(s) last night, classic structure! I was watching the action approach Le Havre on one of those control cameras, as soon as I got the damn thing pointed at the updraft base my turn ran out and the other person seemed more content on pointing the camera at the floor while there was a supercell approaching in plain view! :good:

http://www.infoclimat.fr/multimedia/photol...uteur=&ord=

http://www.infoclimat.fr/multimedia/photol...uteur=&ord=

http://www.infoclimat.fr/multimedia/photol...uteur=&ord=

http://www.infoclimat.fr/multimedia/photol...uteur=&ord=

http://www.infoclimat.fr/multimedia/photol...uteur=&ord=

Edited by jshaw
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Posted
  • Location: Bexley (home), C London (work)
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms
  • Location: Bexley (home), C London (work)

Great read as always neilsouth! :good: Here is my account of last night's events.

Woke up in the morning, blue skies fair weather Cu - not a lot to get overly excited about. Around lunch time though you could really feel the warmth begin the creep up - the breeze was light too. The upper level clouds were moving at really quite some pace - the upper CirroCu/CirroSt by far outpacing the slow moving puffs of Cu below. As the afternoon wore on, the direction of movement between the upper level and lower level clouds begin to contrast more and more.

Around evening time, Acas became abundant - as I slowly drove across Blackheath en route for the Medway town of St Rood on Sea (Strood to anyone else), you could see line after line of Acas and general Altocumulus clouds. What I did see which I haven't seen often before, was Altocumulus clouds with what looked like very narrow but very defined rainshafts - the rain however not making the ground.

As I progressed on my SE'ward journey towards St Rood, (after 6pm) the temperature rather unexpectedly jumped from 23C in London to 25C along NW Kent. I put my hand out of the window while flying down the A2, and there was nothing but a blanket of warmth around my hand and arm! No 'chill' at all, which when you doing 70mph is quite something. The humidity had well and truly established itself.

When I arrived at my mate's house in Medway, I whipped out my Blackberry and while watching a film (quite funny actually) which ripped the p**s out of the film '300', I was astonished at how quickly storms had exploded over N France and the Channel, and more so how quickly they were moving up. I kept going outside for a cig, and watching the lines of Acas streaming in. By 8:30, we were getting ready for squash, when the entire W skyline went black/dark blue. There were wavey clouds surround the blackness, which along with the Acas, screamed to me, storms! My mate agreed to ditch squash and head W for a drive. As we were heading past Gravesend, the whole skyline just flashed a brilliant white! "That's justified the mileage then" I shouted, lol.

We pulled over at Pedham Place golf club, and watched as the storms screamed in! The most brilliant, bright pink and white flashes I have seen for a long time - wavey forks stretching across the horizon and overhead - a very subdued, deep bumping thunder overhead. The air wreaked with that watery dew smell before the rain hit. At this point I had my windows down (parked next to pylons lol), and during this bright flash, there was a huge buzz from the pylons...nice.

We then proceeded to drive in the torrential rain (as dark as night at this point and it was only 9.30pm) down the A20 towards Sidcup, and pulled over in the McDonalds - the lightning still flashing overhead and all around, some great forks appearing in and out of the rainbands. Ran the 10 metres into McDonalds (soaked) and sat in the car and ate some food. By the time we'd finished the storms had moved off and weakened some what, electrically anyway.

En route back to the Medway (this time facing E) there was a huge line of 4 cells stretching across the skyline - illuminating and flashing to each other in chorus, every few seconds. You could see the outline of the Cbs, and at times the forks emerging too. I eventually felt pity on my mate so dropped him home - though en route, the evaporation off of the roads was like I've never seen before (bearing in mind at this point is 10:45pm and a mere 15C, the evaporation was something you'd see in the rainforests).

After dropping him home, I headed back W towards my home. As I drew near, there was another big flash - HAHA!! Got home, dumped my gear indoors and took a walk up the road to the golf course, umbrella in hand. The lightning on this occasion was far less frequent than before, but far brighter and covering more of the sky! The thunder starting rumbling away in the distance and the rain drops got a lot fatter - time to head back before a drowning I thought. As I got back to my driveway, I gave one final look at the sky, when it just lit and this huge forked came arching almost at me...it made me jump to say the least. Then crackle, rumble, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!! One of those which sounds like atoms in the air have been split - with mini nuclear explosions erupting around half of the sky line. The ground shook, I shook, the umbrella shook - got a text from the other half with the customary "be careful" about 5 seconds later, lol. After that there were several more bright flashes and booms, before it all subsided.

All in all, not the most severe of weather events, but nonetheless provided another 3 hours of viewing pleasure, some great lightning (if not as frequent as normal) and great booming thunder to boot! Also one of those skies which you know will stay in your head for many years (well, until superceded by the US ones next year anyway)

Edited by Harry
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Posted
  • Location: Home near Sellindge, 80m/250feet, 5miles from Coast
  • Weather Preferences: Severe Storms and Snow
  • Location: Home near Sellindge, 80m/250feet, 5miles from Coast

Fantastic read Harry thanks

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Posted
  • Location: Sunderland
  • Weather Preferences: Hot Summer, Snowy winter and thunderstorms all year round!
  • Location: Sunderland
I'll repost this here.

Normandy had some fun with supercell(s) last night, classic structure! I was watching the action approach Le Havre on one of those control cameras, as soon as I got the damn thing pointed at the updraft base my turn ran out and the other person seemed more content on pointing the camera at the floor while there was a supercell approaching in plain view! :doh:

http://www.infoclimat.fr/multimedia/photol...uteur=&ord=

http://www.infoclimat.fr/multimedia/photol...uteur=&ord=

http://www.infoclimat.fr/multimedia/photol...uteur=&ord=

http://www.infoclimat.fr/multimedia/photol...uteur=&ord=

http://www.infoclimat.fr/multimedia/photol...uteur=&ord=

Off topic, but those last two pictures are almost identical to what I saw on monday evening when I chased a storm just south of Birmingham...see my post in mondays storm thread.... Link

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