Convective/storm Discussion

[dogs32]

An eventful 24 hours for those of you in the east, hope you enjoyed it. Just shows, may not get as many storms as some other parts - but when you do they can pack quite a punch!

Hey, was thinking of maybe going to the States next year, although places are filling faster than I can save up and make the decision. :lol:

you wont regret it ...better than this crap here...Glos..

sorry just frustrated with Glos weather...

cant beat the electrics out there..

just the clouds are awsome let alone the lightning....

Edited July 17, 2009 by dogs32

[evil monkey]

Can anyone explain, possibly with the use of charts, how this low pressure produced so much storm activity? I want to know what to look out in the charts for 'next time'

OK, I'll have a bash...

A negatively tilted upper trough interacting with a jet streak left exit formed a low pressure area near the Straights of Dover, this was in a prime position to entrain high theta-w (warm & moist) air from Northern France & force it aloft. At the same time severe thunderstorms were initiating along the French coast near Le Havre, these caught the flow across the Channel & ran into the highly favourable environment over SE England. This caused a series of thunderstorms to initiate in the unstable air around & to the South of the Low centre.

That's how I see it anyway, apologies if I'm wrong!

[stormchaser1]

spare a thought for those up in the NE, local rainfall accumulations of over 120mm in the past 12 hours!, and my area has has up to 20mm in the past 12 hours, so TBH we've had our fair share of rain, unfortunatley minus the storms

I have recorded 44.5mm here in Gosforth , which is about 6 mile east from The airport and about 3 mile NW from the city

Further North around Morpeth have been hit bad again , and further south around Durham

Flooding virtually everywhere in the North East, roads closed rivers ready to burst their banks, if they havent already Believe me its a nightmare out there

[Eye of the Storm]

Just driven through a huge storm just to the north of colchester. As the storm approached colchester there were several funnel clouds however i am kicking myself as i did not bring my camera out with me. Friends have confirmed that houses on their street were hit by lightning!

[Roger J Smith]

This in response to Rain-rain-rain about why this low produced a lot of rain-rain-rain. First of all though, Vancouver although climatically similar always has a long sunny, dry spell in summer, the Pacific highs are stronger and the mountains produce subsidence, also there is no warm water offshore here usually (12-13 C the max except near shore). Summers vary but the range is from a good summer to a perfect summer if you know what I'm saying ... what tends to happen here is that the rain peters out in early July and then starts up again in late August, with one erratic rainstorm around the middle of the dry spell (sometimes it doesn't happen, at worst it would be three or four showery days in six weeks there). And so, the grass here always turns a bit dormant and brown by end of July, this year, we have had very dry weather since the freak snowfalls of December and early January, rainfall is about 40% of long-term normal since then. It has not been exceptionally warm, more like variations around normal.

Okay, I'm sure others will have their own take on this, but this system advertised heavy rain for a number of reasons. First of all, track, Biscay through central England to North Sea, is ideal to bring northeastward any moisture available, and the synoptics made that at least a moderate amount. Biscay is running rather warm and this increases evaporation into warm sector and frontal zone. Low was steadily deepening which always assists with rainfall production. Upper air flow was rapidly phasing an upper low with surface low, this tends to wring out all available moisture (falling freezing levels act like a barrier to dispersion of moisture into isolated cells or leakage out into the upper atmosphere). What goes up must come down quickly. Frontal structure was well-defined but not so intense that results would be localized heavy rains at expense of most other places. North Sea came into play for additional moisture source. From my research, although these are like 2 to 5 per cent add-ons, we're approaching northern max, an event that always delivers a bit of an extra punch (as with June 15-16, 2007). The J-field system had a large energy peak last night around 02z. That added to the severity of the supercells in northern France (from my perspective, note this is not widely accepted or even known about for that matter).

Sorry no use of charts here, but basically heavy rain producers are usually northeast-moving deepening lows with good thermal contrast and if they are not moving fast this adds to the time for rain to fall, although sometimes a fast-moving low can drop a lot of rain in the three hours it has available. Will see if there are follow-up discussions and comment again later if it seems useful.

[tesaro]

Has been an interesting day here in EA. Started out at 8am and ran into a thunder storm just south of Royston Herts. Going from there to Peterborough then down to Cambridge i was under thunder and lightning constantly for over 9 hours. Van is nice and clean now though. Has been pebble dashed, thoroughly rinced and topped off with a nice natural sun dried finish.

[A.J]

I have recorded 44.5mm here in Gosforth , which is about 6 mile east from The airport and about 3 mile NW from the city

Further North around Morpeth have been hit bad again , and further south around Durham

Flooding virtually everywhere in the North East, roads closed rivers ready to burst their banks, if they havent already Believe me its a nightmare out there

That doesnt surprise me at all Nigel, your area's been stuck under yellow & red radar returns since the early hours!, plus all the convective rain that you've had the past few days...I'd be interested to see what rivers are currently under flood warnings in your neck of the woods!

[peterf]

I have recorded 44.5mm here in Gosforth , which is about 6 mile east from The airport and about 3 mile NW from the city

Further North around Morpeth have been hit bad again , and further south around Durham

Flooding virtually everywhere in the North East, roads closed rivers ready to burst their banks, if they havent already Believe me its a nightmare out there

wiped again nigel

[stormchaser1]

That doesnt surprise me at all Nigel, your area's been stuck under yellow & red radar returns since the early hours!, plus all the convective rain that you've had the past few days...I'd be interested to see what rivers are currently under flood warnings in your neck of the woods!

18 flood warnings out at the moment

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homea...&Severity=3

[Neilsouth]

It's gone black! , could be a storm soon

EDIT WOW!!, you seen the sky outside?!?!

Edited July 17, 2009 by neilsouth

[remymartin]

Just found this on the le havre supercell

[Kent Snow]

Interesting skies outside. Slight lowering now and again but no proper funnels.

[Neilsouth]

[Kent Snow]

Is your second shot towards Canterbury, Neil? Exactly what I was lookin at.

[Methuselah]

Nothing around here just now. But I did hear a lightning-strike on my detector - AKA medium-wave radio.

What will I do when it all goes digital!

[A.J]

nice piccies neil, but please post the actual skies rather than 'tweaked skies' mate!.....although, saying that, if that was your 'actual' sky...BOOOOM..BAAANG...

btw Neil, have you got some recent photo's mate?...havent seen your work for a while

cheers

AJ

Edited July 17, 2009 by ajpoolshark

[Neilsouth]

nice piccies neil, but please post the actual skies rather than 'tweaked skies' mate!.....although, saying that, if that was your 'actual' sky...BOOOOM..BAAANG...

btw Neil, have you got some recent photo's mate?...havent seen your work for a while

cheers

AJ

That was the actual sky , the only thing touched was the landscape because the landscape sucked!

Hence this post below

Is your second shot towards Canterbury, Neil? Exactly what I was lookin at.

Yes Kent Snow

Edited July 17, 2009 by neilsouth

[multi cellular thunderstorm]

Just noticed there is a storm just off the North East coast heading towards the Newcastle area.

I'll be keeping an eye on that.

[Cloud 10]

Just noticed there is a storm just off the North East coast heading towards the Newcastle area.

I'll be keeping an eye on that.

Yes,be nice to see some night time lightning.

Very unusual for a storm to come in off the north sea.

The northeast is back under the orange warning area for tonight.

Met Office: North East England: severe weather warnings

Edited July 17, 2009 by Cloud 10

[West Sussex Kate]

so bored now, spent the past 24 hours hanging out the window, storms, rain, storms.....now what lol! back to boring life.

(till next time,of course )

[Greeny]

Must be an old timers joke

Just found this on the le havre supercell

Wow awesome! That must have been a really nice storm to sit and watch!

[maidstone weather]

at 6:45pm this evening, i saw a cumulonimbus to my south, which rapidly expanded eastwards. One of the towers also had a pileus cap, which i have never seen before

[NorthantsSnow]

Typical- we got a credible storm today and I missed it. Thanks though to my fellow Northampton posters for reporting.

Edited July 17, 2009 by NorthantsSnow

[StormChaser]

Yup, all the storms down here died away had one heck of bang early this afternoon bloomin typical, happend when i was at work:( hense why I could not film the bugger!

[Cloud 10]

That storm is moving very slowly southwest,looks to be feeding off some decent cape and li