General Storm Discussion Thread

[Backtrack]

The radar says it is raining but its dry... probally evaporateing before it hits the ground

Then it's probably just anaprop.

[Coast]

Well, looks a bit pants now. :lol: No chasing for me later!

Something is very much wrong IMO...I think in general though this year has been the year of the Blocking High - on many occasions both summer and winter, we've been hit by blocking highs, and none of them in ideal areas/orientations conducive to decent thunderstorm outbreaks.

Sorry guys! When I expressed a bit of caution earlier in the day it wasn't to be a killjoy but because just like many on here, I am coming to expect that the little bit of potential that does show on charts, radar and in the sky this year is often misplaced and turns out to be little or nothing.

A few have offered suggestions and I hope we get some major storms in the next few months rather than having to start a thread on the 'enquiry into the lost thunderstorm season of 2010'!

[Steve_De4]

Hi Chaps,

Tornado or scud?

(Photographed yesterday over the North-west of Warminster).

Cheers

Steve

Edited July 23, 2010 by Steve_De4

[Lynxus]

Sorry guys! When I expressed a bit of caution earlier in the day it wasn't to be a killjoy but because just like many on here, I am coming to expect that the little bit of potential that does show on charts, radar and in the sky this year is often misplaced and turns out to be little or nothing.

A few have offered suggestions and I hope we get some major storms in the next few months rather than having to start a thread on the 'enquiry into the lost thunderstorm season of 2010'!

Lol 'enquiry into the lost thunderstorm season of 2010'!

I must of missed the thread for 2009 and 2008 :lol:

[Joey.G]

Hi Chaps,

Tornado or scud?

(Photographed yesterday over the North-west of Warminster).

Cheers

Steve

Neither. Tornados touch down and this doesnt look like it does, but it isnt just scud, its a funnel cloud, nice capture :lol:

[Sprites]

:lol: nice funnel cloud pics steve

[Stormyking]

Hi all

I went on my first ever stormchase yesterday on the mainland and enjoyed it alot

Anyway we set off early in the morning at 7am to catch the 7:55am boat to lynmington and then headed west to try an intercept a cell in east devon but then it started to weaken as soon as we got close to it. We stopped off to check radar and decided to head North towards towards Somerset or NW Hampshire area as we noticed a line of cells was starting to fire up. It was about 1pm/ 1:30pm we stopped of in Salisbury I think to stretch and check the radar and was unsure of what to do, little did we now that a storm was developing right above us. We stayed for about 30 minutes and just before we was gunna leave we notice something developing right over us and so so we drove up this little hill to see what it was. The sky looked amazing and tornadic with very very heavy rain curtan coming toward us, I said to my friend I think it could thunder you know and he was unsure but when he said that, 2 seconds later the first rumble of thunder

He got his lightning trigger out and set it up for a little bit and within 20/30 seconds his lightning trigger went of and more thunder went off but the lightning must of been very high in the CB.

We noticed another cell to our North I think but it looked liked an even bigger and better one, we tried to go after it and get a head of it but we couldn'y catch up with it though we did drive threw some super heavy rain for about 5 minutes. At about 2:30pm we was drving along behind the back edge of the storm but was thinking whether to call it a day or not, after a while we stopped because he needed to go to the toilet and as soon as he got out an enourmous CG came down out of nowhere really close with very loud thunder and he was like OMG!!!!. After he got back in the car drove along to a better view place and found a good spot and he got his camera and set it up in the car looking out at witht he boot open sitting with his camera and his lightning trigger. Once he set it up within 30 seconds his lightning trigger went off too quick and there was even bigger CG and gave an explosive type of thunder I have never heard before which sounded like Gun Cannons or and Atomic explosion going off. This strike was a positive CG which was unbelivable to see, rain was very heavy but we stayed for another 15 or so mins to see if another would pop up but it didnt, we checked the radar and saw everything was starting to die and so we started the drive back. As we was drivng back home and we drove about 10 miles until we noticed something to our NE exploading, an enourmous storm cloud was developing and looked spercelluler, we was too tempted to chase do we gave it ago. We drove about another 20 miles, got a round about and was weakening quickly and then both said you know what we are too tired and couldn't be bothered any more so we went home lol. Got to the 8:20pm ferry and to our west there was a double anvil which looked amazing and I have a few pictures of it but will show them later on.

All in all for my first storm chase ever properly, I thought I done alright could of been better with alot more storms and bigger but I am so happy to see those 2 or 3 small storms which very good little storms and also we saw 3 funnel clouds too. Amazing amounts of convection and I think the first storm looked better with the sky but the 2nd gave the best Thunder and Lightning. I really enjoyed and hope to go again on the next storm outbreak.

One more thing a a small thunderstorm developed on the IOW about 12pm today and was over msot of ventnor area, gave 4/5 very good CG's nice thudner and super heavy rainfall over Ventnor, Apse Heath , Shanklin etc felt very happy after that. Hope everyone enjoyed reading this

[Guest]

I certainly did enjoy reading that, a great account and glad you were successful!

I have only really chased properly once, and I got a little carried away and ended up driving around 500 miles in one day! It was so worth it though, I loved every minute of it - plus I got to see two decent thunderstorms during that day too!

[Neilsouth]

excellent Joey...first clas pic..

cheers Neil

Neil next time just for you im going to put Vivaldi

a speacial dedication

I will let you know Neil when its done for you...they dont play vivaldi in night clubs

lol thanks , i'm the same with car videos though... If someone said to me "check out this awesome supercar and how it drives" , first thing i'd love to hear is the sound of the car , the roar of the engine!. Bit like the storm , i wan't to hear the storm even if it's people getting excited. I mean come on , when you are outside watching a storm or even a usa supercell did you say " i better turn my tunes up really loud "

Edited July 23, 2010 by neilsouth

[Sprites]

i just read your mainland chase info sormyking, sounds like you had fun!.

[Steve_De4]

Thanks to all who replied re: scud/funnel. You'd think I'd been reading NW long enough to differentiate between funnel and tornado, but I got so obsessed worrying about typing "mini-tornado" and incurring the wrath of... nearly everyone... I forgot what I was at

Can take no credit for the pix - they were taken by my son. Don't worry, I clipped him around the earhole and severely reprimanded him for *not* taking a video so we could confirm rotation

Edited July 23, 2010 by Steve_De4

[Paul Sherman]

I certainly did enjoy reading that, a great account and glad you were successful!

I have only really chased properly once, and I got a little carried away and ended up driving around 500 miles in one day! It was so worth it though, I loved every minute of it - plus I got to see two decent thunderstorms during that day too!

Lol Carried away Steve ??

USA Stormchase this year was 20,000 Miles in 40 days - You do the maths

That is about bang on the average for a decent Stormchase

[Stormyking]

I certainly did enjoy reading that, a great account and glad you were successful!

I have only really chased properly once, and I got a little carried away and ended up driving around 500 miles in one day! It was so worth it though, I loved every minute of it - plus I got to see two decent thunderstorms during that day too!

Thank you for the comments

well all in all we done 320miles or something like that yesterday but 500 miles is alot and defianatly is worth it for 2 Thunderstorms indeed , I would do anything to see storms

[anvilhead]

Good account Ryan

[staplehurst]

Very similar weather so far today as we had yesterday - a lot of big clouds developing, some very dark bases with a lot of scud, yet surprisingly dry on the radar.

[Neilsouth]

Very similar weather so far today as we had yesterday - a lot of big clouds developing, some very dark bases with a lot of scud, yet surprisingly dry on the radar.

I noticed that too , dark to my south aswell

[Harry]

I noticed that too , dark to my south aswell

Interesting observations from yourself and staplehurst - looks all very disinteresting across Kent - lots of blue sky and fair weather cumulus, very warm feeling in the sun, hardly any breeze...skies looked a bit more dynamic this morning with some tall Cu about but all seems rather stable now.

A rather boring yet pleasant summers day!

Edited July 24, 2010 by Harry

[Neilsouth]

Interesting observations from yourself and staplehurst - looks all very disinteresting across Kent - lots of blue sky and fair weather cumulus, very warm feeling in the sun, hardly any breeze...skies looked a bit more dynamic this morning with some tall Cu about but all seems rather stable now.

A rather boring yet pleasant summers day!

It's still dark here , what looked like unstable mammatus earlier and checking the wind conditions they seem to be colliding somewhat. Perhaps there is a strong cap in place but enough to cause the unstableness in the sky but lack of towering. However looking towards ashford way it looks sunny

EDIT : Few spots of rain outside :wacko:

Edited July 24, 2010 by neilsouth

[staplehurst]

Yeah it's become a lot sunnier in the last 30 mins, and the cloud is now only patchy and small, looks like the unstable stuff has cleared eastwards.

[DXX]

Main storm risk areas next week for England, going by current GFS output is E and SE England on Tuesday afternoon/evening. S and E England on Saturday afternoon/evening. Risk is pretty low on both instances, so a quiet week in store with the Azores High keeping a lid on thundery activity for the most part.

[Backtrack]

Main storm risk areas next week for England, going by current GFS output is E and SE England on Tuesday afternoon/evening. S and E England on Saturday afternoon/evening. Risk is pretty low on both instances, so a quiet week in store with the Azores High keeping a lid on thundery activity for the most part.

Thundery outbreaks are possible, but for the S.E I see dry, warm weather.

Welcome to the forum by the way. Pop your location in your profile so we know where you are from!

[Costa Del Fal]

Looks like we missed out on the 14th July too. This location is so bad for storms its been an utterly dreadful year.

[Coast]

Main storm risk areas next week for England, going by current GFS output is E and SE England on Tuesday afternoon/evening. S and E England on Saturday afternoon/evening. Risk is pretty low on both instances, so a quiet week in store with the Azores High keeping a lid on thundery activity for the most part.

Welcome to NW, DXX!

The only risk in an otherwise 'storm-drought' week? (and that risk is very low)

[Neilsouth]

Very dark clouds above here again , second day in a row... but again nothing stormy

[Stuart]

i dont see any storms comeing for the uk this week but things can change