Thunderstorms

Snowbie

Continue to post here in the event of all things thunderstorm related,wheather it be radar,maps,charts,forecasts or just simple discussions.

Weather pics(clouds,lightning) in attachments only are allowed here otherwise use [thread=2055050139]Weather pics 2007[/thread] for your snaps.

Over the months you will find some variables or terms describing suitability of storms which are:
CAPE - This is the amount of potential energy in the atmosphere. High CAPE will indicate a high chance of thunderstorms.
LI - Lifted Index (LI) displays the 'trigger' potential at the surface to initiate unstable conditions. A low or negative LI will indicate conditions for thunderstorms are favourable.
Cb-Cumulonimbus or thundercloud.
Anvil-Where the top of the Cb reaches the stratosphere and spreads out like a flat top.
Cell or Supercell-An individual storm or a violent storm.
Squall line-Multi cellular organised storms forming in a line usually ahead or parallel to cold fronts.
Embedded Storms-Storms that are contained in overcast conditions
Convection-Warm air rising,cools,condenses forming cumuli clouds.
Orographic lift-Low level winds are forced to rise against rising terrain ie:mountains.Prevailing wind on a hot summers day,this lift can produce rapid convection.
Convergence zone-usually refers to a region in the atmosphere where two prevailing winds meet and interact, usually resulting in turbulent weather.
Lapse rate steepeing-is another fancy term for instability.
Sferics-Sound of low-frequency radio signals that derive from lightning strikes.Common terms would be strikes or strokes.

Some useful links

http://www.irelandlivelightning.info

http://www.gyweather.com/

http://www.isleofwightweather.co.uk/live_storm_data_sound.htm

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/Rsfloc.html

Estofex

http://www.blitzortung.org/index.php?mode=0&map=5&lang=e

http://www.nowcast.co.uk/lightning/

http://meteocentre.com/lightning/map_sfuk.php?time=0&lang=en&map=Europe

http://www.estofex.org/guide/

If anyone has any more feel free to post them.

Snowbie

A few more links added above.

Highest cape ytd 600j/kg for Friday here in the east with LI -3 forecasted.
Could well trigger decent storms if that holds out.

AntiRip

we had severe thunderstorms this evening in Kerry. Power outages over the whole county. Was woken up (on nights) by quite spectacular electrical claps of thunder and lightning. I actually haven't seen such constant thunder/lightning in years and that was in the US. Lasted a couple of hours.

Snowbie

Cape increased on yesterdays levels to mid 600j/kg with lift at -3 still.In fact most of the afternoon cape is above 500jkg for eastern areas.

rc28

So there's a good chance of t-storms today and tomorrow?

Snowbie

rc28 wrote:

So there's a good chance of t-storms today and tomorrow?

Good potential alright for heavy showers for sure,TS be a bonus.;)

Again a warm moist plume being drawn up through UK giving a few storms around the Machester area.But tomorrow for Ireland the wind will swing a NW direction giving the East an offshore wind direction.Not a warm direction but still moist and unstable and maritime air still in the circulation.

rc28

Meteireann were really ramping today up earlier saying occasional t-storms with localised flooding but it certainly didn't turn out anything like that:(

arctictree

Was a total wash out here - all day...

A

Snowbie

This mammatus is from a dissipating supercell in the US.

lucernarian

Lovely picture. I'd love to see that at some stage, though it's probably close to a once-in-a-lifetime occurence around here. Tristrame saw one down his area sometime?

I thought there was a Weather Pics thread for that sort of thing Snowbie?:D

darkman2

Chance of storms today in the East imparticular.

Snowbie

Eh,its in an attachment and eh its relevant to storms and eh again its in my OP.:p so stop side seat modding:D

Actually i saw two mammatus this year so far but both of them where in winter after heavy showers,1 off the Irish sea and the other one from the North.Nothing compared to that pic.

Trogdor

There was one over Northern Ireland last year... i'm pretty sure anyway. I'll look for a link

The sky is alive with cb's here already.
They are growing like mad with anvils,large towers and that tell tale dark grey sharp edge to them.

Thunder is a high possibility today.

We've a heat requirement of probably 17 or 18c only to spark them today and it's already 17c here in the sunshine.

Trogdor have a look outside to the south and west.
I first saw these build down towards Mt Leinster but now they are all in a line.

A slight sea breeze will pepper things up and thats kinda starting as the very light breeze is veering NE here from NW

Snowbie

Starting to rain heavily now with the showers coming in off the sea atm,should be interesting when they come off the land later.

Edit: peeing down now.

Yeah Tristrame,felt tropical all day here that day with the humidity through the roof and not a breath of air iirc.

Trogdor

Some showers kicking off over the Mourne mountains now and progressing Southwards on the radar:D

rc28

Is saturn.unibe not updating lately? I noticed that there's some lovely looking t-storms over the continent on the latest image but the radar doesn't correspond to it. Also, take a look at the bottom right of the pic, is that dust blowing north from africa?:
http://saturn.unibe.ch/rsbern/noaa/dw/realtime/current/n1bcurr.jpg

darkman2

trogdor wrote:

Can't see much here atm Tristrame, alot of low cloud around. For some reason, I nearly always get hit with alot of showers in a North-Westerly flow. Hopefully the same this time.
The outlook for today is pretty good alright!
http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=13916&posts=20
There was a big long thread about the Northern Ireland supercell last year on UKWW but i can't find it. Here's a pic on torro
http://www.torro.org.uk/TORRO/php/photo.php?photo_id=454&start=0
EDIT: found that thread
http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=3554&start=1

Thanks for that Trogdor:)

rc28

A very heavy downpour here just now, we've had on and off heavy rain rain all morning even though there's not much on radar

Line of showers down the east coast now-probably the fruit of the cb's I was able to see developing in the sunshine earlier.

Theres one yellow very close to trogdor and that little green in the south of the map has just passed through here-it gave us 12.7mm/hr but we were just on the edge of it.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/images/wl_radar_200706221100.gif

Trogdor

Dark to my West and North-West but no rain yet. Temp up to 18.6C

Snowbie

3.5mm fell at Dublin AP at noon but nothing here.

Trogdor

2 blue x's
http://meteocentre.com/lightning/map_sfuk.php?time=0&lang=en&map=Europe

Trogdor

Thunder heard from the cell to my West:D. Got to try and find a window facing West now

Trogdor

It's nearly passed me, really pitch black clouds out West and very heavy rain by the looks of it. Only heard the 1 clap but there maybe more. Seems to be heading dead South, so down to Longfield and Arctictree maybe

hehe
didnt hear anything here (yet) but that was strong near you and cb's are about so it was bound to happen!

*goes out to leer at the clouds*

Intense blackness approaching from the North/north east.
Looks like a hell of a downpour

Snowbie

Tristrame wrote:

Intense blackness approaching from the North/north east.
Looks like a hell of a downpour

All moving to my west and south and missing me totally as usual,damn forcefield:D Still early yet.

Trogdor

More thunder out West, there's two cells now. One north-west and one South-west
EDIT: another clap just now, i can't tell which cell it's coming from though.
EDIT 2:A third rumble, this is a decent storm.

Weather BOFH

Could have sworn I just heard rumble of thunder out here in Saggart, rain just started again after a 20 minute break.

meanwhile it's raining cats and dogs here according to the Davis...