Convective/Thunderstorm Discussion : Spring/Summer 2020

Gonzo

RobertKK wrote: »

True, my uncle lost 8 cattle in the July 1985 thunderstorms.
He was in the local village and hearing of others talking of the cattle they lost and thought he was ok, he went up the fields and found he had not been spared.

I think one person died in that storm and were in a farm building.

The 1985 storm was a once in a lifetime event in terms of it's intensity, duration and widespread area of affect. I was only 11 back then and from memory the storm affected most of Munster, Leinster and Ulster. I'm not sure if the storm was in the west but i'm sure that a storm which covered at least half of the country would have been visible from western parts as well. Last night's Wicklow/Wexford coastal storm was over 100km away from me but I could still see faint lightning from it, so lightning from the 1985 storm would have been visible even in areas up to 50km away from it.

pad199207

Gonzo wrote: »

The 1985 storm was a once in a lifetime event in terms of it's intensity, duration and widespread area of affect. I was only 11 back then and from memory the storm affected most of Munster, Leinster and Ulster. I'm not sure if the storm was in the west but i'm sure that a storm which covered at least half of the country would have been visible from western parts as well. Last night's Wicklow/Wexford coastal storm was over 100km away from me but I could still see faint lightning from it, so lightning from the 1985 storm would have been visible even in areas up to 50km away from it.

2085 is a long time to go before we get a storm like that again

squarecircles

i drank a can of coke,i cant sleep.

what kind of synoptics do we need in order to experience this type of 1985 style thunderstorm.

does anyone know what was going on in the atmosphere specifically over ireland on that day to lead to such violent storms.

Gonzo

pad199207 wrote: »

2085 is a long time to go before we get a storm like that again

I really hope we get something in the next 10 years before I start getting too old to enjoy it!

The storm last night certainly got alot of us excited just to have a proper continental storm somewhere in Ireland over a reasonably wide area. I know some posters were not happy about my disappointment over today. I'm really happy for those who got to witness decent thunderstorms today but I would love to see it cover a wider area.

I wasn't expecting another 1985 today but it would have been nice to see a storm mushroom to the size of at least one county, that's kinda what I had in mind for today after looking at the charts last night. Perhaps I was expecting way too much. Perhaps tomorrow we could be pleasantly surprised.

The latest chart for tomorrow looks very good for tomorrow across the mid west, especially from County Clare to Sligo. Again I'm expecting nothing east of the midlands but I really would love to see a large cell form somewhere tomorrow, we don't see these chances too often in this country.

Gonzo

squarecircles wrote: »

what kind of synoptics do we need in order to experience this type of 1985 style thunderstorm.

does anyone know what was going on in the atmosphere specifically over ireland on that day to lead to such violent storms.

You can read all about the eventful day and what caused it here https://www.met.ie/cms/assets/uploads/2017/08/July1985_Thunderstorm.pdf

RobertKK

Gonzo wrote: »

The 1985 storm was a once in a lifetime event in terms of it's intensity, duration and widespread area of affect. I was only 11 back then and from memory the storm affected most of Munster, Leinster and Ulster. I'm not sure if the storm was in the west but i'm sure that a storm which covered at least half of the country would have been visible from western parts as well. Last night's Wicklow/Wexford coastal storm was over 100km away from me but I could still see faint lightning from it, so lightning from the 1985 storm would have been visible even in areas up to 50km away from it.

It was an amazing storm, I was 9 years old, and it was the only time I had lightning hit the field I was in, and not just once but several times, lucky we weren't killed in it, my father rushed to get my sister and myself onto the tractor and back home.
I spent 40 minutes out in a field watching the lightning last night, could hear some rumbled, it was all to the south of me.

Donegal Storm

squarecircles wrote: »

i drank a can of coke,i cant sleep.

what kind of synoptics do we need in order to experience this type of 1985 style thunderstorm.

does anyone know what was going on in the atmosphere specifically over ireland on that day to lead to such violent storms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_plume

Basically we want a few days of high pressure and hot southerly winds from Spain followed by cold low pressure encroaching from the NW. We want the boundary of the two airmasses to meet directly over the country which leads to all sorts of turbulence and nice big thunderstorms

The cold NW'erly part usually isn't a problem here but getting a direct hot southerly is the hard part and it rarely works out, NW France into Northern Germany tends to be the sweet spot with the SE of England sometimes getting a glancing blow.

If you watch sat24 in a typical plume event on the continent you'll see massive cb clouds explode from nowhere before all hell breaks loose, 1985 was before my time but I'm assuming thats what happened here that day

Carol25

Interesting on the radar, seems there’s a few more sparks in East Mayo and Sligo.

Pretzill

Carol25 wrote: »

Interesting on the radar, seems there’s a few more sparks in East Mayo and Sligo.

I have been woken up by loud thunder between heavy showers - it's passing over and moving a little more distant, some really loud cracks....

South Sligo
90m asl

Oscar Bravo

Some bright lightning just to the east of Castlebar now

glack

Carol25 wrote: »

Interesting on the radar, seems there’s a few more sparks in East Mayo and Sligo.

There sure is! Really loud and pouring rain along with it now.

KingdomRushed

I wonder will the thunder be more widespread today. Where there were storms over last two days they were intense enough but their distribution was fairly limited. Only localised drought relief so far.

Comhrá

KingdomRushed wrote: »

I wonder will the thunder be more widespread today. Where there were storms over last two days they were intense enough but their distribution was fairly limited. Only localised drought relief so far.

Well, this morning is very clear and sunny over a lot of the country so I'm hoping this may give a lot more ground heating than yesterday and hopefully contribute to lots of convection (and higher CAPE?) than yesterday. It might pay dividends for the midlands and South later in the afternoon.

pad199207

Status yellow - Thunder warning for Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Louth, Offaly, Westmeath, Meath, Galway, Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo, Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary

Met Éireann Weather Warning

Scattered thunderstorms developing through the afternoon and evening with heavy downpours and a risk of localised flooding.

Valid: 12:00 Monday 15/06/2020 to 21:00 Monday 15/06/2020

Issued: 09:00 Monday 15/06/2020

Oscar Bravo

Status yellow - Thunder warning for Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Louth, Offaly, Westmeath, Meath, Galway, Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo, Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary

Met Éireann Weather Warning

Scattered thunderstorms developing through the afternoon and evening with heavy downpours and a risk of localised flooding.

Valid: 12:00 Monday 15/06/2020 to 21:00 Monday 15/06/2020

Issued: 09:00 Monday 15/06/2020



Northern Ireland Warnings

Yellow - Thunderstorm Warning for Armagh, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Derry

UK Met Office Weather Warning

Thunderstorms may cause travel disruption in a few places.

Valid: 13:00 Monday 15/06/2020 to 21:00 Monday 15/06/2020

Issued: 09:32 Monday 15/06/2020

StackSteevens

Comhra wrote: »

Well, this morning is very clear and sunny over a lot of the country so I'm hoping this may give a lot more ground heating than yesterday and hopefully contribute to lots of convection (and higher CAPE?) than yesterday. It might pay dividends for the midlands and South later in the afternoon.

Great satellite photo, thanks. Is access to the source of such photos available to the public, or is it behind a paywall? Because I'd consider paying for access to satellite photos like that!

highdef

Apart from convection near the horizon to my south west, a lone cumulus cloud has appeared close to home so I've started a timelapse with camera directed at it, in the hope that it becomes something much much greater.

Edit, it's already disappeared :pac::pac::pac:

Will leave the camera rolling for a while, I might get lucky yet.

Comhrá

StackSteevens wrote: »

Great satellite photo, thanks. Is access to the source of such photos available to the public, or is it behind a paywall? Because I'd consider paying for access to satellite photos like that!

That image is from the Met Eireann website. Sometimes nice things are for free!

https://www.met.ie/latest-reports/satellites/ireland-visible

Mortelaro

pad199207 wrote: »

Status yellow - Thunder warning for Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Louth, Offaly, Westmeath, Meath, Galway, Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo, Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary

Met Éireann Weather Warning

Scattered thunderstorms developing through the afternoon and evening with heavy downpours and a risk of localised flooding.

Valid: 12:00 Monday 15/06/2020 to 21:00 Monday 15/06/2020

Issued: 09:00 Monday 15/06/2020

Pound to a penny,there'll be a whole different set of counties in these later..

Mortelaro

Comhra wrote: »

That image is from the Met Eireann website. Sometimes nice things are for free!

https://www.met.ie/latest-reports/satellites/ireland-visible

Why did they switch to those fake coloured green pictures?

Comhrá

Mortelaro wrote: »

Why did they switch to those fake coloured green pictures?

Not sure. . .probably just to give some extra contrast. I have to say I like that green, makes the white cloud stand out. I'm normally giving out about ME's efforts but I do like the enhanced green they've used here.

Mortelaro

Comhra wrote: »

Not sure. . .probably just to give some extra contrast. I have to say I like that green, makes the white cloud stand out. I'm normally giving out about ME's efforts but I do like the enhanced green they've used here.

It's not real though,all the terrain has gone
It's not what's seen from the satellite
I don't like it tbh

Mortelaro

Convection building already over the Wicklow mountains
See photo

nacho libre

Danno wrote: »

Ah lads, now it's not a pi$$ing contest. Everybody knows that the best weather happens in Laois. :pac:

I believe there is a man up in Coleraine who might disagree!

The ingredients look a bit more favourable for thunderstorms to be more organised and widespread than yesterday. I hope so anyway, because it was frustrating hearing the claps of thunder only a few miles away yesterday while we stayed dry.

Mortelaro

https://twitter.com/Arklowweather/status/1272470098205446144?s=19

pauldry

First cloudburst seems to be around Drumshanbo

Storm 10

Lot of convection type cloud building to the East of Galway City now some quite dark looking, hope we might see something today after nothing yesterday.

squarecircles

Mayo omitted from the thunder warning - gas.

look foward to such a set up as yesterday sometime again in the next 10 or 20 years.hopefully i wont miss it all by 20 miles next time.

it was nice to experience that glupey warm continental style atmosphere for a day.

gosh i almost sound like gonzo.

jimmynokia

Dublin left out again today i see.. Nice one:mad: Although i have to go to the midlands with work so might be lucky.

Oneiric 3

Yesterday's lightning archive from Met Eireann: