April
2002: Unexpected Thunderstorm!
(Photographs
copyright Eye On The Sky)
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| Date:
3rd April 2002
Location: Hope, Flintshire,
NE Wales. On 3rd April, 2002, a quite unexpected thunderstorm rumbled across my location in north-east Wales. It was unexpected as, the night before, thunderstorms moving north, clipping my area brought cooler conditions. This satellite image, (courtesy of the Dundee Satellite Receiving Station) shows a quasi-plume situation, with warm southerly air pushing northwards ahead of a trailing cold front. Look closely over North Wales, and you'll see the shadow cast from an isolated, but very deep thunderstorm. This moved north-east across my location. . |
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| Date:
3rd
April 2002 Location: Hope,
Flintshire, NE Wales. The sferic (lightning) plot from 3rd April (courtesy of http://www.wetterzentrale.de). This shows how a series of storms erupted on the eastern edge of the trailing cold front, with one ot the most violent across mid and north Wales. . |
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| Date:
3rd
April 2002 Location: Hope,
Flintshire, NE Wales. This first image shows the black horizon as the storm approached. It was a complete surprise to me as, after a sunny day, I popped into the back garden for a few moments. I was greeted by this evil-looking shelf of cloud to the south-west. . |
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| Date:
3rd
April 2002 Location: Hope,
Flintshire, NE Wales. A small disturbance over south-east Wales began moving north up the eastern Welsh border, becoming severe at times. Quite unaware of it's presence, I looked out of my window and was greeted with this ink black horizon and huge overhanging anvil and cumulonimbus. . |
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Date:
3rd
April 2002 Location: Hope,
Flintshire, NE Wales. |
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| Date:
3rd
April 2002 Location: Hope,
Flintshire, NE Wales. By now I was trigger happy, and the storm just became blacker and blacker. To give some idea of its rotation, the actual storm movement was from left to right on this picture (south to north). However, the bank of black cloud was also moving towards me on the left-hande side of this image, and away from me on the right-hand side of this image. Cyclonic motion.... . |
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| Date:
3rd
April 2002 Location: Hope,
Flintshire, NE Wales. A scary sight! By now, everywhere became deathly quiet, bar the distant boom of thunder. The gentle inflow breeze was becoming stronger, as if the storm was sucking everything in! The superb shelf cloud with brilliant white overhaning anvil was now bearing down on me! . |
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| Date:
3rd
April 2002 Location: Hope,
Flintshire, NE Wales. Looking south towards the rear of the storm, it was confusing to know whether it was going to hit, such was the crazy cloud movement. The storm was rotating clockwise, so here, cloud to the left of the image was coming at me, whereas clouds to the right were moving away. . |
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| Date:
3rd
April 2002 Location: Hope,
Flintshire, NE Wales. The first real signs of the thunderstorm base could now be seen, the lighter cloud indicating where the rain and hail were hammering down. I estimated that I had about 5 minutes before I had to dive indoors. Thunder and lightning were now in my locality, and things were quickly becoming lively! . |
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| Date:
3rd
April 2002 Location: Hope,
Flintshire, NE Wales. The storm was now almost overhead, and things began turning very dark and very still. Lightning ripped out of the dark base seen here, and occasional hail stones made a tin-like noise as they fell on nearby trees. . |
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| Date:
3rd
April 2002 Location: Hope,
Flintshire, NE Wales. Using my digital camera's movie mode, I captured a bolt of lightning out to the west, and here is a poor quality capture. Just after this, a massive CG nailed the mountain top, although quite where I wasn't sure. This image was taken from indoors! . |