The Start to 2010 and 26th March Funnel Cloud

Well this year has been action packed when it comes to the weather. A winter we will never forget with temperatures dropping to -20°C. High pressure that remained for weeks bringing some nice pretty warm days and hardly any precip which made a change to the 'April Showers' we usually get. A volcanic eruption that grounded planes for a week causing passengers to be stranded abroad, but it made for a few days of awesome volcanic ash sunsets. Thunderstorms that have produced numerous funnels (one being here in Blackburn) and a tornado in the south, and other thunderstorms which have knocked the power out in towns and cities. One storm cell recently passed over Maghera, Northern Ireland which produced a multi vortex tornado visit http://www.nightskyhunter.com/ for more information. And to top it off the Aurora Borealis (The Northern Lights) has been visible from the UK numerous times already this year.

Many of the chasers here in the UK believe 2010 is going to be a season to remember and although it has started slow it has also started with a bang.

The last week of March was showing the first real signs of convection taking place and on march 22nd a nice scene formed in the western sky as clouds took on a strange formation known as 'the whales mouth'.



The above cloud formation 'whales mouth' is generated via the cooler air sinking and undercutting warmer air thus pushing it aloft. The combination of sinking and rising of different airmass densities creates this effect. It is truly stunning especially when most of the sky is filled by it.

Sadly I had to help my dad out so I wasnt able to keep an eye out on the sky for large portions of the day. When I got home my mum told us that they had alot of rain during the day and that it went very dark and grim for a while but luckily there was no thunder. The sky was still looking quite promising as evening approached then to my east even more nice better cloud formations took place with a few small mammatus clouds hanging from a deteriorating cell.



The above images showing a few of the mammatus bags. The image below is to the side of the mammatus where a whales mouth effect was going on.



On march 26th the GFS was looking good for large sections of the UK, the north west region being a part of this. I spent the morning charging my batteries and checking radar and satellite sites to see where any activity was taking place when eventually the Sferics started picking up on lightning about 30 miles to my south. Another look at the radar showed the cell moving towards me. Convection was taking place all over the sky throughout the day with the southern and western sky showing the strongest areas of instability. Sadly I didnt have any wheels to get out and chase so I was stuck at home looking out the window and running into the garden between showers to get a look at the sky.
Eventually a cell moved in and dropped some rain but sadly no lightning although a few rumbles could be heard in the distance not long before it arrived. My day was looking good when a funnel formed wrapping up tightly as she span quickly, growing in length rapidly, but sadly never really grew downwards towards the ground. It only lasted about a minute before it roped out and I can almost guarantee if it had grown directly towards the ground then this would more than likely have touched down.




After this nothing really happened apart from a few showers, but it was a very exciting day. Sadly this photo is of poor quality and just doesn't do the funnel justice.