Few and Far Between

Well this years storms have been few and far between here in the UK, but when storms have arrived they havent dissapointed. Sadly I havent been able to chase as such as of yet due to needing a new ecu for the car, but luckily I havent exactly needed to. A few cells have passed by producing lots of rain and gusty winds as they have passed over me and they have then gone on to produce lots of lightning to my east, one such cell formed outside my bedroom window, as cumulus clouds formed and slowly moved in off the west coast, they suddenly began to rise rapidly becoming cumulus congestus in the matter of minutes, 3 tall towers standing tall side by side began to organise into one of the best looking cumulonimbus clouds (Cb) I have seen in a while. I quickly loaded up the rain radar and satellite to see if this monster was being tracked. It was.

I was really hoping for a showdown and as the low lying cloud moved away I could clearly see this things solid structure, with nice crisp anvil and a very dark base with two rain curtains, so the adrenaline really got going as it looked like it was about to kick off big time.

I was sat at the window with the camera at the ready, watching as it moved closer, and with the eerie silence you get before a storm I really thought I was about to witness the 1st lightning in Blackburn since the 'thundersnow' back in january. But it just wasnt to be my day, the cell moved over me dropping a deluge of rain and bringing with it some strong winds. Eventually the core of the storm had passed and things seemed to settle down so I got the camera and went outside to see if there was anything worth photographing. There was still some dark low lying cloud about and a rainbow but it looked like that would be it for the day. Sadly, it was.



After this exciting event I thought it would be a while before I would see some more action but I was wrong, just two days later and the GFS was showing weak CAPE of 200J/kg and an LI of -1. Not much I know but with the potential for some convection to take place and small amounts of shear, I had to keep an eye on the sky just incase something out of the ordinary happened especially since a cold front was pushing in from the Irish Sea, which would give the buoyant air the lift it would need to rise.

At around 10am BST I had a look outside and saw the 1st signs of the cold front approaching. The sky was full of altocumulus clouds which was quite a cool sight.



This was the view from the girlfriends street of the altocumulus.

I went back inside and waited for another hour then went out for another look. Jackpot, the 1st signs of convection were taking place out on the western horizon. A few cumulus clouds had formed and started to clump together, with this happening to the west I figured the cold front must be here. A quick look at the GFS and synoptic charts showed it to be on my door step, with the rain radar showing rain off the west coast approaching my location. Luckily this day the girlfriend was off work so we went for a drive to my vantage point to see if we could get a better view.



This is the view looking to the Northwest with plenty of small cumulus clouds starting to form over most of the sky.

We stayed here for a while and watched the clouds as they grouped together and started to organise into a much bigger cell. A quick look to the Southwest and some nice crepuscular rays were peeping through the cloud.



The rain eventually hit and was quite heavy. Sadly though all the images I got are ruined through the rain drops on the window and camera lens. We decided to head away from here to try and get infront of the cell and away from the rain.

It was then I got this image of the cells structure and couldnt help myself from keeping it as it made my day that little more worth while. (Maybe of poor quality due to the raindrops but it shows its structre so I might aswel post it).



Sadly a phone call to the girlfriend meant we had to end the chase early and go home.

Luckily for me though the action came back after the period of high pressure with abit of a gift for me. The sky was looking quite boring during most of the day but as the afternoon wore on the clouds started to roll in and the radar was showing solid echoes appraoching me bringing lots of rain. The radar looked to have a little bit of a hook to it but our radar isn't doppler and its almost impossible to tell.

I kept an eye on the sky as it started to darken quite considerably and another look at the radar showed the echoes to have decreased quite considerably. I was thinking at this point that it would just be the usual rain cloud that would pass me by and I would be left waiting to see some action yet again but I was wrong.

I looked out of the window and the sky looked quite low just to the west, I watched it for a few seconds and i noticed the cell was rotating and a lowering was forming in the area of rotation. I was getting really excited and grabbed the camera, I kept watching it for a few minutes and a 'nipple' formed from the base of the rotating lowering (possibly a rotating wall cloud).



This whole lowering you can see in the above image was rotating at quite a speed but sadly the nipple didnt get to much bigger so I don't want to call it a funnel cloud. I watched it for a while until everything seemed to slow down and break up then all was gone. Hopefully more will be on the way soon