WOW, Its kind of hard to tell you in writing how I feel about what I saw lastnight but I will try my best.
An amazing event here lastnight in Blackburn.
I had checked the GFS in the morning before college to find the weather was going to be pretty boring over my town for the forseeable future so I planned a chilled night infront of the TV with my girlfriend.
I got college at around 09.00 and the sky was pure black and very stormy looking. During my 1st period the clouds cleared allowing diurnal heating to take place and it was pretty warm sat in class in the sunshine, then as I was on my break 10.30-11 the clouds rolled in, really thick and black again, some nice updraught towers could be seen to the side of the dark clouds, then the rain came, landing on the floor larger than a 2p coin. I couldnt believe it, light showers had been forecast and here I was being hit by large rain drops. Then I got battered with hail stone. I thought it was going to thunder for a while but nothing happened. Today was a little strange with how it was panning out. The GFS had shown only low amounts of CAPE for my location so I was amazed to see large rain drops, hailstone and decent convection. Then I had to go back to lesson and a suspicious lowering formed, but I think it was just scud.
I got home and there was patchy cumulus clouds scattered all over the sky but the sun was beaming through and it felt very warm until the bitter wind blew though my garden, making it feel very cold indeed. Abit of decent looking convection was taking place just to my south but I didnt think it would come to much. I was right, it didnt.
Later that night I was at my girlfriends house watching How I Met Your Mother when at around 21.45 I recieved a phone call off my dad saying 'Danny you need to look at the sky asap, theres lots of rotation going on at the top of our street'. (My girlfriend lives 2 miles away from my house and her bedroom window looks in the direction towards my house.) I could see dark couds in the direction my dad told me to look but nothing more. My dad said I should get home as quick as possible to see it as there were lowerings coming down then going back into the cloud before lowering again. He said there were a few places were lowerings were appearing but none were organising and wrapping up tightly to form into a funnel cloud. We quickly jumped into the car and drove back to my house as we entered the estate we could see much more of the cloud base than at any other part of our trip home. My eyes immediatley looked up to see a wide portion of the sky rotating. I was gob smacked, as soon as the car stopped I dived out to get a better view, I couldnt believe what I was seeing. The sky was so low and moving so fast that scud was constantly dropping from the cloud base in all directions. I could feel my heart beating faster as the adrenaline built up, I didnt know were to look or what to do, I was just amazed as its not everyday you see a large portion of the sky rotating like this.
I kept looking around for a lowering of any significance but the only thing I could see was scud. After a minute I ran into the house to grab the camera then ran straight back outside and got my eyes on the sky once more. My dad asked if he had done the right thing in ringing me to tell me, my girlfriend said no, she doesnt like severe weather or storms they kind of freak her out a little and with the sky above her head rotating she felt a little scared. I was stood in the middle of the street in my element absolutley loving every second and said 'dad you did the right thing' lol.
I kept scanning the sky but nothing of significance was occuring, then to my east a lowering, it was tight, black, and looking promising, I watched it for a moment as it lowered then rose into the cloud base before lowering again, I was getting excited by this point, I was stood in a rain free base, rotation taking place above my head, a lowering forming less than half a mile away and the wind was picking up nicely as you would expect. Then without warning the funnel dissapeared, I kept scanning the eastern part of the sky as I knew if a funnel would appear it would be there. Then it looked like a small wall cloud was forming, this really sent my adrenaline into overdrive. My dad was stood at the front door scanning the sky and my girlfriend was asking what it was we was filming. I shouted my dad who was by now overwhelmed with the events so far, he couldnt take his eyes off it. About one minute passed when a lowering from the small wall cloud appeared. This was it, it has to be it, please let this be it, were the only things running through my mind. Sure enough, it was it. A funnel cloud was forming. Within just a few seconds it had grown about 15% from the cloud base. I thought it was going to touch down, more and more cloud was being drawn into it at quite an alarming rate. The winds picked up quite significantly as the funnel got lower and lower, wider and wider, 'if this thing grew vertical it would be on the ground already' I said to my girlfriend, whos fear seemed to have vanished with the excitement thanks to this event.
I watched as I felt the winds getting stronger, 'is she going to touch down, we might have a tornado on the ground any moment now' I shouted. I was so excited, the hair on my hands and arms were stood on end and I had a tingling sensation running down my spine. The funnel was so long now it was unreal, this would easily have been on the ground now had it not grown on an angle. A couple of minutes passed and the funnel had grown in length and width quite quite alot. But then quicker than it formed it roped out and broke up. I was gutted. The rotation from the cloud base had slowed quite significantly, I really thought I would have been reporting a tornado but it wasnt to be. I waited around a while to see if anything else materialised, it didnt. I went back inside to view the video footage but as its a digital camera and not a camcorder the quality was really poor. (Most of it is blurry, which is a real shame. I have uploaded it to my laptop and it gets worse so I will take stills from it tonight and add the images to the blog later). On the drive back to my girlfriends I was still staring at the sky hoping to see something but it wasnt to be.
Sadly no tornado this time around but theres still a long time before the summer storm season ends and the autumn one begins. I have now seen two definate funnel clouds this year both being viewed from my home, and both would have touched down had they grown vertical from the cloud base. I would love to bag another tornado in Blackburn, I have a feeling this year I will bag it aswel.
If you liked reading this event then please stay tuned and check this blogspot regularly as you never know when or where mother nature will strike next.
No comments:
Post a Comment