Stormy Weather

[BBMmk2]

Another lovely sunny day, albeit less warmer than yesterday

[visualnickmos]

When hot moist air comes up from Spain, already destabilised by crossing the Pyrenees (sp?), gets undercut by colder air coming in from the Atlantic, the resultingly nicknamed "Spanish Plume" gives us one of meteorology's more exciting set-pieces - signs of which were already evidenced in the W Midlands by yesterday afternoon

Bonkersly, I live just about 70km from the Pyrenees, and don't experience any of this - just a week of cloudless azure sky in 34° - not complaining, mind!

[Serial_Apologist]

Bonkersly, I live just about 70km from the Pyrenees, and don't experience any of this - just a week of cloudless azure sky in 34° - not complaining, mind!

Lines of thunderstorms were quite clearly visible sitting atop the Pyrenees on aerial photopgraphs leading up to this morning's storms over N France and south-eastern England, VN. But the air on the French side, would be descending, and therefore bone dry, and usually notably clear, in these situations. Instability is resumed further north on the airstream's travel - partly by means of a principle of "rebound" as the descended air "re-launches", partly by re-picking up moisture from the Bay of Biscay from south-westerly air ahead of the eastward-advancing cold front - which happens to have passed overhead here in the last half an hour as a thin line of altocumulus!

It's much more complex than that, naturally - one really needs to be a mathematical genius to understand all the interacting factors at play in situations of this kind, which I've been trying to decipher on charts this afternoon.

[BBMmk2]

Did your area have any thunder at all, SA? We had a lovely sunny warmish day yesterday. A few patchy spits of rain, here and there.

[DracoM]

Well, today, Sat June 6th, wind in Ultima Thule is ferocious, temp c9C, grey and threatening.
Wind AGAIN of serious strengths. And that has been the pattern for this entire winter/ spring / summer.
20C plus...........forget it. Northern Powerhouse..............wind is so strong we dare not put the washing out.

[DracoM]

Now at 17.03 hrs, it is out and out roaring gale. And actually not mucking about either.

[pastoralguy]

Very strong winds here in Edinburgh. Even by our windy standards!

[Serial_Apologist]

Did your area have any thunder at all, SA? We had a lovely sunny warmish day yesterday. A few patchy spits of rain, here and there.

Oh yes, BBM - between 5 and 6 am.

[Petrushka]

Well, today, Sat June 6th, wind in Ultima Thule is ferocious, temp c9C, grey and threatening.
Wind AGAIN of serious strengths. And that has been the pattern for this entire winter/ spring / summer.
20C plus...........forget it. Northern Powerhouse..............wind is so strong we dare not put the washing out.

It's been the same here. With just a couple or three days this year (in April) without a strong to very strong wind it's getting seriously depressing and cannot be normal. The promised 'heatwave' completely failed to materialise and the punishing wind is making those temperatures plunge. It's been very sunny here these past three days but the ferocious wind is completely ruining whatever warmth there is! Twigs and branches litter the pavements and one or two trees have been blown over in the West Midlands.

Do any of the 'experts' have any answer as to why this is happening and when we can expect it to end?

[teamsaint]

it's quite nice here.
sunny, if a tad on the cool and breezy side.

Quick pre Champions league final BBQ with the Kids who are home for the weekend, and got out the table tennis table that we made 20 years ago for a game in the garden.

Hope it perks up for those of you who have had a poor start to the weekend weatherwise.

[Serial_Apologist]

It's been the same here. With just a couple or three days this year (in April) without a strong to very strong wind it's getting seriously depressing and cannot be normal. The promised 'heatwave' completely failed to materialise and the punishing wind is making those temperatures plunge. It's been very sunny here these past three days but the ferocious wind is completely ruining whatever warmth there is! Twigs and branches litter the pavements and one or two trees have been blown over in the West Midlands.

Do any of the 'experts' have any answer as to why this is happening and when we can expect it to end?

Unless one is in the middle of a large slack high pressure system or caught between two highs or two lows in what is known as a "col", it is normal to expect winds to be blowing, especially in the daytime at any time of year, but more strongly during the winter half of the year, since it is then that energy levels in the upper atmosphere which drive the circulation are at their strongest, due to greater differences in temperature between the polar and tropical airmasses at points of convergence where these interact at different levels and at different points along the constantly moving convergence zone where the main fronts spawn spiralling depressions, and these depressions become deeper and larger in area than in summer.

Normally then, one would expect stronger winds predominating when air and sea surface temperatures each side of the polar/tropical boundary are most differentiated, and it does seem this year to have been a large zone of colder than average water lurking around the N Atlantic which wasn't there last year, though to be honest I haven't seen this put forward as any sort of explanation as to why this year has been windier than usual, assuming it has. And my knowledge is very much at an amateur end of expertise.

[BBMmk2]

A lovely day today. No clouds! @ 07.30am

[BBMmk2]

Events in people's lives happy or otherwise

I thought I hadn't seen a thread like this on these boards before but this one is about members' life events or anything else that is going on that you may feel you would like to share amongst us.

Firstly I would like to thank everyone who has sent their best wishes to me these past few days, regarding my father's requiem Mass. Much appreciated. May he RIP

On a more happier note.it will be my birthday on Tuesday of this week. Another year older, wiser, perhaps not :)

Hello Admin can you make this post separate please! :)

[Pulcinella]

Cloudless here too, which is good, as today is an outdoor event for the town, and I will be helping out at a charity stall.
Best wishes for a happy birthday on Tuesday, BBM.

[aeolium]

S_A, as our resident cloud-watcher, did you manage to notice the phenomenon of noctilucent clouds recently?:

http://blogs.channel4.com/liam-dutton-on-weather/rare-noctilucent-clouds-spotted/8623

A lovely word to describe an impressive spectacle.