Stormy Weather II

[DracoM]

Another sudden storm whacks through, at EXACTLY the same time as yesterday!
Wow ....................and is it showing its teeth!

[oddoneout]

Just put a couple of small curtains on the line to dry as it looked OK - and then realised I should have looked out the front windows as well and not just the back... Oh well too late now, perhaps it'll go across quickly, the black mass isn't very big.
What bothers me about the current run of bad weather is the thought that it'll run into June without a let up, and June is often a disappointment weatherwise here. "Flaming June" is ironic and said through gritted teeth while trying to avoid being drenched/blown away/ chilled, and tender plants put out into the garden struggle.

[vinteuil]

Just put a couple of small curtains on the line to dry as it looked OK - and then realised I should have looked out the front windows as well and not just the back... Oh well too late now, perhaps it'll go across quickly, the black mass isn't very big.

... help! Satanic rituals in East Anglia - who'd thought our odd one would be involved-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mass

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[cloughie]

... help! Satanic rituals in East Anglia - who'd thought our odd one would be involved-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mass

.

Could be curtains!

[oddoneout]

... help! Satanic rituals in East Anglia - who'd thought our odd one would be involved-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mass

.

Rural areas with too many churches have their advantages...

[Serial_Apologist]

Another sudden storm whacks through, at EXACTLY the same time as yesterday!
Wow ....................and is it showing its teeth!

Same as here half an hour ago! Complete with whalebone jaw - meteorologists' slang for the shape sometimes assumed by the dark, dramatic proscenium arch-like back edge of the front part of an approaching cumulonimbus base, complete with falling rain and hail curtains resembling the brush-like structures lining a whale's upper jaws - which is where all the stored up precipitation suddenly gets released in a huge whoosh. Also the most likely point where cloud-to-ground lightning bolts can occur - as one did just a few hundred yards east of here. Another storm cell is currently heading towards St Albans, so we're not quite through with this system yet.

It's worth remarking on just how gigantic these storm clouds can be. Today's are being estimated to ascend to 22,000 to 25,000 feet, which is not far short of the height of Mt Everest; in the tropics cumulonimbus clouds (cumulonimbi?) can reach 60,000 feet; and even here, in our most severe storms, the cloud has been known to reach 49,000 feet. With a cloud base at maybe 3,000 feet (or 8,000 feet in an elevated storm), it's not surprising that it can get very dark under such clouds.

[Serial_Apologist]

Could be curtains!

And of course one shouldn't forget the wonderful tingly sensation to be had by touching clothing which has been left on the line during a thunderstorm!

(Not really!)

[vinteuil]

cumulonimbus clouds (cumulonimbi?) ...

... perhaps cumulinimbi preferable?

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[gurnemanz]

Sunny and rather sultry on bike ride just now. Quite a few short trousers on view. According to Blitzortung nearest thunder is 23k away a few minutes ago.

[Serial_Apologist]

The next storm in the series is now coming through - a much larger but less concentrated, more diffuse structure than the last one; frequent lightning discharges about one a minute covering a wider area, from Willesden to Streatham, but cloud-to-cloud rather than could-to-ground, to judge by longer, reverberating rolls of thunder. Oh, one loud clap just them - it appears to have been almost directly overhead according to Lightningmaps.org! No sign of any back edge to this - solid grey to the horizon making this a proper thunderstorm as opposed to shower in definitional terms. Heavy but steady rain, I can hear the roar of it through my closed windows, but no hailstones this time.

My guessing is that we're right on the convergence trough line now, indicated by the previously separated single cell storms becoming organised into one long, wide line moving very slowly east.

[BBMmk2]

Looks really good outside, at the moment, but MrsBBM has been out to do the recycling, and says it’s muggy today.

[DracoM]

Fierce overnight rain - but all smiling sun this a.m.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thunderstorm crossing central London right now as I write. I had to hurry back from my 2-mile walk, but it seems this one has split in two as it's come in from the west, and we are in the gap between!

[Nick Armstrong]

Thunderstorm crossing central London right now as I write. I had to hurry back from my 2-mile walk, but it seems this one has split in two as it's come in from the west, and we are in the gap between!

Grand-daddy of all hail storms here these past 20 minutes, thunder, lightning & hail like I’ve never seen before.... hail-drifts 2-3 inches deep on outhouse roofs...

[DracoM]

Gorgeous Spring afternoon here now!