Stormy Weather II

[Joseph K]

The expected shower turned into a thunderstorm by the time it passed over Woodford in NE London. In another month's time in this sort of unstable weather set-up, lower air temperatures would prevent the necessary convection for that to happen inland, away from coastal situations where showers have been generated over relatively warmer sea surfaces. Inland thunder can otherwise occur only under conditions of "forcing", i.e a convergence feature such as a cold front or surface trough line where increasing winds push in, or upward motion (orographic uplift) where winds ram into mountains or high cliffs and are forced upwards. So-called "thunder snow", which has been a topic of conversation of recent years, occurs where cold fronts introduce air of sufficiently low temperature to maintain precipitation as snow rather than melting into rain at low levels, often accompanied by a sharp veer in wind direction. it is noticeable in British winters that showers formed over the sea that make it any distance inland tend to raise near-surface temperatures as they cross sometimes frosty surfaces - one of our causes of so-called "black ice". It is of course worth mentioning that most of our precipitation starts off as snow and then melts on its way down.

[oddoneout]

I chose the right time to take something into the back bedroom. Thick mist has formed a well defined layer across the fields at the bottom of the garden, with cars going along the road into it being reduced to pinpricks of red tail lights.It doesn't go very high though(not a great deal higher than the double decker that went into it) so there was a huge expanse of blue evening sky with the disc of the moon dead centre facing straight into the bedroom.
I make the most of such scenes - the fields have planning for several hundred houses.

[Serial_Apologist]

Lively-looking thunderstorm approaching from the SW: lots of lightning over Wimbledon way, heavy rain just starting here. We had a solitary loud boom earlier, at around 7pm, so this is Round 2.

[oddoneout]

A lot of rain overnight and as my neighbour returned yesterday I couldn't rig up the hose to stop his waterbutt overflowing into my yard. I did speak to him again and showed him what had happened during Storm Babet, but it's going to be a slow job getting him to take action, not least as he's never seen it for himself.
On a more positive note, it has been a dry, sunny, if rather gusty morning and although high cloud is now beginning to build and reduce the sun's effect it's still pleasant out.

[Serial_Apologist]

A lot of rain overnight and as my neighbour returned yesterday I couldn't rig up the hose to stop his waterbutt overflowing into my yard. I did speak to him again and showed him what had happened during Storm Babet, but it's going to be a slow job getting him to take action, not least as he's never seen it for himself.
On a more positive note, it has been a dry, sunny, if rather gusty morning and although high cloud is now beginning to build and reduce the sun's effect it's still pleasant out.

The showers didn't reach you up-country then. Here we had several hours of moderate to heavy rain from merged showers, follwing which the sun reluctantly came out, but with air temps no higher than 12.5C, little air movement and a lot of moisture in the air, washing I had put out on the line as the first batch of rain arrived was still sopping at tea time, so I brought it in and ironed the shirts and bed sheets and the draped them over doors, putting the smalls into the boiler cupboard. This will be year 2 without my trusty old spin dryer of some 30 years, which finally gave up the ghost, and the new laundry régime is working out OK. The coming week indicates more of the same, with a seriously deep primary low expected to cross the middle of the country on Thursday and Friday with winds of up to 90 mph hitting the S coast. I am in hope that it will not get that bad - while this is a primary low its path does not intersect with the polar jet, which remains just to the north of Scotland, so it would be unusual to get that deep away from the main temperature differential boundary.

[oddoneout]

The showers didn't reach you up-country then. Here we had several hours of moderate to heavy rain from merged showers, follwing which the sun reluctantly came out, but with air temps no higher than 12.5C, little air movement and a lot of moisture in the air, washing I had put out on the line as the first batch of rain arrived was still sopping at tea time, so I brought it in and ironed the shirts and bed sheets and the draped them over doors, putting the smalls into the boiler cupboard. This will be year 2 without my trusty old spin dryer of some 30 years, which finally gave up the ghost, and the new laundry régime is working out OK. The coming week indicates more of the same, with a seriously deep primary low expected to cross the middle of the country on Thursday and Friday with winds of up to 90 mph hitting the S coast. I am in hope that it will not get that bad - while this is a primary low its path does not intersect with the polar jet, which remains just to the north of Scotland, so it would be unusual to get that deep away from the main temperature differential boundary.

Funny you should say that...About an hour after I posted I opened the back door to put some bits in the compost caddy and found it had started to rain. I'd put some bits n the line and they were well on the way to getting dry so I was glad I noticed, as it started to chuck down shortly after I got them in.
I had to get rid of my spin dryer a couple of years ago and there are times when I miss it - the washing machine spin cycle doesn't always work with small wet loads(handwashing and the like), or takes forever to balance itself before spinning, which doesn't do more delicate items any good, constantly being rotated and flopping around. I don't have the space now for a separate spinner though so just have to manage - fortunately it doesn't happen very often.

[Joseph K]

Another fine day, sunny and mild.

I went on a walk this morning (I had to take my cardigan off) and will be walking up town this afternoon to attend a meeting at the Job Centre, so today counts as my two-hour walk. It's a fine day for it.

[DracoM]

Genuine cold up here.
Grey, NE breeze.

[Petrushka]

Been tipping it down with rain since around 2pm here and it's been so dark people have had lights on from the same time. More rain definitely not needed here as the ground is already saturated.

It'll be interesting to see if floods appear again so soon after last time.

[Serial_Apologist]

Been tipping it down with rain since around 2pm here and it's been so dark people have had lights on from the same time. More rain definitely not needed here as the ground is already saturated.

It'll be interesting to see if floods appear again so soon after last time.

I seriously hope not, though I estimate flooding could well be for Britain the biggie out of the four main outcomes of global warming: drought, wind and heatwaves.

[Joseph K]

Yet another nice day. Mild and the sun was breaking through while I was on my walk, with the clouds clearing towards the end. It's now very sunny.

I'm sure we're getting rain, but just during the night.

[Pulcinella]

Pretty much relentless rain yesterday and today: dull and gloomy.
But I'm off to see Noises off at the theatre tonight (partly to escape trick or treaters!) so should get lots of laughs there.

[oddoneout]

Best laid plans... having looked at the forecast and the weather map I decided it would be best to go out earlier rather than later this morning for errands in town. As I was almost there it started dripping and then as I reached the pedestrian (supposedly) controlled crossing at the market place the heavens opened. No chance to head for shelter as the traffic was constant and the lights take forever to change. I had a waterproof on but footwear got soaked straightaway so it was a squelchy walkaround. Never mind, the various bits were completed successfully, I met a couple of friends in passing, and managed to avoid getting soaked by spray from passing vehicles. As I was ready to head home the sun came out and it felt quite mild. Still quite a lot of sun now and although there are some impressive thick dark clouds they are passing by at the moment. The forecast suggests there might be more rain a bit later, but the bulk of it is more likely to be early hours tomorrow.

[Old Grumpy]

Sun...

... er, what's that?


Cold, damp and grey here

[Serial_Apologist]

Best laid plans... having looked at the forecast and the weather map I decided it would be best to go out earlier rather than later this morning for errands in town. As I was almost there it started dripping and then as I reached the pedestrian (supposedly) controlled crossing at the market place the heavens opened. No chance to head for shelter as the traffic was constant and the lights take forever to change. I had a waterproof on but footwear got soaked straightaway so it was a squelchy walkaround. Never mind, the various bits were completed successfully, I met a couple of friends in passing, and managed to avoid getting soaked by spray from passing vehicles. As I was ready to head home the sun came out and it felt quite mild. Still quite a lot of sun now and although there are some impressive thick dark clouds they are passing by at the moment. The forecast suggests there might be more rain a bit later, but the bulk of it is more likely to be early hours tomorrow.

Similar experience to me! Which is embarrassing, given how much I pride myself on recognising signs in the sky. In today's case, a heavy shower looked as though it would skirt us: the lumpy cloud base approaching was showing signs of lowering but that is not necessarily an indication of anything of significance. But it can be, and in this case it was: halfway home from the shops the shower in question took a right turn. This can happen where convergence is taking place at a local level; however that is normally associated with vigorous thunderstorms, which this did not appear to be; but a minute later what had been nuisance moderate rain suddenly turned into a torrential downpour, forcing me to take rapid shelter under a large beech tree still in leaf - a risky move, given that sudden bursts of heavy rain are often accompanied by cloud-to-ground lightning strikes. There was no lightning and thunder locally, but once inside I noted multiple strikes around Enfield, and the whole group of showers that had developed produced more spherics just beyond the M25 in both Essex and Kent.

A dropping cloud base at the back of a cumulonimbus can also produce funnel clouds and tornadoes, even in the UK. Tut tut - I really must do better! The bad news is that recent puddly conditions have revealed my walking shoes, trainers I paid a lot of money for less than 2 years ago, to be letting in water.