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THUNDERSTORM 0036
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Date: 26-08-2000 I had to dub this storm “Storm of the Year” because it was an absolute corker. Maybe not as powerful as T0035 the night before, but this time it went directly overhead. The synoptics suggested that a pool of low-level cooler air from the west started to nudge the lingering Spanish-plume cold-front of T0035 eastwards. Meanwhile the upper-level winds were still in jet-territory so the wind shear at this point was immense. This very local storm cell developed rapidly on approach and reached its peak directly over Macclesfield. The lightning struck the land as if by retribution with C-Gs one after the other accompanied with a monsoon-style torrential white-out and a very dark cloud-base.
Unfortunately the two initial C-Gs were just to the left of the camera’s angle and didn’t actually capture the visible streaks, although the thunders were immense.
The discharge rates were short and consistent showing persistent rapid development of the cell. The radar showed two cells north and south which merged together over Macclesfield to form this beast. The storm showed sustainability in its maturity as it rolled over the Pennines, probably enhancing it even further for a time. The C-Gs quickly turned into C-C and I-C discharges as the cell grew more mature, and then the discharge rates dropped as it rolled over the hills into the distance. The footage on film wasn’t as good as I was hoping for three reasons; 1) it was right overhead and difficult to chose which direction to film in, 2) I was aiming for C-Gs that were no longer happening, and 3) the visibility was very low due to the intense downpour.
However the icing on the cake was the ambience of the storm itself. It’s not often we get thunderstorms in the fading evening light here, and those which do occur are great as the lightning shows up brilliantly against the cloud formations, and the sense of the ambience is much stronger. This is the type of storm I hope to see more of in the future. This was the last storm for 2000, and what a way to go out!
DUNDEE
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