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THUNDERSTORM 0055
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Date: 19-06-2005 This event was one of the most aggressive thunderstorm squall-lines the Northwest region has seen in years, and an excellent example of when all the right ingredients come together in the atmosphere for thunderstorm development. Unfortunately I missed it by an hour or two as I was driving towards them from the south after being down in Reading University for the week. I already knew the potential for a severe thunderstorm outbreak was likely as I’d been following the forecast all week, but I didn’t get back to Macclesfield in time for the action. However the cumulonimbus towers reached such heights I could see them from Reading as I set off somewhat 170 miles away. They were enormous and were developing explosively.
Weather situation Looking at the sequence of satellite images for the day, it is evident that the thunderstorms were organised in line, so convergence was probably the trigger mechanism. However large cumulus were already forming in the North Midlands and Yorkshire areas (where the shortwave trough was), as the daytime heating started hurtling towards the 30s, showing that radiative (sensible) heating alone was enough to start the process. However later, as the satellite imagery shows, the cap-breaking convection started forming along the run-up to the Welsh mountains and also the Pennines, with further development in the lee of both. This suggests a final push factor associated with orographic enhancement combined with orographic convergence. So overall it was very complicated picture, probably quite difficult to forecast.
What I witnessed Accounts of the ferocity of the storm system were soon spoken on the news with power outages, widespread flooding, golf ball hail and even a few lightning injuries from tremendous intensities of C-G. These intensities were reflected in Wetterzentrale’s lightning “sferics” charts at the time (C-G strikes detection).
APPEAL: If anyone has any footage, photos or eyewitness
accounts of these storms to share on this page (credited to yourselves of course) I would be more than
happy to display them.
DUNDEE
SATELLITE IMAGES
(CREDITS)
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