 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
This has got to be the strangest Summer Solstice I can remember in years. A typical Solstice period in N. Ireland is associated with a dry/sunny day and clear nights which lands smack bang in the middle of the Noctilucent cloud season which I concentrate on in a relentless fashion each year. The first day of Summer in N. Ireland produced very unseasonal weather indeed. In fact, it felt and looked more like the middle of Winter. I was aware of this change hitting the western UK regions about a week in advance but I had no idea how potent it would be. The synoptic set-up was very complex, and to be completely honest, I didn't understand the full details behind it. In a nut shell there was a significant low pressure system which swept in from the Atlantic Ocean accompanied by a host of warm and cold fronts/troughs which would persist for quite a few days over Ireland and western Britain. As a result we could expect significant rainfall and strong gusts of wind with the main threat being a potential for flooding. I was more interested in the convective side of things and felt sure there could be some photogenic convective structures, and even thunderstorms. On the morning of the 21st UKWeatherworld expert convective forecaster Tony Gilbert presented the most exciting forecast I have seen for some time. Ireland had a risk of severe thunderstorms and a significant risk of strong tornadoes. A highly sheared environment and very strong lower and upper level jet stream existed over the country which was the essential ingredient for 'severe weather'. This risk was for central Ireland but as time went on the tornado risk moved further N until the risk remained over N. Ireland until well after dark. Naturally, I was excited!.
For my location nothing was expected until late in the evening and after dark, so I pretty much spent the entire day watching the rainfall radar, sferics charts, and visual sat images while the rain battered my window. I have to say that this was the most fascinating radar images I have seen over Ireland to date. It all began during the afternoon when two monster cells developed over the Republic Of Ireland. They where located to the E and W sides of the country with a clear corridor between them, and I watched as they very slowly crept to the NE and intensified. On the sat images they each developed a thick anvil longer than N. Ireland itself and had obvious persistent overshooting tops which pulsed up and down. These were already severe cells and from looking at the wider sat images I could see that they where the biggest and more impressive in Europe during that period. On radar they formed large red and white returns indicating severe downpours. The sferics charts became active and the thunderstorms began.
I watched for hours as these two mega cells produced non-stop lightning as they worked there way N. At times very intense clusters of c-gs would erupt in periodic bursts. Visual reports came in of thunderstorms in Cork, near Dublin, and many other locations. Some places had suffered flash flooding forcing the local Garda to take emergency measures. On radar the eastern most cell developed a hook and many experts were convinced a tornado may have already formed over Ireland somewhere. Late in the evening the cells crossed the N. Ireland border and produced t-storms in Newry, Armagh and Omagh. The E cell moved over NE N. Ireland producing heavy rainfall but by this time it stopped producing electrics. The W cell continued up the W coast and was producing electrical storms. An isolated strike appeared near Lough Neagh so the time had come to go outside as the storms would have been in visual range. Conor McDonald and I had been on and off the phone all day discussing the latest situation and after a last look on the radar we decided it was time to find a good location. We drove up the Glenshane Pass and made our way up the narrow twisting roads. Visibility was terrible with heavy rain and dense blankets of mist. The rain was so heavy we where out of the car less than a min before we retreated inside again. There was a big communications tower about 20m distant from us and even this was diffuse and partially obscured due to the mist. We drove down the road to slightly lower ground which improved visibility, even a few metres drop in height made a big difference. It was raining hard with a rapid moving low level blanket of cloud. We could make out the darker forms of convective cells and directly at the zenith we could see a very dark mammatus display through the front windscreen.
We relocated to the Glenshane layby, parked up, and got out to watch. It was obvious that the visibility was too poor to see any lightning flashes from the storms miles away to our W. It was a no show. From our high vantage point we could see a long horizontal row of orange street lights which marked the location of Maghera, our home town. We watched with fascination as a very long dense curtain of rain slowly crept over the town extinguishing each light one by one from R to L until the town was invisible. After a period we went back home and checked the sferics. The lightning had all vanished. For the rest of the night we had heavy rain and before going to bed at 04.00 BST I had a feeling the morning of the 22nd could be interesting. ESTOFEX had a T-storm risk for N. Ireland which backed up my hunch. I would just have to wait and see.
I didn't sleep very well on the morning of Sunday the 23rd due to the noise of heavy rain pounding my window during the early hours. Those showers sounded heavy and convective so I decided that I would better get up incase I missed something. I looked out my window and seen an awesome cell in the E sky. I was dressed in an instant, grabbed the camera, and ran up the road for a better view...
 |
These where all taken from Willow Glynn, Maghera from an elevated location. The heavy rain had turned to light precip for a short period and some blue sky broke out and cleared some of the frontal mess away revealing this amazing, and in my opinion, somewhat sinister structure. This is looking directly E. This was an ENORMOUS updraught. The camera does not do justice to the naked eye sight at all. I had the 28mm wide angle lens but it would not fit in the frame so I attached my super wide angle conversion lens which just got it in and no more. This was the most powerful convective updraught I have seen this year to date. The cell is back-building from the L where more cumulus towers can be seen but the main beast had a story to tell. Weak updraughts have a soft edge, this guy had a top which looked as solid as a brick, mushroom-shaped, and seemed to explode upwards with strong convection. Note the pileus cap which confirms this. Even from this high view point I was still craning my neck and looking UP at this gorgeous sight.
Look at the base toward the L of centre. That lowering formed and remained visible for more than five min's. Extend an imaginary line from that lowering to the top of the tower to the upper R. I believe this updraught was strongly tilted over at nearly a 45 degree angle due to the highly sheared environment present over Ireland at this time. In my opinion this updraught was fully capable of throwing out a good sized funnel cloud at the very least. Look at the white mass of cloud to the R of frame. This is a section of the overcast frontal cloud. If the clouds did not briefly break up when they did I would not have known that this updraught was lurking within. It just goes to show that under an overcast sky you can never be sure what giant cu towers and cbs are embedded within. This updraught isn't producing any precip although the smaller cu towers have formed a shower to the L.
 |
Portrait shot focusing on the N section of the updraught where it meets the flanking line of cu towers. This is still a decent wide angle shot but compare the tops of this cloud with the same area in the above image and you will really get a sense of scale. The updraughts within these powerful towers can exceed 100 mph in a vertical direction. Speaking of focus, I was having an extremely difficult time trying to get just that. The Sun broke out for a short period making it almost impossible to see my camera's LCD screen and hence know if I had focus. That lowering is still there and sported smooth sides and a bend but I did not notice any rotation so it's unlikely to be a funnel. The small clear gaps closed in and it turned overcast again with heavy showers on the increase.
 |
It was then that I noticed a rich selection of fantastic storm structures in the NE sky. This is a super wide angle shot looking in that direction. Willow Glynn is below and in the distance is 'Blue Bell Forest' where my friends and I used to camp when we were younger. The fields around it now serve as an excellent location for observing meteor showers and storms. At first I did not know what was going on here. I seen this very dark striking feature looming over the horizon with an extremely pronounced tilt. Very powerful heavy showers (red on radar at this time) where active to the W, N, and E of it's lowest point. It was VERY close to those distant fields and its true lowest point was obscured by heavy precipitation curtains. The Sun broke out and lit those mega precip curtains a brilliant white colour like snow or hail. It was a very impressive scene. I still couldn't identify these structures. I even considered the possibility that a brief tornado could form. The tilt of that base was spectacular with the naked eye. On hindsight I really wish I had took video of this and made a x2 speed time lapse.
 |
I really like the region to the R of centre where the dark lowered base meets the heavy white precip band. That precip is falling over barren countryside. The next village beyond this would be Culnady. For a sense of scale compare the size of the white two-story house on the R with the structure!.
Visibility was very poor behind that tree line. One thing you can be certain of in N. Ireland is the sight of sheep in fields. They are always there no matter what the weather is doing. They must be very hardy animals. I was going through some of the severe weather reports from TORRO and read about violent thunderstorms over N. Ireland in the past which killed hundreds of cows and sheep due to direct hits from c-g lightning and large hail stones which destroyed local crops.
 |
Much closer in on this lowering. The original images are much more contrasty and sharp but I have lowered the resolution of these in order to save web space and make the reports more user friendly.
 |
I was now certain what I was looking at. This was a massive shelf cloud/gust front embedded within frontal cloud and precip curtains. The dark lowering is the curved RHS of the shelf. The long precip curtain to the L is behind the gust front. This image shows only 50% of the entire shelf. The other section extends to the L far out of frame behind me!
 |
I added this image because the white precip curtain to the R really intensified. I was very lucky to be standing in the only location where it wasn't pouring rain. Heavy showers where falling all around me.
 |
Another shot showing the NE section of the curved very low level shelf. I'm observing the gust front face-on here. I deliberately used a slower shutter speed to pick up the bright precip curtains. I really like this image. More on page two.
PAGE 2 > |
Martin Mc Kenna