[Col Cooper]

Hi,

Finally got round to sorting out photos from last thursday's epis storm that hit parts of the North East. Heres the story:-


I first went out at around 1pm in response to a possibility of some convective action. There was a wicked South Easterly with showers blowing in the wind but nothing to report except a alot of cloud cover inhibiting the convection and a mild soaking

I went home and checked the charts and could see the angryness moving North Eastwards but at that stage it didnt seem to making much progess Eastwards and thought it would be a bust but went back out at about 3pm. 30 minutes later things began to change. In the first photo i'm looking South East and the higher level convective cloud was moving slowly Westwards out to sea whilst the low level dark cloud in the foreground was really zooming Northwards. Then i heard a rumble behind me and turned round to look west to be faced with the second photo. Take cover!



After bailing to shelter and setting up some video the first wave came through with a bang with a big incease in windspeed. After the first wave passed there was a brief interlude of calm during which the sky was absolutely superb... i just didnt know where to point the camera! :-



Then the biggy came in from the west. There had been a few flashes and bangs so far but this was when it really kicked off. The next set of images shows the big wave coming in. Big CG's and huge thunder were followed by the onset of positively torrential rain which continued over the next 90 minutes or so. all the time punctuated by both IC's and CG's. It was then i managed to catch my first ever lightning bolt on still (image 10 is a still, the other strikes are unprocessed video grabs) :-



After the last image in the previous set was taken pretty much all definition in the storm disappeared - just darkness, ridiculous amounts of rain punctuated by what was now mostly IC lightning and thunder. The back edge of the storm seemed to be a bit disappointing structurally speaking. I was hoping for some mammatus or something but didnt see any did get a faint rainbow though:



All in all an epic storm, The highlight being the sky after the first wave and capturing my first CG still

Videos are available on you-tube:

http://youtu.be/DmFT4LZwf6Q?hd=1

http://youtu.be/PcNF38TmB1I?hd=1

http://youtu.be/igvAvd8ysdU?hd=1

More stills can be seen at:

http://www.flickr.co...57630376231438/


Thanks for reading

[Lee200003]

Excellent photos they are all very superb, I really love the lightning shots

[Bazmundo]

Superb picumentary, loved reading that, cheers Col. No 10 is absolutely superb!

[Tony Sales]

awesome shots Col

[Martyn Wells]

Great account and pictures; really enjoyed them thanks

[RobN]

Great account and pics of what must have been quite an experience

This post has been edited by RobN: 02 July 2012 - 08:20

[PK2]

Col Cooper, on 01 July 2012 - 22:22, said:

Thanks for reading

Thanks for posting. An interesting read with good pics

[mrfizz]

Awesome!

[kevin paxton]

fantastic pictures col,glad you caught them on camera I was a jibbering wreck when that monster blew in I dont think I can remember very many storms like that.The amount of rain that fell was teryfying we had approx 2hrs this was over the june total in this space of time it was monsoon like Discribed on the tv as a 100yr event with all ingrediants for a super cell colliding over the northeast it was like something you would see in the usa.We had some very close cg"s along with the hundreds of flashes that went off and bad flooding in the surrounding area,this really brought the region to a standstill with its power.I dont think it can be underestimated as to how bad this was,as you said epic and it was from what I saw hidding behind the setee

[Col Cooper]

Lol Kevin...you need to get out from behind the setee more m8

I take it you didnt get flooded out then? heard it was quite bad up where you are.

[kevin paxton]

hi col ,luckilly not flooded in the house but close first time ive ever seen the street like this, only pic I darred to take flooding really bad in surrounding streets and area as you will have seen on tv. storm had passed when I crawlled out to take this.

[Sam Jowett]

Great account Col!
How much rain did you guys have up there, do you know?... curious how it compared with the totals we got in Coalville...

[Howard Kirby]

Well done on the CG photo. Great set...