Thursday/Friday: Lightning Storms, Flash Flooding Event Thread

dacogawa · 26-06-2020 3:48pm

Was quite a show in Sandymount last night!

https://mobile.twitter.com/DavidCostelloDC/status/1276399264294416384

Oscar Bravo · 26-06-2020 3:53pm

Status Yellow - Thunder warning for Donegal

Met Éireann Weather Warning

Thunderstorms for a times this afternoon with localised heavy downpours.

Due to the localised nature of thunderstorms, many areas will remain dry.

Valid: 15:00 Friday 26/06/2020 to 19:00 Friday 26/06/2020

Issued: 15:00 Friday 26/06/2020

m17 · 26-06-2020 5:11pm

Dublin bay (pic irish mirror)

lolie · 26-06-2020 5:12pm

I can hear plenty of distant thunder from that cell moving up by Granard

Gaoth Laidir · 26-06-2020 5:40pm

sweet_trip wrote: »

I'm guessing south Kilkenny got no lightening last night or I just slept through it.

There was widespread lightening after sunrise.

OldRio · 26-06-2020 5:54pm

Light show last night began at 2.50am. Lasted about 40 minutes or so. It passed to the south of us.
Two lighting shows in a week, I'm getting spoilt.
Thunder rumbling at the moment.

Leitrim.

lolie · 26-06-2020 6:04pm

m17 wrote: »

Dublin bay (pic irish mirror)

Thats an old image not from last night, might not even from Dublin bay.
Also looks very heavily edited.
https://www.google.com/search?tbs=sbi:AMhZZisQsrwWhDp8lcmmNVngyprr55qO3iLtjcvOE27saX3Y827rXr8Dr8bmRw6AjElYkv9Imez4OjXPzzWVDotis3WfsjIdHMGV2C-9q55_1I2Wl76V8aF8N9A2OHuCYvGdX-XpSyCREYrky2nhpD1j0peHSTxEnXtWSqQ7u3Pi4NYp-5dc7HkvfMZcQXXf9rnhcykvIU_1P5bqCI2Eluhn0nN_1VpTGJDjNChnzuf5NJmdM6wSGwpXxjwk995WBC1JzhrP67a2KW9mvSEydR0VKE7XfJfbqtmqzlUioDpf4vKwOO86j1qaly_1d-rsvKVf8yaLYPauWhXc7DaW2LzxQbMx6WE6ObtlgA&btnG=Search%20by%20image&hl=en

Dank Janniels · 26-06-2020 6:16pm

Oneiric 3 wrote: »

There was one particular bang of thunder here around 4.20am that sounded unnatural (certainly I never heard the likes before) that I can only only describe as multiple cannons being set off at once. Prompted the goose bumps to stand on full alert.

Yeah it wasnt the usual rumble or clather of thunder, sounded like someone belly flopped against the garage door!

spookwoman · 26-06-2020 6:30pm

lolie wrote: »

Thats an old image not from last night, might not even from Dublin bay.
Also looks very heavily edited.
https://www.google.com/search?tbs=sbi:AMhZZisQsrwWhDp8lcmmNVngyprr55qO3iLtjcvOE27saX3Y827rXr8Dr8bmRw6AjElYkv9Imez4OjXPzzWVDotis3WfsjIdHMGV2C-9q55_1I2Wl76V8aF8N9A2OHuCYvGdX-XpSyCREYrky2nhpD1j0peHSTxEnXtWSqQ7u3Pi4NYp-5dc7HkvfMZcQXXf9rnhcykvIU_1P5bqCI2Eluhn0nN_1VpTGJDjNChnzuf5NJmdM6wSGwpXxjwk995WBC1JzhrP67a2KW9mvSEydR0VKE7XfJfbqtmqzlUioDpf4vKwOO86j1qaly_1d-rsvKVf8yaLYPauWhXc7DaW2LzxQbMx6WE6ObtlgA&btnG=Search%20by%20image&hl=en

Its a stock image

Wanderer78 · 26-06-2020 6:44pm

lolie wrote: »

Thats an old image not from last night, might not even from Dublin bay.
Also looks very heavily edited.

heavily edited! is any of it even real!

lolie · 26-06-2020 7:29pm

Wanderer78 wrote: »

heavily edited! is any of it even real!

You'd wonder alright.

pauldry · 26-06-2020 8:07pm

Even though we had major thunderstorms last night in Sligo and rain that required fire brigade intervention due to copious amounts, the lightning was more flashes than forks this time bar a few times.

So what causes lightning flashes and what causes lightning forks

Storm 10 · 26-06-2020 8:22pm

pauldry wrote: »

Even though we had major thunderstorms last night in Sligo and rain that required fire brigade intervention due to copious amounts, the lightning was more flashes than forks this time bar a few times.

So what causes lightning flashes and what causes lightning forks

I'm not sure but I heard that just because you don't see the fork does not mean there is not one but is not visible just the flash

Meteorite58 · 26-06-2020 8:26pm

Very slow to get going last night, in the end got a decent enough amount in the SE and along the coast in the E up as far as Dublin and then over to the mid west and NW and continuing up to this afternoon and still a few sparks in Northern counties.

From the charts and the information available I would have expected more but we got what we got. A good case study to ponder over to find out what were the missing ingredients .

Big rainfall totals in the NW / N

Meteorite58 · 26-06-2020 8:38pm

pauldry wrote: »

Even though we had major thunderstorms last night in Sligo and rain that required fire brigade intervention due to copious amounts, the lightning was more flashes than forks this time bar a few times.

So what causes lightning flashes and what causes lightning forks

Lightning flashes or sometimes called sheet lightning are the bolts in clouds or behind clouds that create the flash effect.

Good info here on types of lightning :

https://stormhighway.com/types.php

Good info below from 69 WFMZ-TV News on the colour of lightning :

Lightning comes in every color of the rainbow (Red, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, and Violet, to name a few).

It's almost always white, but often it's tinged with another color around the edges.

The three most common colors, aside from white, are blue, yellow, and violet.

The color of the bolt depends on how hot it is; the hotter the lightning, the closer the color will be to the end of the spectrum.

The color spectrum in this case start with infared which is red and the coolest up to ultraviolet which appears violet and is the hottest.

Lightning also can take on a range of colors, depending on conditions in the clouds and in the air.

Typically, blue lightning within a cloud indicates the presence of hail.

Red lightning within a cloud indicates the presence of rain.

Yellow or orange lightning occurs when there is a large concentration of dust in the air.

White lightning is a sign of low humidity or a little amount of moisture in the air.

White is the color of lightning that most often ignites forest fires.

Oneiric 3 · 26-06-2020 8:44pm

UK Met colour surface analysis chart for midnight last night just to keep on record (sadly, they don't keep these particular charts archived for the public)

And the GFS 'Theta-E' 6 hour analysis + 3 hour forecast since 18z last night:

(Wetterzentralie)

lolie · 26-06-2020 8:59pm

Meteorite58 wrote: »

From the charts and the information available I would have expected more but we got what we got. A good case study to ponder over to find out what were the missing ingredients .

Big rainfall totals in the NW / N

Might not have been near what was hoped for but reading some of the negative comments here after midnight and then the reports a few hours later it didn't turn out to bad in the end.

Meteorite58 · 26-06-2020 9:22pm

More on the way tomorrow, might even see sparks in the SW. Some very heavy showers showing up and getting breezy and windy on the coasts.

Will transfer the post when the convective thread reopens

ECM showing decent CAPE values in Leinster earlier in the day and later in Northern counties. Early afternoon very decent CAPE values in the SW, fair chance of thunderstorms and possibly a few along Southern coasts also.

Lapse rates good, Low level shear good. Deep layer Shear not bad, Lapse rates very good with very cold uppers spreading inland during the day. Bit of a negative tilt on the upper Low, nice vorticity , might see a few funnels.

So, over to us in the SW tomorrow afternoon, we will show you how it is done

Davaeo09 · 26-06-2020 9:44pm

Last night was fairly disappointing for Kilkenny
Best we had was 2 flashes some where near Clough/Castlecomer

I feel like for the last few thunder events Kilkenny has been desperately unlucky not to have any real storms over head.
Or is there actually more to this?

We have had to look on with envy to our neighbors

:o

pauldry · 26-06-2020 10:17pm

Here is Met Eireann map of Ireland radar at 6am

Can see why Sligo had such a hit

Jpmarn · 26-06-2020 10:49pm

Risk of thunder tomorrow. Not on any forecasts at all.

M.T. Cranium · 26-06-2020 10:57pm

Imagine how many pages this thread might have gone, had the heaviest cells moved up over Dublin and or Kildare.

Thunder can do some startling things alright. I recall one very small cell that drifted past my location in Ontario back around summer of 1989 during hot weather, it was probably about 0930 local time and the thing was just a dot of purple on the radar that was on the TV "weather network" station we had pre-internet for radar viewing.

This thing unleashed one lightning bolt that hit a tree a few metres from our house, and it was like a bomb going off. The large tree ended up with one side split in half from that and future work for the arborists. And that's all the cell managed to do in its brief existence. I don't think it dropped any rain or generated any wind gusts. Some here might be thinking, message to MTC from another realm? Quite possibly.

At the other end of the spectrum, in the derecho severe storm event early July 15, 1995 we had twenty minutes of nearly continuous lightning and thunder, so I have experienced that and once was enough for me (that was accompanied by severe gusts and heavy rain eventually although the continuous lightning and thunder started a good ten minutes before the storm arrived).

Now living in the mountains and we get very interesting thunder here with long periods of reverberating echoes off various peaks that surround us on the north, west and south sides of the town (east is all downhill to the Columbia valley).

igCorcaigh · 26-06-2020 11:02pm

MTC, you tease us.

Jpmarn · 26-06-2020 11:06pm

On Thursday near my location near Limerick city it was looking like a cell was developing. It was after 5pm. I was working in my garden at the time. About 15 minutes later this cloud had more or less dissipated. I thought we were in for some short period a thunderstorm. It was very warm and humid.