Spring
2005 PART 4:
Dramatic stormy skies over Borth
22nd May 2005
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May - the height of the traditional
"chasing season" in the USA - but often a
variable month in the UK. We can have heatwaves, thundery
breakdowns, gales, snow, frost - the lot - all in 4
weeks!
May 2005 saw the first decent "Spanish Plume"
right at the start with overnight elevated thunderstorms
that lit the sky up for those who stayed up - sadly I was
not one of them! May Day Bank Holiday featured further
stormy weather - of note being the squall-line that
tracked N and E across England and Wales, passing through
here at lunchtime and sending visitors scattering from
the beaches. It was not overly photogenic but here's a
shot of its gust-front I grabbed as it slammed into
Aberdyfi:
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Mostly
however we saw little in the way of storms
(conversely Eastern England saw many, some with
funnel-clouds and tornadoes) but instead lots of
weather like this:
Vector Buttress, Tremadog
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On Sunday May 22nd, storms did get going, over SW
Wales. These were tracking up the coast and were
interceptable at Borth, where I spent the
afternoon. Driving through a torrential downpour
down the Dyfi valley things looked promising, but
on arrival at the coast the prospects seemed to
be fading quickly with the convection
decaying.... here looking SW down towards
Pembrokeshire....
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...and here looking NW up towards the Lleyn
Peninsula, its spine marked by a line of bubbling
cumulus clouds forming as a result of sea-breeze
convergence with the SW steering wind. I spent a couple of
hours chilling out in the sunshine waiting for
something to happen until distant blackness down
to the SW indicated the convection had kicked off
again. I simply had to await its arrival.....
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...this was ideal - the storm would head towards
but just inland of me offering good views as it
approached and passed - the only question being
would there be anything worth seeing when it
did??
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By now the cell was over Aberystwyth. Another
decaying cell was a few miles out to sea, to the
R of the field of view here....
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...with a long striated band of cloud connecting
the two....
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...providing a dramatic sight and the
photographic highlight of the day! The cloud-band
marked the outflow (cold, rain-cooled air at low
levels) from the old cell, which upon meeting the
active one gave it some more vigour by forcing
more warm air up into its inflow area. The smooth
striated front marks the boundary of the outflow
with the warmer ambient air in the local
environment. It also serves to make the whole lot
look fairly ominous!!
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Once all of this had moved overhead, it became
clear that there was little of interest
following, so after grabbing this pic I followed
the storm inland......
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...here seen from Ynyslas sands it is giving
torrential rain over the Eglwys Fach area. A
friend living on a farm there reported several
rolls of thunder among the hills at this time.
That was it for me in May 2005!
On a more summery theme the image below was taken
on the way up the Bwlch-y-Groes pass between
Llanuwchllyn and Dinas Mawddwy the following
Sunday. And as I have been writing this the next
Spanish Plume has started to arrive and talk
again is of where tomorrow's anticipated
thunderstorms will be - in front of my camera
lens hopefully!
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