The Great Meteorological Thread

[Ian D J]

Hi Ian..

You live in my neck of the woods. Born in Canterbury and lived in the Deal /Dover/ Eastry areas, not far away.

PS.. Its raining as I type this post.... Barhumbug

Hi Paul. Had a feeling it's more like Autumn where you are than it is over here.
Wow, well, hello there from one Kent fellow to another. I've lived in the Shepway area for most of my life (I'm 44), it's not a baaaaad place to be at, really. Doesn't seem to like collecting any rain as it is being unusually dry here (Bewl Reservoir, to the north of Kent, is only 40% full).

 

[DuncanDisorderly]

Just looked at your web site, Duncan. Wow, looks like you had a lot of fun on that particular day. Lovely colours in those photos (but hope nobody in photo 28 was hurt!).

Everyone had drunk too much cider to get hurt :bonk:
I didn't include shots of the multi-cart pile up, or some of the youngsters having a go, as both of those were strictly forbidden :rules:
And I'd had a few jars too, otherwise there's no way I'd have taken part in the multi-cart racing.
Cheers for the feedback

 

[Ian D J]

Everyone had drunk too much cider to get hurt :bonk:
I didn't include shots of the multi-cart pile up, or some of the youngsters having a go, as both of those were strictly forbidden :rules:
And I'd had a few jars too, otherwise there's no way I'd have taken part in the multi-cart racing.
Cheers for the feedback

I quite like the one of the tractor pulling the carts back up the hill, looked like a line of baby ducklings following a mother duck, awwwwww.

 

[Cobra]

Mornin' all (Hi Chris!) you awakenin' souls from what is still a bright and dry Folkestone.
.

Ian.

Quite a good day again today, bright and sunny with a light breeze.
It just about hit mid teens, good "flying weather" too,
with thermals developing over the landfill as the morning warmed up

Early finish too I might even get the grass cut one last time

 

[Gerrard]

It needs to be nice weather tomorrow as I want to go out on my motorbike.. so sun please.

Its overcast at the moment.

 

[Ian D J]

It needs to be nice weather tomorrow as I want to go out on my motorbike.. so sun please.

Its overcast at the moment.

Mornin' Paul. It looks bright and settled today and into tomorrow where you are at Southern Spain, but then it will become more unsettled with cloud and rain on Thursday and Friday.

Anyway, mornin' everyone who are reading this bit. I finally got to see some rain last night . . . all of 1 mm. (Yet Eastern Ireland had up to 90 - under 4 inches in old money - in the past 24 hours!) Apparently, according to farmers and the water board, the South East of England is now officially in a drought situation. :bonk:

A side thought, I'm hoping to snaffle some distant Channel lightning shots this evening as cold and unstable air crosses over what is still a quite warm English Channel this afternoon and into the first half of the night. That may have the effect of producting some convective stuff over the Strait of Dover, perhaps large enough to give off the odd flash of lightning or three. Finger crossed.

 

[Gremlin]

I saw some heavy rain last night, driving in it late evening :bang::bang:

Sun is out now and lots of fluffy clouds, still very mild

 

[MartynK]

Watery sun sneaking through the clouds - and a few blue patches - this morning. Still cold though, but this is about as good as it's been for weeks.

 

[Ian D J]

. . . And Bingo! Have bagged this funnel cloud over the Strait of Dover at 10.30 am. It was very brief but goes to show how handy it is to have a fully charged up camera to hanf at all times.

It's now quite sunny with scattered cumulus around me.

It is expected to become very showery over Southern England and the South East later on this afternoon and into the evening.

 

[Gerrard]

The suns come out to play and I've been out on my Blackbird.. aint life grand..

 

[Cobra]

Well caught Ian
Its been a reasonably warm day here, a few light showers lasting no more than 10 mins at a time.
We did have a "fair bit" overnight though.

Clouds are building again, looks like another shower on the horizon
I'm glad I cut the grass yesterday

edit 10 minutes later and its all wet out there

 

[Gerrard]

Overcast this morning.. but the sun is trying its best.

 

[Ian D J]

Mornin' all. Woke up to a short but sharp thunderstorm at 6.30 am this morning, close bolts and loud bangs, along with torrential rain. Was brief but quite exciting while it lasted. 10.3 mm of rain fell last night, that's quite a respectable amount - and much needed stuff for this neck of the woods.

Now it's being a fine and bright morning with knuckle-hard cumulus being lit up a nice yellow hue by the rising sun.

 

[DuncanDisorderly]

Ian - have you spotted the BBC waterspout article from yesterday - it must have been close to the one you photographed.
Spooky that the 'expert' the BBC talked to was another weather enthusiast not too far away from you also called Ian!

 

[Ian D J]

Ian - have you spotted the BBC waterspout article from yesterday - it must have been close to the one you photographed.
Spooky that the 'expert' the BBC talked to was another weather enthusiast not too far away from you also called Ian!

Hi Duncan. It seems that a series of waterspouts and funnel clouds had spawned themselves along the English Channel yesterday as cold unstable air went over what was a still warm English Channel. It does look like Bexhill had the best sightings. Made mines look quite weedy, actually!

Just caught this near-perfect 'bow from my hobby room window only a few moments ago, as a cheeky sharp shower had somehow slipped through the net. Had to attached a cheap wide angle lens to my Lumix TZ45 to fit it all in, though.

 

[Gremlin]

So far today I've had rain. hail and thunder

 

[Ian D J]

So far today I've had rain. hail and thunder

Does look like you are under a conveyor belt of showers, running over your location in a straight line from the south west.

 

[Cobra]

No rain here today, "dark" cumulus (the fluffy ones?)
clouds, over head,
but also plenty of sunshine along with the light breeze.
It almost smells autumnal

 

[Gremlin]

Does look like you are under a conveyor belt of showers, running over your location in a straight line from the south west.

and right now the sun is shining

 

[Gerrard]

News flash...... its issing down right now.

 

[Ian D J]

News flash...... its issing down right now.

As predicted.

Mornin' all. It's very grey and nondescript here at Folkestone. Slate grey sky, although it is now dry again. I'm already missing the interesting weather of yesterday's.

However, I have managed to capture this very brief but great-looking blood-red sun rise while on an early morning stroll along the beach at 6.45 am.

And that was straight out of the camera (Lumix FZ45) with no processing carried out on the image. I set the camera's exposure to capture the image as I saw it.

 

[Cobra]

Cracking sunrise Ian

Slate grey here also today with fairly persistent "light showers"

 

[LauraJ23]

Lovely sunrise! Been grey and persistent rain all day here as well.

 

[Gerrard]

As predicted.

Mornin' all. It's very grey and nondescript here at Folkestone. Slate grey sky, although it is now dry again. I'm already missing the interesting weather of yesterday's.

However, I have managed to capture this very brief but great-looking blood-red sun rise while on an early morning stroll along the beach at 6.45 am.

And that was straight out of the camera (Lumix FZ45) with no processing carried out on the image. I set the camera's exposure to capture the image as I saw it.

Hi Ian..

Thats not Folkstone as I remember it..

Seriously.... Great picture luv it.

PS. The weather is cloudy here.

 

[Ian D J]

Hi and cheers Paul. Looks more like a Mars landscape more than anything.

Anyway, afternoon all. It's very overcast and gloomy with a featureless uniform grey sky over here at the moment. The kind of day where I have to turn the lights on indoors so that I can see the newspaper.
You know the feeling when you walk into a doctor's waiting room and everything has been painted mushroom grey and that eco light bulb is trying it's hardest to light things up, but failing miserbly in doing so? Well, that's what it's being like out there . . . and it's been like this for two days.

Right now is possibly the most non-weather day I can think of. Current temp 13.1 C. 90% humidity.

 

[DuncanDisorderly]

Anyway, afternoon all. It's very overcast and gloomy with a featureless uniform grey sky over here at the moment. The kind of day where I have to turn the lights on indoors so that I can see the newspaper.
You know the feeling when you walk into a doctor's waiting room and everything has been painted mushroom grey and that eco light bulb is trying it's hardest to light things up, but failing miserbly in doing so? Well, that's what it's being like out there . . . and it's been like this for two days.

Right now is possibly the most non-weather day I can think of. Current temp 13.1 C. 90% humidity.

Blimey - it's flippin gorgeous down here in Somerset, has been since the small hours of the morning when I thought I spotted an aurora out the bedroom window.

While turning over I spotted stunning wisps of blue/silver and red/orange. It was clear enough to see the Milky Way.
By the time I got the camera on a tripod the silver blue, silver and red had gone and several long exposures later it is abundantly clear that what was left definitely wasn't an aurora; the wisps were high altitude cloud. Initially I wasn't convinced about the orange being street lights as Bristol is usually a glow on the Northern horizon, and last night was pretty uniform overhead.

No idea what I saw that got me out of bed, but it was unusual and very beautiful.

 

[Ian D J]

Blimey - it's flippin gorgeous down here in Somerset, has been since the small hours of the morning when I thought I spotted an aurora out the bedroom window.

While turning over I spotted stunning wisps of blue/silver and red/orange. It was clear enough to see the Milky Way.
By the time I got the camera on a tripod the silver blue, silver and red had gone and several long exposures later it is abundantly clear that what was left definitely wasn't an aurora; the wisps were high altitude cloud. Initially I wasn't convinced about the orange being street lights as Bristol is usually a glow on the Northern horizon, and last night was pretty uniform overhead.

No idea what I saw that got me out of bed, but it was unusual and very beautiful.

Hi Duncan, it might well have been an aurora as there has been indications of high solar flare activity in the past few nights. So, who knows!

Still grey and drab here, don't think I'll get to see the sun for a while now.

 

[Cobra]

Anyway, afternoon all. It's very overcast and gloomy with a featureless uniform grey sky over here at the moment. The kind of day where I have to turn the lights on indoors so that I can see the newspaper.

After a very low lying misty start, it turned in to a clear blue sky day
not a cloud to be seen
There is even a little warmth still left in the
old golden globe, athought the temprature stuggled to hit low teens.

There were virtually no thermals over the pit today either,
so the poor old Pere x lanner had to work hard to gain any height though.

, has been since the small hours of the morning when I thought I spotted an aurora out the bedroom window.

You Jammy b****r
I was in Lapland 3 or so winters back, hoping to see it (them?) but absolutely nothing.
As I understand it, and maybe Ian can confirm or correct me on this,
its the same weather conditions that produce thunderstorms, here in the
UK (and probably elsewhere too) that produce the Aurora?

 

[Ian D J]

After a very low lying misty start, it turned in to a clear blue sky day
not a cloud to be seen
There is even a little warmth still left in the
old golden globe, athought the temprature stuggled to hit low teens.

There were virtually no thermals over the pit today either,
so the poor old Pere x lanner had to work hard to gain any height though.



You Jammy b****r
I was in Lapland 3 or so winters back, hoping to see it (them?) but absolutely nothing.
As I understand it, and maybe Ian can confirm or correct me on this,
its the same weather conditions that produce thunderstorms, here in the
UK (and probably elsewhere too) that produce the Aurora?

Actually, the sun's now trying to break through as I type - although it is a little late in the day now.

Anyway, Hi, Chris. Actually, thunderstorms doesn't cause auroras. Auroras are caused by solar waves hitting the Earth's magnetic field and exciting the atoms in the upper atmosphere and giving off a glow in the process - it's just like a neon light being switched on. The Earth's magnetic field are at it's most strongest over the North and South poles, hence why Auroras occurs close to there.
And to really expand on that, different "rare" gases give off different colours, if oxygen atoms are slightly higher in the upper atmosphere then there'll be more green auroras, if there are more oxygen molecules then there'll be more reds. The very rare blue auroras are when there are more nitrogen atoms present. Bear in mind that the atmosphere itself expands and contracts at regular intervals.

However, I wonder if increased solar activity - which causes the auroras in the first place - may have also increased thundery activity as well, but that's yet to be proven. Especially since 2011 has been a very quiet year for thunder at least for my neck of the woods.

 

[Cobra]

Thanks Ian, thats very interesting
(and I actually understood it too )

 

[Gremlin]

well the october snow never made it here
beem really mild if a tad damp today

 

[Ian D J]

well the october snow never made it here
beem really mild if a tad damp today

Hi Ingrid, indeed parts of the East Coast of the USA certainly had some noteworthy weather in the past couple of days, even New York had some snow!

Over here at Folkestone it has been a dull, muggy and overcast day. If our weather doesn't do anything interesting soon, this thread is in danger of becoming stale!

Although, that said, things are expecting to turn more unsettled and windy as we wear on into the week, especially over Western parts of the UK.

 

[Gerrard]

Hi Ian.. Well its sunny here mate with only clouds sat on the mountain tops which over the next few weeks I will aim to capture on photo..

 

[Ian D J]

Hi Ian.. Well its sunny here mate with only clouds sat on the mountain tops which over the next few weeks I will aim to capture on photo..

Hi and afternoon Paul. We're still stuck in this default grey gloom. To be fair, it tried to brighten up a little this morning, and even felt quite warm in the brightness - but at the same time since the air is that humid it had caused cloud to increase again by the afternoon - hence the current dull overcast sky. It's still dry but I expect all that to change as things become more unsettled and windy across the UK as we wear on into the second half of this week.

Feel free to show your photos in here if you wish, Paul.

 

[Gerrard]

Hi and afternoon Paul. We're still stuck in this default grey gloom. To be fair, it tried to brighten up a little this morning, and even felt quite warm in the brightness - but at the same time since the air is that humid it had caused cloud to increase again by the afternoon - hence the current dull overcast sky. It's still dry but I expect all that to change as things become more unsettled and windy across the UK as we wear on into the second half of this week.

Feel free to show your photos in here if you wish, Paul.

That sounds like a good idea Ian, and please, if you could make the weather brighter by the 17th of November for 3 days I would be grateful as we are visitng Trudi's daughter in Deal.
PS This afternoon has a little cloud and a nice 23c sunshine..

 

[Ian D J]

That sounds like a good idea Ian, and please, if you could make the weather brighter by the 17th of November for 3 days I would be grateful as we are visitng Trudi's daughter in Deal.
PS This afternoon has a little cloud and a nice 23c sunshine..

The long range models has been keen on bringing in easterly type stuff by the second half of November. If that does come off, it'll be cool but brighter by then. All a long way off, of course!

Sounds like a lovely afternoon where you are. Actually, as I type this, the sun has come out as skies has become a lot clearer. A shame it's now close to dusk.

 

[Gerrard]

Morning Ian..
Its raining, barhumbug, do you know its only been raining an hour or two and I'm already fed up with it roll on summer.

 

[Ian D J]

Morning Ian..
Its raining, barhumbug, do you know its only been raining an hour or two and I'm already fed up with it roll on summer.

Hi Paul from a rather overcast, windy and damp Folkestone (still no proper rain as such, though).

It does look set to be exceptionally wet over the Mediterranean region and Central Europe for the next few days, so it does look like you're in it for the long haul.

 

[Cobra]

Good after noon guys
Paul, hard luck mate

Its still ridiculously warm here, I was on a boys night out the other night,
Driving home at silly AM it was still 14.5oC

Its been rather dull here all day, and was actually getting dark by 13:00
We have seen a little drizzle through the morning but barely enough to damp the ground.

Any predictions for a couple of week-ends hence Ian?
Off up to Donna Nook for some seal snaps

 

[Ian D J]

Good after noon guys
Paul, hard luck mate

Its still ridiculously warm here, I was on a boys night out the other night,
Driving home at silly AM it was still 14.5oC

Its been rather dull here all day, and was actually getting dark by 13:00
We have seen a little drizzle through the morning but barely enough to damp the ground.

Any predictions for a couple of week-ends hence Ian?
Off up to Donna Nook for some seal snaps

Hi Chris. It's being very much the same here, it has been dull all day where it threatened to rain but not that much is coming out of it. And indeed, it's also quite mild despiting the brisk southernly wind.

Tomorrow and into the weekend does look set to be rather cloudy with showery rain for most of England, it's actually Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland that will get the better deal in terms of drier and settled conditions!
As far as Guy Fawkes day is concerned, I'm thinking that for the South East (sorry about the IMBY aspect of it ), it's going to be a rather overcast and damp day but that rain or drizzle may ease off in the evening in time for the fireworks.

Then the next couple of weeks is likely to remain mild and unsettled for most parts, never really staying dry and sunny for too long, nor will it become cold.

Could use a "Daily Express" type weather situation to liven things up as this thread is in danger of becoming stale.