THUNDERSTORM T0059
Date: Tuesday 16th May 2006
Time: 18:13 BST
Location: Macclesfield, Cheshire UK
Path: Overhead tracking east.

Synoptics: Returning Polar / Semi-Frontal
Duration: 45 minutes
Type: Multicell
Average lightning type: C-C
Average discharge rate: 458 seconds
Footage Quality: VHS / Hi-8 / Digicam
 

This storm occurred in the late afternoon, apparently as a convergence zone lying across Cheshire and Manchester. Vertical wind shear was excellent as we had a light southerly flow accompanied with a fairly strong west-southwesterly upper-flow. It seemed to be developing quickly in places with a strong updraught bases just south of the rain curtain (which was to the north). There were only three close discharges throughout the duration of its passing - two of them were close directly in the camera’s view, but slightly faint with the off-chance one of them was accompanied with a C-G judging by the loud crashing thunder it produced.

As the convergence line shifted east shortly after the discharges, there was a torrential downpour of rain with mixed pea-sized hail. The cloud base after the rain had cleared was very photogenic with turbulent rolls of stratocumulus mixed with the cumuliform bases.

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