Spring Convection - 19th May 2003:
Cumulonimbus clouds fade away over Cardigan Bay!

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Well I thought May 18th 2003 would take some beating and I was right!! The day after, conditions again looked promising with another trough tracking across the Irish Sea towards Wales. I have put this page up to illustrate the process of cumulonimbus decay - say no more!



Heavy shower running off up the Dyfi valley from the estuary. Lots of annoying stratus inland but a good clear slot visible out West so it was to the coast I went.



Wispy-looking virga falls from a decaying Cb anvil. Virga occurs in various situations but is frequently seen when convective activity is waning. It is essentially precipitation (rain, hail or snow), most of which evaporates before it reaches ground level. Although virga can be a bad sign for storm development, out beyond, over the bay, are some big banks of towering cumulus and a few cumulonimbus, heading this way... so I decided to carry on and hope for the best!



Some quite solid-looking Cumulonimbus clouds were strung out along a N-S line. And as they crossed Cardigan Bay, as I had suspected, they gave up the ghost.....



To give light residual showers like this one...



...or this one, which has just crossed the coast N of Barmouth. Some intensification occurred as the showers tracked inland, but nothing in comparison to the feature seen the night before. Having said which, Sunday afternoon was sunny over the Cambrian Mountains, while on the Monday, stratus cloud did a good job of blocking the solar heating. Maybe that was an important factor. So much to learn in this game.....

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