On arrival at the layby a large Cb was visible
out over the rough sea, coming our way. Static
crackles on LW radio suggested some electrical
activity (a look later on at lightning strike
plots confirmed that it was slightly active at
this point). So it was a case of waiting it out
to see what might happen.....
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....a rare photo of a chaser-convergence in
Wales! If this was the USA the layby would be
full of geezers with tripods, video cameras etc
etc etc! Bren willing the storm forward (his
video camera perched on the wall) while Laura
scans the horizon from the car. My old shed in
the foreground! If you want to see what the
camcorder captured, right-click this link to
Bren's website and select "save target
as" to download a 35-second timelapse from
an hour's filming. Stunning as the clouds race in
over the sea, complete with backing track! It's
about 1.5Mb.
http://www.eots.co.uk/Timelapse/seasquall.wmv
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It duly arrived as a curtain of heavy rain
whipped up the sea. Through binoculars small
spin-ups could be seen on the sea's surface as
the gust-front moved in......
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....and then almost as quickly it cleared! It
became obvious that we had managed to position
ourselves smack between two main storms - this
was looking southwards.
A quick confab and we decided to move south.
Tywyn prom was my first idea but on approaching
Tywyn something caught my eye so I carried on
until reaching a large layby close to Aberdyfi
where I knew we'd be in position if this was what
I thought it was....
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....would this morph into anything more
impressive as the anvil came over and the awful
light conditions improved????
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Looks like it might!
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Getting
better!
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WOW!!!
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Seconds later
looking in the opposite direction. While I was
taking this, Bren pointed out that the whole sky
was full of the stuff so we charged down to the
other end of the layby for a less interrupted
view....
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...and this
is looking northwards. Still those damn overhead
wires in the way so we carried on until we were
clear of them.....
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WOW!! (#2)
|
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Mammatus (or mamma) - pockets of cold air sinking
below a storm's anvil. Tends to indicate that a
storm has reached the mature part of its
lifecycle and is dissipating.
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Almost looks
alien! Everyone happily clicking away among the
"wow" noises!
|
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...and finally after a few minutes that felt like
hours it started to clear, light levels increased
and that was that. Looking out seawards a few
small cells were visible on the horizon but
nothing too promising so we went for a brew in
Aberdyfi and waited to see if much else would
arrive. It didn't so I went home to check email
and radar etc while Laura and Bren made their way
back north, calling me later to say that some
more, albeit limited, activity was breaking out
near the coast at about 1700. A quick look around
and I decided on Borth as a target for a
follow-up, driving through some short sharp
downpours on the way....
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....but apart from a few lone Cbs over the
mountains like this one, activity was waning. It
had certainly got a lot rougher with the wind now
gusting to gale-force....
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....as witnessed by the state of the sea! Taking
the three pix from which this one was scanned
gave my lens an unhealthy coating of salt from
the wind-blown spray - lucky I was using a
skylight filter!
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....and so that was that. Another good day out on
the road and good to share it with two fellow
storm-enthusiasts!
Ten days have now passed since this trip and not
one jot of photogenic convective weather has been
noted!
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