01:35
Powerful cell suddenly raving loudly over our heads. Loud bangs, very bright lightning strikes. It must be a new cell, which entered our place from the south. Yes, the radar confirms it. Rain is now pouring down.
These thunderstorms are more active compared to the one which we had around 21.10
01:50
Very powerful indeed - with huge thunder and lighting at times - and now it has already passed, as the weakening lightning is now visible in the north and northwest. The speed of yesterdays / today's thunderstorms is fascinating. Also the formation and lines located over Sweden, are fascinating. You can clearly spot three branches of thunderstorms in the second illustration below.
Temperatures rise to 20°C at 01.00 - despite rain
And the most fascinating thing is, that the temperature - despite the rain fall, rose to almost 20°C. Since I have two thermometers on each side of the house - they both show the same temperature: 19.7°C here in Snösätra in the southern suburbs of Stockholm.
Gotska Sandön Island • 24°C !!
On the isolated island of Gotska Sandön, temperatures have risen to a whopping 23.6°C in the middle of the night (23.00) There is no maximum visible from yesterday, because the temperature has been rising since yesterday's midnight from 12.7°C to 23.6°C within 24 hours later.
Gotska Sandön Island is located between Stockholm Archipelago and Gotland island.
02:12
The main line of thunderstorm has passed and so did the sound rolling back to a background rolling sound - but in the past minutes, I can hear a few new ones being closer. Also the rain starts increasing again. We are still embedded in a larger area of rain, with occasional lightning. At the end of that area in the south, are still a few cells with lightning attached.
Thunderstorm Photos
I used the Olympus OM-1 camera with the bright Leica 10-25 mm ƒ 1.7 lens - which I set to manual focus in order not having to fiddle. And curiously, the images of the flickering lightning - where all captures purely by free hand. I think i could capture the lightning because these where longer lasting - and therefore as soon i saw lightning, i pressed the shutter - and got away with it, 9 out of 10 times. Which is highly unusual. The corners got a bit blurry due to the IS compensation which in wide angle lenses sometimes can produce blur - together with and my rather sloppy, fast / rough way how i took the images (in the rain).
Normally that doesn't work at all. I got a least some thunderstorm images, despite me thinking it was all mediocre, it did turn out a little bit better after all. Of course with a small sensor cameras like the OM-1, i did use Adobe Denoise, in order to keep the ISO 800 noise in check. Especially when using "dehaze" via Photoshop, in order to increase the contrast - it also increases the noise considerably. More so with Olympus cameras of course, because the base noise is always more than that of fullframe cameras.
02:37
It is raining quite a bit without breaks. Still occasional thunder it heard, but with large breaks in between.
02.51
The rain has stopped - but i notice that there is a new thunderstorm cell is approaching my area. Given how quickly everything is sliding to the NW, i can already hear increased rolling thunder... You can spot the T-storm cell at the arrows. Another area of interest is the rain radar echo located south of the aforementioned T-storm cell. It too, will likely develop lightning, as so many ones before have done.
Flight Delays and diversions
Many airplanes had to loop around in "funny circles" in order to avoid the thunderstorms in the past 6-8 hours. It must at times been rough to fly, given how many thunderstorm system been around over Southern and Middle Sweden. A few airplanes diverted. One plane with Norwegian circled a couple rounds over Karstad, and then landed in Oslo 22.19 instead of landing in Stockholm 21.10. Same goes for another Norwegian flight from Barcelona to Stockholm - diverted to Oslo instead.
But how does Norwegian handle the passengers who got diverted ? I consider Norwegian being at least as tricky as Ryanair in that regard.
Far away...
It appears as if the Ryanair plane from Alicante to Stockholm never made a landing. It circled considerable time but seem to approach Gothenburg instead. The problem with Ryanair often is, that you never know if you get home, when they off load you on a different location. Gothenburg is far away from Stockholm... Or will they make the jump to Stockholm a bit later ?
02.59
Like a clockwork: first louder thunder (yeah, something is approaching) - and second later the rain started anew. New this event is that the thunder a few times sounds like traveling though a metallic pipe... I wonder what causes that ? I have not heard it yesterday.
03.06
a lot louder thunder to be heard now.
03.19
And it already all passed without there was a clear peak. Funny how quick the T-storms are moving. Even the rain has stopped for now. There might come some more rain, due to a cell still underway - but the latter hasn't developed any lightning yet.
Despite all rain - the east part of Svealand, the so called "Östersjölandskapen" - remain in a warm air bubble. But did the cold front pass us or not ?!
If we move to Estonia on the other side of the Baltic sea, temperatures there are up to 26°C (02:00) which is among the absolute highest temperatures in Europe. Only topped by Alicante in Southeast Spain with 27°C, Cyprus, and Belarus too reports it, one station in Greece with 27°, and one station in East Ukraine.
Helsinki in Finland reports 18-22°C,
Åland 21°C.
London has 11-14°C.
Berlin 14°C.
Catania in Sicily 20°C,
Paris 14°C,
Warsaw 14°C
Where is the center of rotation ?!
Maybe all these thunderstorm developed on the warm side of the cold front ? And i am still wondering about where the low pressure area is located. Judging from animated satellite image - it might be between Berlin and Copenhagen ?!
Well, the Thunderstorm voodoo over Southern Stockholm seem to be over. There isn't anything following after, it seems.
03.43
last lightning. I just closed the window on the other side - and BAM - a big lighting emerged. But I didn't hear any thunder... Oh yeah. A last cell, just developed, intensified with rain - and that's the one right over us, which now developed lightning as well.
Funny. Towards the east sky, I see signs of clouds breaking up.
04.00
Even the moon is breaking through... Most of the rain has passed - however, there is another new (isolated) cell outside of Nynäshamn... and it might approach our area after all... Will see, how it develops.
Everything feels wet and warm outside. Well warm is a a little bit a stretch, but it does feel mild. Usually the MIN temperatures at sunrise this time of the year lies around 13.5 to 14.5°C, a bit lower in the outer suburbs, at around 11.5-12°C.
It is however 19.2°C now - in line with the suburbs of Rome in Italy, or Tarragona in Spain, and Turin and Venice in Northern Italy.
The mystery with the cold front
It has not passed. The air pressure is still falling - which means the cold front has not yet passed. These thunderstorms were simply part of the warm air sector. The lowest pressure over Sweden is recorded in the extreme South, with 990 hPa, while Stockholm now has 997 hPa (it was 1003 before midnight). The low pressure area is still deepening. it is predicted to reach a low value of 978 hPa over West Sweden. Unusual deep for the beginning of August !!
It looks pretty crowded over Sweden in the next 84 hours... It likely means a lot of rain to be expected. Surely moderate levels for Stockholm (16-20 mm) but it will add up, and we will soon reach the average for August month (which is 66 mm), in just a week.
So far, we are up at 47.4 mm
The swirl of the low pressure area, is predicted to stay over Southern Sweden in the next 120 hours (5 days) - which means instable weather ahead.
Well, that's nothing new...
04.20
Towards the east horizon plenty of clouds are breaking up showing faded colors of an approaching dawn - while at the same time, rain is falling. Funny feeling...
Stable summer period ahead ?
From Friday and onwards, friendly and warmer weather should establish over our city, possibly reaching up to 26°C later on. Well Rosella from Sicily and her friend are coming in 1.5 weeks... she'll bring a touch of Sicilian summer to our Nordic latitude *grin*
It would be wonderful !!
04.30
This small, isolated cell near Nynäshamn, south of Stockholm, did indeed develop lightning. It is intensifying, and should reach our location within 30-35 minutes...
04.46
However, the lightning activity seem to have gotten lost. The cell is SW of my location, but so far not much rain has come down. it is possible that it will pass close by without much fuzz. Things are fizzling out it seems. |
