A Cloud Free Day - Satellite Picture of Flooding

Sunday was a rare day of sunshine and clear blue skies. The weather satellite pictures received via EUMETCast showed the UK in a rare state of being almost cloud free.

The following picture shows the UK from a Metop AVHRR pass.

© EUMETSAT (2014)

It is not really clear from the above picture, but when viewed on a large screen, flooding along the River Thames and the Somerset Levels stands out very well.

I took the following detail from the above picture. This shows the Somerset Levels area with the extensive flooding clearly visible. It will be interesting to compare this with a picture later in the year when hopefully the area has dried out.

© EUMETSAT (2014)

 

After the storm overnight Friday into Saturday, the weather has improved, although still some rain, not as heavy as previous weeks.

 

A Conveyor of Low Pressure Areas

So far this year, we have seen a succession of low pressure areas come across the Atlantic straight for the UK, dumping large amounts of rainfall and inflicting very high winds across the country.

Rainfall has been heaviest in the south of the country with heavy flooding in Somerset and across the Thames Valley.

The cause appears to be the jet stream stuck further south and flowing faster than usual, generating a conveyor belt of fast moving, intense low pressure areas.

I had a look through the NOAA APT satellite pictures I have received for the last few weeks and picked out a series of pictures that give an indication of this weather pattern

They all show intense low pressure areas tracking over the UK.

 NOAA 19 - 1st February 2014

NOAA 19 - 7th February 2014

NOAA 19 - 8th February 2014

NOAA 19 - 12th February 2014

The last picture from the 12th February brought very strong winds to the west and north of the country with gusts in excess of 100MPH.

We have yet another low pressure area tracking across the country through today and overnight bringing rain and gale force winds. There was too much noise on the NOAA 19 midday picture from today. The cross dipoles I use to received APT transmissions are located in the loft of the house. We have a large number of tall trees to the south and what with the rain and thick cloud, I suspect this combines to impact the signal received from the satellite.

Weather Report: Continuing Stormy Weather

The stormy weather continues. Heavy rain, hail and winds again today with a low pressure area to the north of Scotland resulting in fast moving heavy belts of rain moving across my location in the south of England.

NOAA APT pictures continue to provide good views of the weather moving across the UK. The early morning and mid to late afternoon satellite passes are still to dark due to the low elevation of the sun at this time of year, however the passes around midday work well.

The above picture is from the NOAA 19, 13:07 pass and clearly shows the low pressure area to the north of Scotland and the stream of showers being fed from the Atlantic over the southern half of the UK.

Just before this pass, there was an intense storm at my location with heavy hail, rain and wind. The following graph is the temperature reading from my "computer shed" and shows the sudden drop in temperature at the onsite of the storm.

 

The drop is shown just after 12:00. the storm passed through in an hour.

Lots of flooding in the south west of England and along the south coast.

Aerials still holding up with no damage. Still more to come over the weekend !

A Weekend of Bad Weather

The weekend weather here in the south of the UK has been terrible. Grey sky, rain and winds. The following satellite picture from Sunday gives a good view of the weather we were under:

This is the NOAA 19 pass from Sunday at 12:55. Ireland was generally cloud free and the north of the UK had some breaks in the cloud, however a large sweep of cloud over the south of the country.

Another good satellite pass from the north of Africa to Iceland. Not bad for a loft mounted pair of crossed diploes.

The Last Day Of Summer?

The following picture was received from NOAA 19 on Thursday 5th September. A really good pass from North Africa to Iceland using my cross dipoles in the loft of the house.

The weather at ground level was really good with clear blue sky and in London where I was for the day, the temperature reached 29 degrees centigrade.

The following day, there was a 10 degree temperature drop, cloud and some rain which has continued today, Saturday 7th September.

I suspect that this was the last day of summer and we are now moving into Autumn with Low Pressure from the Atlantic bringing wind and rain.