Thunderstorms after hot weather!

2 & 4 July 2008, Thessaloniki - Macedonia, Greece.
After two weeks of hot weather and temperature being over 35oC some severe thunderstorms came to give an end to this boring weather.
However, the rest of July was also warm, except of the last days, when the weather was a little cooler.

June, starting with thunderstorms, ending with hot weather

Hello again. I‘ve finished with exams now, but I still don’t have internet at home, so I still can’t update the blog so often.
But the first days of June were really exciting, so I have to show some photos.
Huge Cumulonimbus appeared in the afternoon of 1 June. The Cumulonimbus of the photo below was in Bulgaria and even though it could be seen in Thessaloniki. One friend of mine asked surprisingly: “How can this cloud be in Bulgaria, when I see it above me?”


Towering Cumulus and distant Cumulonimbus appeared next days, too.
However, 7th June was a really “explosive” day! Cumulus could be seen everywhere and there was no doubt that thunderstorms would appear later.

 

As I was watching those beautiful clouds, I noticed the West horizon getting darker. And when the low clouds, that made this beautiful scene, ...


... dissolved, an ambolt appeared very high in the sky around at 18:30.


It was a multicell, which was moving extremely slow-almost immovable. But, in front of it new Towering Cumulus were formed and because of the ambolt above them they had got a strange blue colour making a spectacular show and the lighting “mysterious”, that warned about was going to happen.


At the same time I noticed a tiny rainbow to Northeast…

… and another thunderstorm to East.
 


As the sky was getting darker, distant lightnings and thunders were seen from the West southwest horizon till Northeast! The area, where thunders were striking, was enormous and the frequency was also very high, which reached even 324 strikes/minute!!
At 21:15 a shelf cloud was getting closer and after passing above me, it started raining and being windy and rumbling and lightening.
 
Many electricity cuts were provoked as the thunders could be seen everywhere during night. The multicell was leaving, but new distant Cumulonimbus were formed, which affected mostly areas around mt. Olympus and Southern areas of Thessaloniki.
 



No thunderstorm ended sooner than dawn. Electricity cuts were provoked in most areas of Thessaloniki, roads closed due to mud and floods, hail destroyed cultivations, trees fell because of severe winds and many other problems happened in Macedonia that night.
Next morning Cumulus were everywhere again and it was obvious, that we would not avoid another thunderstorm.
When I watched the lightning detector and the satellite image in the afternoon, I noticed the course of the yesterday’s multicell. In 18 hours the course was: from Thessaloniki South to Chalkidiki, then North again to Stavros, East of Thessaloniki, to Kavala and Thasos, then to Thraki and finally it reached in Constantinople, where the multicell dissolved. A really big distance and a long lifetime!
The thunderstorm, that affected Thessaloniki that day, appeared at the same location, Northwest. New Cumulus from West were also developing really quickly as they were approaching, getting as high as the Cb next to them.
  

There were plenty of beautiful thunders that lightened up the whole cloud and it started raining over midnight, although the thunderstorm wasn’t that severe this time.

  

 

I made a video of those two days showing the spectacular phenomena I experienced!



Some thunderstorms followed also next days around Thessaloniki, but a nice one came 5 days later. Dark clouds, rain curtains and a shelf cloud over Thermaikos gulf made the thunderstorm look dangerous.
 

 


Suddenly, I noticed north of the city a brown cloud over the buildings around the harbour. Severe wind gusts were made under the shelf cloud and were going through the city.
 

 




A nice time lapse of the shelf cloud getting quickly closer.