My friend Oscar van der Velde came over to my house today. After we enjoyed some videos about chasing, it was time to go out. Several storms formed over the country and there was the possibility of severe weather as high wind shearw as present.
We sent to the hill in the centre of Soest and waited for a storm to pass. In conditions of strong vertical wind shear I expected the updraft to appear at the southwest end of the shower. And there it was, and it showed signs of rotation as well!
For a minute it looked like it could produce a funnel, but it didn't and it moves NNE quite fast. Lets jump in the car and chase this beauty!
We chased it by using highway A28 and near exit Nijkerk we stopped for photography. The storm had an extensive flakning line and inflow bands, signs of very good storm organisation. Unfortunately we didn't have time to chase this storm further, as Oscar had to catch a plane to Toulouse later in that afternoon.
So we drove into Flevoland were another storm was present. This one had a very turbulent base with a shelfy edge. We watched them drift away as skies cleared over us.
Later we learned that a couple of storms produced F1-F2 tornadoes over Belgium and southern part of the Netherlands. Several so-called low-topped supercells formed this day!
Later in the evening active thunderstorms passed Soest again, producing quite active lightning for the time of year. Unfortunately the lack of view from my appartment made photography difficult.
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