This day will be long remembered in Dutch weather history. With a southerly airflow moist, warm and unstable air from France was transported to The Netherlands. The early morning started with dense fog, but suddenly rather active thunderstorms passed over. I can't remember that I noticed these storms, probably because I was still sleeping. Normally I wake up when a thunderstorm is near because of something like a sixth sense.
Anyway, these storms passed and clouds started to break. Soon temperatures started to rise up to a pleasant 25°C or a bit higher. At about 16 LT I saw some classic Altocumulus castellanus, a great sign for instability.
At 19 LT I was watching the evening news and after that a national weatherman did his show. What do I see now? Severe thunderstorms over the western part of The Netherlands? Damage? Wow...it's coming my way! I grabbed my camera and went to the balcony. From the west dark skies came my way and at the base of that storm was a significant lowering. A wall cloud? Well...it could be. When the edge of the storm passed I saw a beautiful whale's mouth. Lightning activity wasn't great and also the windgusts weren't severe. About 50km to the north, hailstones up to 10 cm (4 inch) were falling; just south of Zwolle, a tornado touched down for a short time, uprooting some trees.
At 20 LT the storm had passed Wageningen and I went in again to see the damage reports in the news. It was headline news! Flooding, large hail, windgusts, loads of damage. Later studies showed that a supercell, even with a classic hook echo, had passed The Netherlands. At 20.30 LT I looked out the window again to the south. EUH? A very large white roll cloud was coming my way. What the.... I went out again and saw a clear rolling motion in the cloud. It looked like there were 2 other roll clouds behind that one. It was surely coming my way and it filled the entire horizon from east to west.
Just when it was bound to hit Wageningen, it slowly dissipated in a strange form of cumulus clouds.Directly under such a cloud, above the forest, I saw something like a funnelcloud. (See the last picture on this page) The white cumulus clouds on this picture are the remains of the roll cloud. Above the forest a funnel can be seen. At first, I thought it was a tornado, but later I found out that this could be a steam devil. After the rainfall, damp, moist air was rising out of the forest. The roll cloud could have given this column of air a rotation so while it cools down and condensates, it forms a funnel like shape. I saw three of these steam devils in a short time. On the left of the picture a new one just started to form. If any of you have a better explanation, please email us! The name "white saturday" given to this day was because of the extreme large hailstones. From 1996 up till now every first week in june brought severe weather in The Netherlands. That's kinda typical! |
