We left the highway near Hoornaar, because we spotted some great convection. In the warm air a single cell thunderstorm formed and we watched it grow. The lightning activity was getting higher and higher,but we were too close. So we went some miles back again and stopped in Vianen.
The storm passed us with torrential rainfall, severe wind gusts (snapping branches), small hail (1 or 2 cm) and great lightning activity. Wow! That was a nice start to the chase. This storm was moving too fast for us, so we decided do go back south again. Near Gorinchem (don't try to pronounce it if you aren't Dutch) we saw a gust front coming our way. We stopped at a gas station to get a better view. The wind was already blowing very hard and the gust front was spectacular to see!
Near the gust front there was a significant lowering at the cloudbase, but we couldn't tell wether it was a roll cloud or shelf cloud. We did spot some great rotation in this cloud! It passed without producing precipitation. Was this the coldfront already? No it wasn't!
We drove to the east and near Tiel we saw the thunderstorms associated with the coldfront. The precipitation intensity was high and we also saw some lightning discharges. Because of the rain we weren't able to make good documentation of the storm. |
