@oliverek7

Oliver Wyndham-Lewis | 22 | MMet | Meteorologist, studied at UoR ‘22-‘26 🇬🇧 OU ‘24-‘25 🇺🇸 Convective outlooks/discussions ⚡️+ general weather happenings ⛅️

Reading / Kent, England
Joined February 2020
Could be a very wet day for some across western counties of England, Wales and western Scotland tomorrow with an area of dynamic rain from the southwest merging with a squall line moving in from the west. Potential for some embedded thunderstorms, strong gusty winds & localised flooding.
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Edinburgh and the Lothians got some action early this morning within the MRGL before activity intensified and expanded in coverage over the North Sea. Meanwhile the SLGT was void of any activity. Largely down to the shortwave being displaced a bit too far northward and poor phasing with the high-theta-e airmass over land.
Convective Outlook - Wednesday 23/09 #ukweather SLGT risk Squally showers and well-scattered thunderstorms possible for parts of the UK with the greatest risk perhaps focused across parts of southern N England into E Mids and northern East Anglia late morning and into the early afternoon. Convection could organise into line segments capable of producing gusty winds up to 45-50mph, with very isolated instances of >50mph gusts should more robust storms materialise (low likelihood). Thundery showers are also possible across E Ireland, the Irish Sea, and into N Wales earlier in the morning. Discussion: An upper-level shortwave will translate west to east across the UK and Ireland throughout Wednesday, with its axis expected to clear eastern England by mid-afternoon, with 500mb temps falling to -24C to -25C within the core traversing across N/C Scotland and the -20C isotherm perhaps digging into far N Midlands. Ample ascent ahead of the trough axis (strong PVA + upper-level diffluence) will overspread a high-theta-e low-level airmass advected NE ahead of an advancing cold front. Earlier guidance was not concrete regarding the exact track of this feature, with some solutions allowing the -20C isotherm to extend much deeper into the Midlands and East Anglia. Such solutions would have promoted a much more favourable thermodynamic environment for robust convection to develop with MUCAPE potentially reaching 800-900 J/kg across E Yorks, parts of E Mids, and East Anglia by late morning/early afternoon, although these higher-end solutions have now been dropped by guidance and thus only a broad SLGT polygon has been issued. Convective activity could begin earlier in the morning from E Ireland, the Irish Sea, and across parts of N Wales as the shortwave approaches. Magnitude of instability will be more limited here owing to weaker diurnal heating although focused ascent of the high theta-e airmass along the cold front and via orographic lift (Wales) may assist in CI and develop thundery showers within broader heavy, dynamic rainfall with isolated gusts of 40-45mph possible from any deeper convection. Isolated lightning is also possible across S/E Scotland during this earlier period. Further east, the environment may become increasingly supportive of organised convection during late morning and into the afternoon as surface heating lifts temperatures into the high-teens to low-20s C ahead of the cold front, with strong synoptic forcing overspreading eastern England with the advancing shortwave. A deep moist layer extends from the surface-700mb, with especially dry air above 600mb advected into the region - this will promote steeper lapse rates and enhance downdraft acceleration with any deeper convection. Strong speed shear throughout the atmosphere will help organise showers/storms into multicell clusters/line segments as they progress eastwards with time and could bring the threat of isolated wind gusts >50mph, more widely 40-45mph, should any bowing segments develop.
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oliverek7 retweeted
The bulk of the storms that formed ended up being just off the coast of Scotland before moving into the North Sea giving the riggers quite a show. Some spots in the central belt had over 20mm of rain. For the south it looks like a non event with it ending up being mostly dry with the odd shower. Image credit: UKWX
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After what has been a fairly benign month, the weather models are increasingly signalling something to blow away the cobwebs at the end of the month as the Atlantic wakes up and gets the memo that it’s autumn not summer, though still could be very warm next week, with winds from the south. Still a great deal of uncertainty next week, but ECMWF ensembles indicate a deepening trough carved out to the west of Europe next week, with a strong jet stream looping around and pushing up across the UK, with potential to bring a deep low towards Ireland early-mid next week
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Convective Outlook - Wednesday 23/09 #ukweather SLGT risk Squally showers and well-scattered thunderstorms possible for parts of the UK with the greatest risk perhaps focused across parts of southern N England into E Mids and northern East Anglia late morning and into the early afternoon. Convection could organise into line segments capable of producing gusty winds up to 45-50mph, with very isolated instances of >50mph gusts should more robust storms materialise (low likelihood). Thundery showers are also possible across E Ireland, the Irish Sea, and into N Wales earlier in the morning. Discussion: An upper-level shortwave will translate west to east across the UK and Ireland throughout Wednesday, with its axis expected to clear eastern England by mid-afternoon, with 500mb temps falling to -24C to -25C within the core traversing across N/C Scotland and the -20C isotherm perhaps digging into far N Midlands. Ample ascent ahead of the trough axis (strong PVA + upper-level diffluence) will overspread a high-theta-e low-level airmass advected NE ahead of an advancing cold front. Earlier guidance was not concrete regarding the exact track of this feature, with some solutions allowing the -20C isotherm to extend much deeper into the Midlands and East Anglia. Such solutions would have promoted a much more favourable thermodynamic environment for robust convection to develop with MUCAPE potentially reaching 800-900 J/kg across E Yorks, parts of E Mids, and East Anglia by late morning/early afternoon, although these higher-end solutions have now been dropped by guidance and thus only a broad SLGT polygon has been issued. Convective activity could begin earlier in the morning from E Ireland, the Irish Sea, and across parts of N Wales as the shortwave approaches. Magnitude of instability will be more limited here owing to weaker diurnal heating although focused ascent of the high theta-e airmass along the cold front and via orographic lift (Wales) may assist in CI and develop thundery showers within broader heavy, dynamic rainfall with isolated gusts of 40-45mph possible from any deeper convection. Isolated lightning is also possible across S/E Scotland during this earlier period. Further east, the environment may become increasingly supportive of organised convection during late morning and into the afternoon as surface heating lifts temperatures into the high-teens to low-20s C ahead of the cold front, with strong synoptic forcing overspreading eastern England with the advancing shortwave. A deep moist layer extends from the surface-700mb, with especially dry air above 600mb advected into the region - this will promote steeper lapse rates and enhance downdraft acceleration with any deeper convection. Strong speed shear throughout the atmosphere will help organise showers/storms into multicell clusters/line segments as they progress eastwards with time and could bring the threat of isolated wind gusts >50mph, more widely 40-45mph, should any bowing segments develop.
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#ukweather posting hiatus is over😁 1/ Monitoring Wed 23/09 for some squally showers and thunderstorms from the Irish Sea through Wales and into eastern parts of England as moist unstable air is drawn NE ahead of an ESEward advancing cold front. A focus could be across parts of E Mids into East Anglia where dry mid-level air wraps ahead of the front allowing surface heating, and thus instability, to maximise here by noon to promote more robust developments. Main hazard likely to be gusty winds up to 45mph given likely upscale growth of convection into linear multicell clusters.
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2/ ECM has been an outlier with the shortwave providing forcing for this activity - with a flatter and more northward-displaced trough. GFS, ICON and UKV all agree on a more southerly tracking feature with the associated cold pool and jet streak overlapping more favourably with the conditionally unstable low-level airmass. Convective outlook will be issued tomorrow as guidance continues to firm up.
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oliverek7 retweeted
58 years ago today, SE England was hit by one of its worst floods of the 20th century; torrential rain and severe thunderstorms caused widespread flooding across the Home Counties. Bromley recorded 129.5 mm of rain in 24 hours. More than 14,000 properties were flooded.
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oliverek7 retweeted
One rogue cell over the last 20 mins or so moving between Royston & Saffron Walden has produced a few Lightning strikes.
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oliverek7 retweeted
This morning's ECMWF and 06Z GFS as well as a slowly increasing number of ECMWF EPS Members are now showing subtropical hybrid development of a low pressure area which develops in the Gulf of Sidra during the middle of next week. The disturbance develops at the surface in relation to a weak upper trough which sinks SE across the Central Med, Vorticity at 500mbs allows and aids the development of Showers and thunderstorms and strong convection from the very warm sea eventually produce enough latent heat release to become more self sustaining and the upper trough increases divergence aloft which allows for deepening of a surface low which moves out towards the Greek Islands and /Or Crete. Big uncertainties in this. Where will the initial surface low form. How or indeed even will it transition from a traditional cold core to a semi hybrid subtropical type low or even "Medicane" ./ Some of the EPS members are very deep down to 970-980mbs with those models showing Storm force winds developing around a tight inner core. Confidence is slowly trending in the direction of something forming here and now needs growing watching over the next few days.
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Incredible satellite imagery coming out of the Mediterranean today. Extremely intense thunderstorm exiting the Balearic Islands with a very cold overshooting top reaching -75C (likely 50-55k feet altitude based on forecast soundings). Can also note the concentric rings of gravity waves propagating away from the intense updraft as it punches through the tropopause.
Está tormenta tiene un potencial altísimo, por suerte se quedará en el mar y no afectará a Baleares, eso sí se espera que pueda llegar a Cerdeña con rachas de viento superiores a 120-130km/h!!⛈️⚠️ Los topes de nube rozan los -75°C, algo que indica la severidad de este monstruo. #euwx #Meteo #Weather #severewx
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Also there is perhaps a small chance at a funnel/weak spin-up within the more N-S oriented portion of this convective band NW of Glasgow. Low LCLs, adequate SRH in the 0-1km layer and modest low-level buoyancy is present within the environment.
#ukweather Heavy rainfall pushing across parts of Scotland this evening, with embedded deep convection and torrential elements (notably just NW of Glasgow currently). Some lightning activity associated with this as it tracks NE. Embedded shortwave and intense upper cold pool (500mb temps down to -25C) steepening lapse rates enough to yield weak instability to fuel some stronger updrafts.
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#ukweather Heavy rainfall pushing across parts of Scotland this evening, with embedded deep convection and torrential elements (notably just NW of Glasgow currently). Some lightning activity associated with this as it tracks NE. Embedded shortwave and intense upper cold pool (500mb temps down to -25C) steepening lapse rates enough to yield weak instability to fuel some stronger updrafts.
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oliverek7 retweeted
1976 has finally been beaten. For 50 years, it was the benchmark for a hot British summer. Summer 2026 is the UK’s warmest summer on record for mean, maximum and minimum temperatures, while also recording more tropical nights than 1976. metoffice.gov.uk/blog/2026/s…
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oliverek7 retweeted
Another VERY interesting update from ECM seasonal The northern blocking signal into winter has strengthened Would give a greater chance of colder conditions here ❄️ Not to take literally but definitely something to watch #UKweather
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#ukweather A sure sign we are heading into Autumn🍂 A very narrow band of convection is likely to develop along a sharp cold front during the early hours of Friday morning across Wales and central England. Strong baroclinicity generated by the sharp meridional temperature gradient across the front is reflected aloft by a very strong 90-95 kt 500mb jet running roughly parallel to the front. The sharp, strongly sloping frontal zone provides a narrow zone of focused ascent which, coupled with front-parallel deep-layer shear, allows convection to organise into a very thin, linear band. This narrow corridor of intense rainfall could lead to some high accumulations in places, particularly on windward portions of the higher ground of Wales and parts of the Peak District given orographic enhancement. Additionally, some locally gusty winds of 45 mph or greater would be possible where stronger embedded convective elements allow some downward transport of momentum from aloft.
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oliverek7 retweeted
High Wycombe cell with surface convergence and temperature, constructed from Wunderground observations in the area; large hail of around 3 centimetres in diameter occurred in the area around 15:40 BST. AROME sounding in the area shows high CAPE in the hail growth zone.
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oliverek7 retweeted
The relatively active thundery period is now over. 99 thousand strikes within UK bounds.
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What looks like a tornado over Saddleworth near Manchester today - image taken off a video on facebook from 📸 Szabi Pikáli
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Thunderstorms aplenty in northern England this evening ⚡️ #ukweather
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