"PJB" wrote in message
...

"Bernard Burton" wrote in message
...
There is a good image of some spectacular Cbs in vicinity of the
Pyrenees
from noaa12 at 1601Z.
www.btinternet.com/~wokingham.weather/wwp.html

--
Bernard Burton
Wokingham, Berkshire, UK.


Indeed Bernard

Intense thunderstorms spawned by forcing aloft, moisture convergence and
very high temperatures (39C in C S France today) have developed into a
large MCS over SW France this evening. The system has the potential for
Hail, Gusty Winds (gusts to nr 60mph have already been reported) and local
flooding. Cloud top temp analysis indicates tops of colder than -75C on
Meteosat EIR imagery. A check of the 12Z Bordeaux ascent shows a classic
"loaded gun" with instsability aloft being capped until sufficient heating
and forcing was available to release it. The Ascent indicates that -75C is
overshooting the top of the troposphere at 200mbs, indicating cloud tops
of
nr 40,000 ft.

On the 07510 Ascent


http://weather.uwyo.edu/cgi-bin/soun...112&STNM=07510

CAPE is already present aloft and given the temps over the region of 36C +
moisture converence from the Biscay and Med sides of France, thus
dewpoints
of nr 21C were reported this afternoon across the region. Extrapolating
that
information into the Ascent and constructing a Normand Point diagram shows
the CAP able to be broken and phenomenal amounts of CAPE released.
(nothing
else to stop tops quickly shooting over the Eq level)

Best Regards

Paul


Thanks for that précis, Paul. It looks as if a similar situation tomorrow
will prevail along that very moist plume.

Joe