Azor anticyclone dominating weather in Europe

Most of Europe is currently under the influence of a major Azor anticyclone which does not allow any trough to pass through central and southern Europe. It does not look like the pattern will change in the next 7-10 days, but GFS was offering some hope yesterday when it forecast a nice trough with serious setup potential. We will see how that develops. Meanwhile the SSTs in the Mediterranean sea are currently somewhat stagnant but will rise during this pattern of warm weather.

A lot of CAPE will be available for the storms is next days across most of Europe but given the basically non-existent shear there is no severe weather threat at least 7-10 days ahead. Azor anticyclone is just too strong currently. There could be some nice lightning displays though.

August 24th 2010 - Supercell near Udine

A short report from a supercell near Udine last year. Wasn't much of a storm but it cooled the boundary layer all over FVG so no more storms that day. :(


(Author: Nejc Ucman & R. Pucer)

August 8th 2010 - Supercell with lightning in central Slovenia

From Medvedje Brdo.

August 5th 2010 - Possible supercell near Novo Mesto

Got run over at home with a nice cell in the line. I liked the moist east wind on the ground before the storm. Veering was pretty good in combination with the jet from the south. A nice wall cloud. Could not really tell if the thing was rotating because it was too far away. Pretty dynamic. Higher CAPE would definitely help.

June 17th 2010 - High end LVL1 event in Slovenia

Wasn't expecting much from this day but it went really well. My first sight of the supercell was near Trebnje. It took awile to get on the highway ... Missed the first supercell but bagged the next one, crazy driving saved me! :) These storms dropped large hail near Grosuplje and made a lot of damage.

From Trebnje.

Still very unorganized but very active. I was right under all the action. Crazy lift and inflow. A lot of CGs also, was kinda scared to stand outside of the car! Was dropping hail already.

Crazy inflow. Mesocyclone occlusion began here already with rain on the levt. I was moving practially all the time. It was fast.

A few kilometers ahead. Nice wall cloud. RFD really close, wall cloud already a bit in the rain. Not showing the structure very well.

On the road back along Trebnje. RFD on the left, not looking very good.

I still got one more look on the meso once I got ahead of the storm. Really crappy roads here, impossible to track anything here for long period of time.

On the road back at Krško.