June 2014 - Heat + Storms in Europe

[Simon Culling]

Monday 9th June 2014 was a very hot day in parts of western Europe for early in the summer and helped spark off a couple of massive MCS's over Belgium, Holland + Germany. There were also isolated storms over France, including Paris. The highest temperatures were in NE France and SW Germany, but it was also hot in Austria and Switzerland. Highest temperatures recorded were:

38.3*C at Strasbourg Botanical Gardens (NE France)
37.7*C at Rheinau (Germany - just across the border from Strasburg)
37.3*C at Waghaausel (W Germany)
37.0*C at Ohlsbach (W Germany) + Strasbourg Airport
35.2*C at Frankfurt Flughafen Airport

The storms were spectacular from a lightning strike rate perspective and produced a lot of rain and hail, with straight line winds of 144km/hr (89mph) recorded at Dusseldorf Airport.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27776189

Some big hail was also reported in and around Paris:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27787783

[NZstorm]

Observed sounding from Essen taken at 12Z. Showing an EML with capping. Text book supercell sounding.

[NZstorm]

Supercell structure from Belgium
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 8576_n.jpg

[Simon Culling]

The heat migrated east over the next couple of days and the storm threat receded. Max temps on the 10th were:

35.1*C at Doksany (Czech Republic) + Gars Am Kamp (Austria)
34.6*C at Waidhofen (Austria)
34.4*C at Bale-Mulhouse (NE France)
33.8*C at Frankfurt Flughafen Airport

The 11th saw maximum temperatures of:

35.3*C at Andau (Austria)
35.0*C at Gars Am Kamp

Western Europe will be much cooler over the next few days and the heat will move away further east. The last few summers has seen long periods of heat in eastern Europe and particularly western Russia. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues - if it does, the UK will see more winds from west to north and cool rainy weather.

[Simon Culling]

A few more links for the French storms on 9th June. The one over Paris occurred mid-afternoon and developed into a sizeable MCS further to the east and north.

http://mashable.com/2014/06/09/hail-par ... pe-storms/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/cap ... ce-photos/

[Tornado Tim]

That supercell structure is fantastic, a very good storm indeed for France!

[NZstorm]

Europe is similar to USA midwest in that there is a source of hot dry 850mb-700mb level air (EML) which provides a cap and allows CAPE to grow large. Eastern Australia gets a similar affect. 850mb temps 15C-25C range. A missing ingredient in NZ thunderstorm set ups.

[Simon Culling]

I agree, Steven - W Europe can have some significant convective events, but without the source of dry upper air (supplied by the Rockies in the USA), it will never be quite on a par with our cousins across the pond. Tornadoes are often reported in Europe and southern Poland appears to be the hot spot.

Serious flooding in Bulgaria on Thurs/Fri as shown by the attached links. The Daily Mail is always sensationalist, but it does have good photos.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27935436

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... coast.html

[Orion]

What a mess. Poor people.