A large area of low pressure with its heart rolling just north of Scotland has created stormy conditions with gusts of up to 70 mph in some places! Here in Tewkesbury however, on my lockdown walk, I only managed to record a gust of 15 mph before my walk was rained off. The more spectacular spot of the walk however was the showers and virga all around me. Virga are the small - jellyfish-like strands that hang down under clouds like these. You can see the dark strands under pretty much every cloud in these pictures. So what are they? Well virga are caused by rain falling but re-evaporating before it hits the ground, so it is essentially raining higher up, but that rain never makes it to the ground. It's pretty spectacular in my eyes!
As a shower began to head straight for me I had to cancel my walk and my filming and head home, and one of my final observations before rain began was the smell. I could smell the storm, the petrichor being thrown up by the rain and carried ahead of the shower to where I was. It was very impressive. There is also a theory that we can smell the chemicals that lightning creates by reacting molecules in the atmosphere that are then carried ahead of thunderstorms, pretty impressive in my opinion!
I also shot this timelapse on the day because the sky was changing so rapidly, from thick clouds and rain to sunshine and blue skies. I think it orchestrates that perfectly:
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