© Matthew Clark
Nadderwater, Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Latitude: 50° 44' 23'' N
Longitude: 3° 34' 54'' W
19 February 2010 1720 (Local Time)
Camera direction: towards NE
Image P/S code: P.7.24
Image I.D.: 5151
CL = 9, CM = 0, CH = 0
This photograph shows a shallow layer of Stratocumulus cloud that has formed, at least in part, due to the spreading out of a Cumulonimbus cloud; the upper part of the parent Cumulonimbus is hidden by the Stratocumulus. As the mother-cloud is Cumulonimbus, we may add the descriptor cumulonimbogenitus. The presence of a Cumulonimbus cloud of greater depth than the Stratocumulus is revealed by precipitation falling as small hail, visible below cloud base. This is the supplementary feature praecipitatio. The cumuliform cloud, visible below the Stratocumulus and to the right of the precipitation shaft, has a well-defined flat base that is lower than that of the surrounding Stratocumulus. A partly obscured Cumulonimbus capillatus with a flat-topped anvil (incus) is visible in the distance, as are Stratocumulus patches not associated with the Cumulonimbus.
Links in the image description will highlight features on the image. Mouse over the features for more detail.
The surface chart for 1800 UTC shows a depression of 984 hPa over the North Sea, centred to the west of Denmark. The British Isles are under the influence of a polar maritime air mass, characterized by weak north-westerly flow within the circulation of the low.
The 1200 UTC sounding from Camborne, England, UK (WMO 03808), representative of the polar maritime airstream, shows a conditionally unstable but rather dry atmosphere from the surface to the tropopause at 350 hPa.
The red arrow on this UK Met Office composite rainfall radar image from 1730 UTC indicates the shower in the photograph.