Bristols electrical storm last night
 

I would like to thank and commend the Air Traffic teams at Bristol and Cardiff last night who coped with the closure of Bristol due to the electrical storm.

Certainly the worst airfield CB I have ever seen on a weather radar. With it moving directly over the airfield things were certainly interesting for those of us on approach to the airfield. All I can say is that Air Traffic were spot on in dealing with the ensuing airborne chaos. Despite - I believe - being blasted in the tower by a thunderbolt at one point.

Well done one and all.

Does the airfield record rainfall data and if so does anybody know just how much fell in that 40 minutes? I've never seen a weather radar go Magenta for a patch 12 miles sqaure before and flying through the edge of it was monsoon like...

Cheers

WWW

We had very very very similar conditions at Manchester last night forcing the aerodrome to close for a short period due runway flooding and CB activity in close proximity.

What is the weather doing to our poor country at the moment? :(

That lightning strike on Lulsgate tower certainly shook the young lady inside. She unwittingly selected the telephone line to London ACC and gave the person who answered a VERY graphic description of how the shock had affected her metabolism.

Now, if only I can get a tape of that call ...:E :E :E

We had a very similar situation at LBA last Thursday evening. A large storm cell (s) came up from the southeast at about 1800 local time and refused to budge from the overhead for about three and a half hours. And wot a party it woz !

From my perspective, the main problem seemed to be the amount of water on the runway rather than the trick of dodging the CBs.
As a result, some inbounds had to divert (BY went to Manchester after about five minutes' holding time, no surprises there) and one or two departures were delayed. The ground boys did a sterling job getting the flooding under control and by about 2200 local all was sweet and peace again.

BTW, I don't work in ATC but listening to those who were manning the LBA consoles and ground vehicles last Thursday was both an education and an entertainment. Well done boys and girls ! :ok:

niteflite01


what time was the MAN shutddown?
I was working that night and i remember it getting pretty hairy while waiting for chocks on a BY but i never thought it got that bad. Freaky weather. Hmm. Makes you wonder why.......