Stormy high summer

I'd started the weekend early in anticipation of a bit of motorbiking - the weather forecasts showed a hot dry day, so I took the train down to the działka to go for a spin. But by the time I arrived yesterday afternoon, it was clear the bike would be going nowhere. Massive clouds were gathering in the sky to the south and east. By five pm, four hours before sunset, the land was plunged into near-darkness. Lightning was followed by ever-louder and ever-nearer thunderclaps, and the wind - the down-draft that's a harbinger of the coming deluge, whipped through the trees, snapping twigs and small branches.

The rain fell with a vehemence. After ten minutes, the electricity cut out. Usually, power outages on the działka, of which I'm informed by my alarm app, last a minute or two. This one lasted over two hours. No light, no internet - but a full battery on my laptop let me get on with office work. The storm passed, the lights came back on. It was quarter to eight. Time for a walk. Sodden fields, broken branches, impassable footpaths.

These summer storms are literally unpredictable, as I wrote recently. Water vapour rises up from the wet soil, heated by a hot sun near its zenith, builds up quickly into towering clouds that hit cold air and suddenly condense back into rain. This cycle can happen two or three times on a hot, damp day. Advancing weather fronts can be modelled by supercomputers with a fair degree of accuracy, but thunderstorms are difficult to pin down.

Below: after the deluge, a wet walk. Because my Loake walking boots are locked down in London, I'm wearing my winter boots - suede and fur-lined, ideal for sub-zero and snow; not so clever when puddle-hopping on a humid summer's evening. 

The orchards are waterlogged. I hope this wet spell - following on from a snow-free winter and dry spring - will not harm the apples. The cherries are around a week and half late this year, and smaller than last year's beauties. 

Wake up this morning to the sound of intense rain. Coffee, wash, breakfast - check weather forecast. Intense thunderstorms with off-the-scale downpours predicted for around eight, nine pm. It's now around 11am, the rain has stopped, the sun is out - into the garage, start up the bike, head off  to the BP station at Grobice to top up the tank, and I'm on my way. My intention is to get to Warka, cross the Pilica river and drift south a while...

Below: between Widok and Piekut. Lovely stretch of road - hardly any traffic, bucolic scenes... but look out to the left - the clouds are building up...

I get to the crossroads past Krężel and decide to turn back. Below: I'm back in Chynów - any minute now... and sure enough, the heavens open. I'm close enough to base to make a run for it; bike back in garage, into the house - and hail. The lawn outside turns white - whiter than at any time over the winter. Two hours of intense rain, thunder, lighting and hail.

At least this time there was no power cut; I have lunch and await the storm's passing... It passes. 

The clouds have emptied, the sun's back. Water vapour rises visibly from the sodden earth at first; time for a walk. It's wetter than ever. Footpaths become impossible to cross without getting my feet wet. Fallen branches suggest that agriculture has taken a belting. This, dear reader, is the climatic new normal. Extraordinary weather events become commonplace. Farmers will have to invest in drought- and flood prevention measures. Food will become more expensive.

Hoping for a settled spell of dry weather before this summer's through. But there's still walking to be done; this evening another stroll to see how badly the soaking affected the other side of the tracks...

Below: this is ulica Działkowa in Chynów; wet all the way up. I could hear many petrol-powered pumping engines in the neighbouring orchards, sucking up water and piping it into fields next door or out onto the street. The damage has been done.

More is to come; on my way back home to the działka, I could see more clouds to the east. The sun was setting, the light has come off the houses and fields but continues to brighten the cloud-tops.

Anyone know of a real-time weather radar covering Poland that I can use to check where the thunderclouds are right now (rather than a forecast from a few hours ago that's invariably wrong in these conditions)?

This time two years ago:

The opening of the Raffles/Europejski hotel, Warsaw

This time five years ago:
The ballad of Heniek and Ziutek

This time six years ago:
Yorkshire's yellow bicycles

This time 11 years ago:
Horse-drawn in the Tatras

This time 12 years ago:
Rain, wind and fire

This time 13 years ago:
The Road beckons

Stormy end to May

The summer storm season has begun. Over the past few days, a predictable, repeatable weather pattern has set in. The mornings are fine and sunny, with scarcely a cloud in the sky. During the day, clouds build up from moisture evaporating off the ground as the air warms up. By late afternoon, the clouds are pregnant with rainwater, electrical discharges are triggered; thunder is heard.

Below: yesterday, 18:30. A storm cloud moves in from the south-east. Strong winds, caused by the downdraft from the intense rain, herald its imminent arrival. Time to run indoors.

From my bedroom window, looking north, 18:39. Intense rain is lashing down, huge droplets appear as white streaks in the photo below (click to enlarge).

The deluge lasts half an hour, for a further hour it rains less heavily. At 20:00 it's dry enough to venture out, wearing a light shower-proof jacket. It is still very warm. Way too warm for a Barbour. Below: a rainbow over Jeziorki.

Below: the air is fresh and clean, I head along ul. Dumki towards the pond. The sun is slanting in under the northbound clouds.

Below: sunset over the pond, seen from ul. Dumki; the dying embers of the day will soon be extinguished by the rain clouds as they roll on northwards.

It was a similar story today. Bright sunlight through the curtains woke me up some time after six o'clock; shortly afterwards the loudest roar of an aircraft flying low overhead had me rushing to the window - it was a huge Antonov An-124, massive beast, really low over Jeziorki. Magnificent sight.

Sunny conditions remained throughout the early morning, but the clouds began forming and thickening throughout the day, with light rain arriving around lunchtime. By the early evening, the storm clouds were massive. Below: sheltering around the tunnel entrance to platform 3 at W-wa Zachodnia station. People in shirtsleeves and T-shirts - when they left home this morning, who would have thought the same deluge that happened yesterday would happen as well today?

My train raced the stormcloud south. By the time the train had reached W-wa Jeziorki, below, the cloud had vectored southwest, and was dropping its load on Raszyn. I walked home with only a few raindrops catching me.

On my way home I bought 5 złotys (90p)-worth of strawberries. The plate below represents about a third of the purchase. It is the season for strawberries and they should be bought and consumed in huge amounts. These specimens were perfect. Picked today. Tasting of strawberries from our garden back in the Old Country, not of something imported in plastic punnets that visually resemble strawberries. The season will not be long, while Polish-grown strawberries are in season, it is our duty to stuff ourselves with them.

The stormy season seems to be moving earlier in the year. Will we have a repeat of last year, with a dry August?

This time last year:
Where's it better to live: London or Warsaw?

This time two years ago:
Jeziorki, magic hour, late-May

This time three years ago:
Świdnica, one of Poland's lesser-known pearls

This time six years ago:
Spirit of place
[Another 'why I love Jeziorki so' post. Walking around for an hour without bumping into a single soul? Try doing that within a nine-mile radius of Hyde Park Corner!]

Last night's storm

The storm front sweeps over Jeziorki, from north to south

Minutes later, a tempestuous wind and a deluge of water

The rear of the cloud; rain still falls, but the storm is passing.

After the rain has ceased. The temperature is still over 20C; the water's warm.

This time last year:
Drifting south with the sun: bicycle hobo

This time three years ago:
Royal Parks in the rain

This time four years ago:
Storm clouds over Warsaw, Dolinka under water

This time five years ago:
Round-up of pics from Dobra

This time six years ago:
Conservatism - UK or Polish style?

This time seven years ago:
Wheat and development

This time eight years ago:
A previous visit to London

Ahead of the storm

Meteo.pl had forecast a day of intense downpours, with rainfall off the scale (which goes up to 30 litres of rain per square metre per hour). The deluge was meant to hit Warsaw around 14:30 this afternoon. This morning I drove the children to Łódź; returning towards Warsaw, near the airport, I thought to myself - this is it...

It wasn't. Had lunch, looked at the forecast again - yes, plenty of rain still expected. A bit later. I thought I'd chance to take a walk beforehand. Not too far - the heavens may open. I walked to Dawidy Bankowe via Zamienie, then took the path back across the fields towards Jeziorki. Looking back, below, I could hear rumbles of thunder. The sky was looking ominous. Yet the wind was from the north-west; the storm could by-pass me yet.

Below: ripening wheat waiting for rainfall. This is Warsaw, within the city's boundary, yet the scenery is agricultural.The S79 may come through these fields one day, connecting the S2 and the airport with the S7 somewhere south of Janki. Maybe. Convenience vs. rural peace.

Below: across the tracks, back in Jeziorki, at the western end of ul. Kórnicka. A brooding landscape under dark, roiling clouds.

Below: by the tracks  a giant dandelion grows. Nature is at its most bountiful at this time of year.

Below: Jeziorki, across the pond from ul. Dumki. It must be raining heavily in Janki; here, it's bone dry. Note the algae in bloom on the water. Vast clouds of small, non-biting flies are swarming. No dragonflies to be seen, sadly.

There is rain, but not in Jeziorki. I get home, entirely dry. An hour later it starts to rain. Not too heavily. I check meteo.pl. The 30l/m2/h rain that was forecast for today is now forecast for tomorrow. At 14:30. Click to enlarge photos. (It's worth it!)

This time two years ago:
Fashionable bicycles for Warsaw's hipsters

This time three years ago:
On Jarosław Gowin and leadership in Polish politics
[This man could have been Poland's premier today. And a good one, too. But no. He just had to go off on one on his own.]

This time four years ago:
Death of a Polish pilot

This time five years ago:
Doesn't anyone want to recycle my rubbish?

This time six years ago:
End of the school year

This time seven years ago:
Midsummer scenes, Jeziorki

Thunderbolt and lightning/Very very fright'ning

O what a storm last night! It bore down upon Warsaw from the north-west, getting ever closer, a broad front. Around 22:00 we could hear it coming; by 23:45 it was right overhead.


Left: the scariest strikes are the ones closest to you - flash - CRUMP! No time to count to 'one'. This thunderbolt must have hit somewhere along ul. Karczunkowska. Certainly this side of the railway line. The rain is lashing in through the balcony door.

Below: the storm recedes towards the south. Flashes are still frequent but intervals between them and the thunder are now much longer. Ten past midnight.

All shots at 100ISO, f10, with shutter set at 'B', manually closed after enough flashes have occurred - guesswork, corrected using Photoshop Lightroom. Auto Noise Reduction turned off (it takes as long for the camera to get rid of the artefacts - gaily coloured pixels amidst the darkness - as the exposure itself). This is frustrating, for while NR is going on in your camera, you're missing flashes. I get rid of the artefacts manually in Photoshop afterwards.

A thrillingly scary display of nature's wrath, though in intensity it did not match the Corpus Christi storm of June 2010.

This time last year:
Getting lost on top of Łopień

This time three years ago:
Regulatory absurdities in Poland

This time four years ago:
Czachówek and Alignment

This time five years ago:
Joy, pain, sunshine, rain

Early morning thunderstorm, early May

I awoke to the sound of thunder, shortly before five. The sky looked particularly threatening, so I grabbed my camera and rushed outside to capture the impending storm (below). It had been a hot night up to now, but the temperature suddenly plunged.

The dawn had approached, the sun was rising behind me and the sky was no longer dark, it would be difficult to photograph lightning as the necessary exposure time (at 100 ISO, f22) was short - a mere three seconds, not the 30+ seconds you can do at night. So - would I be lucky enough to capture a flash while the shutter was open at random?

Well, the storm was so intense - I did - below. Perfect! Open shutter - one, two, FLASH, three, shutter closes. On a tripod, of course.

Below: and again! Open shutter, one, FLASH, two, three, shutter closes. Digital photography allows you to validate the result immediately after taking the shot, a boon to the weather photographer who can alter settings accordingly.

The storm was accompanied by a short burst of hail, drumming on the roof and temporarily carpeting the lawn. The hail had done for the beautiful blossom on the fruit trees; after it had passed on the blossom was lying sodden and lifeless under the trees. Within quarter of an hour the storm had moved on; the sun rose, the day looked to be set fair. Soon clouds gathered from the west, however, changeable was the final outcome.

This time last year:
Men at work

This time two years ago:
What's the Polish for 'to bully'?

This time three years ago:
Making plans for Jeziorki: Hołubcowa bis

This time four years ago:
The stirring sight of sunset

This time five years ago:
Blessed rain - after two dry weeks

August storm, ul. Targowa

The trams are back on ul. Targowa. (Not so clever, though, trying to get from Al. Zieleniecka to Rondo Wiatraczna - the tracks are now being dug up on this stretch of ul Grochowska.) I arrive for my Lesson amidst a right proper storm. The wind is ripping umbrellas out of people's hands, the rain is falling with such vehemence that by the time I get to where I'm going, my suit (dry-cleaned just hours earlier) is completely sodden, all the carefully ironed creases in it gone.

July and August in Poland are Storm Months. Today was typical; a clear blue sky in the morning, the clouds would build up (piętrzyć się) over the afternoon, and by the early evening the sky would be prematurely dark, the wind would howl and the heavens would open. The temperature plunged from 31C to 17C in a few minutes, and five litres of water fell on every square metre of ground in the space of an hour.

Of course, it befits a Storyteller to be caught up in the perfect storm, survive it and tell the tale (it's nice to sit back and write about the experience now, but while I was caught up in the deluge, it was downright nasty)!

This time last year:
More revelations about the underground kebab factory

This time two years ago:
Cheap holidays in other people's miseries

This time three years ago:
Steam train welcomes me to Dobra (for the very first time)

This time four years ago:
New housing, near Zgorzała

The heavens opened

Nawalnica (nuh vow NEE tsa); a squall, a downburst, a gale; a tremendous opening up of the skies; fierce winds accompanied by torrential rains. The build-up was rapid with the sky darkening against an evening sun. This was storm-front Otto approaching. Temperatures fell by 5C in as many minutes as the heavens opened. The south-west of Warsaw caught the worst of it. The centre was all right; heavy rain, but no hold-ups.

Getting home this evening was problematic; a 20 minute bus journey took 1 hour and 20 minutes. The reason: Dolinka Służewiecka was under water. When my bus finally reached the deepest parts, it felt like a river-boat cruise rather than a ride down one of Warsaw's main arterial roads. Compare the shot (below) of a car wash on Dolinka with this pic taken in more typical conditions.

Info (in Polish) about today's storm here. Okęcie airport was closed for 45 minutes, several tram lines were cut, but the Metro kept on running. Returning home this evening, I found the street lights were out, but electricity had been restored to our estate.

Stormclouds are raging all around my door

Coming back from town with Moni last night, we could see over Wiścigi what looked like a massive fireworks display; as we headed south past the racetrack, it turned out to me an electrical storm of significant magnitude sweeping westwards across the southern horizon.

Time to get camera on tripod, set shutter to 'B', aperture to f 5.6, ISO to 100, snap and wait. Wait for the Big Flash. Then release shutter, and repeat. Select best image (above) - no need for Photoshop (other than correcting verticals) and there we go.

The storm passed by without too much water on Jeziorki; I guess Góra Kalwaria and Pruszków would have got a drenching. More expected today (I hope it will not interfere with my planned bike ride).

It is unusual to experience such storms in mid-May; they are a regular occurrence in July and August. Here's one in late June 2009 and then of course there was the famous Corpus Christi storm of early June last year.

This time last year:
Floods endanger Warsaw

This time two years ago:
Why Poland cannot afford the Grosz

This time three years ago:
Slow train from Zakopane to Kraków

This time four years ago:
The year's most beautiful day?

Jeziorki's Storm of Storms

I could see it coming - a whopper of a storm. The previous night's storm was mainly electrical; much thunder and lightning, not much rain. As the clouds deepened and darkened, I put the tripod out onto the balcony at the front of the house to catch the storm as it happened.

Below: the storm (nawałnica - 'squall' or 'cloudburst') at its maximum intensity. The Yaris's alarm has been set off by the thunder as it passed overhead. Lightning flash - BOOM! Thunder followed before I could count to one. The wind was ferocious. I have never seen such volumes of water coming down from the heavens, nor accompanied by such winds. Note the water level - up to the top of the Yaris's rear tyre, entirely flooding the front garden.

Below: the storm has passed. It lasted less than two hours. The drive and front garden are under five inches (13 cm) of water. The ground in any case was pretty much waterlogged as a result of May's abnormally high rainfalls following the winter's abnormally high snowfalls.

Soon after the above photo was taken, the lights went out and would remain out for the next 36 hours. The Corpus Christi storm of 2010 will go down in folk memory of Jeziorki's inhabitants, as we shall see from the next post.

Summer dusk, Jeziorki

I could see that photographically, this was going to be an interesting evening in Jeziorki. There was strong light from a setting sun in the north-west, while from the north, a heavy bank of thundercloud moved in a south-easterly direction, crossing Warsaw and giving everything from Bemowo across to Otwock a good soaking, accompanied by much lightning and thunder.

Yet Jeziorki, and indeed I'd guess the whole of Ursynów, was spared a drenching. Above: Fields between ul. Kórnicka and ul. Baletowa. The stormclouds are massing from the left. Below: the railway line from the fields of Dawidy Bankowe. The clouds are now over Praga, the scene illuminated by the last rays of the setting sun.

This time last year:
Classic cars in Warsaw and London
Summer twilight moods, Jeziorki

Late June lightning

The new tripod proves itself in extreme conditions. At half past ten on the last day of June, we were in the middle of a most terrifying/exciting thunderstorm, which passed over Jeziorki. Two exposures make up the above image; the first was lit up by lightning from the north of us, which illuminated the estate like studio lights. The second exposure, of the sky to the south of us, caught two flashes. The tripod was so stable that the sky from the second photo could be superimposed upon the foreground of the first. And I must say, I'm rather pleased with the result.

Summer sunset triptych

July is Poland's wettest month. Each day's been similar - fine start, then bit by bit, clouds start building up; by the evening there's a full-blown thunderstorm with a deluge of rain and lightning. Today fitted the pattern perfectly. By sunset, the rain had passed, the sky looked spectacular. Compare with the past two evenings (see previous days' posts). All pics taken from my bedroom window looking north-west.

This time last year:
England's rural suburbias
Best fish and chip shop around?

Nawałnica

It started with an almighty wooshing of wind, like the sound of a huge jet plane passing. But the sound did not pass; it intensified. Then the heavens opened and from them poured biblical volumes of rain. I opened a window and held out my hand, it was coming down like an intense spray. The air was full of water droplets. This is a nawałnica, a torrential squall. Within minutes the drive in front of the house was under water; spray bouncing up from the ground. The gutters and downpipes were choking, regurgitating rainwater. An airliner was battling to get into Okęcie, its tail swung out to the left by the fierce easterly wind. A darker cloud moved in, bringing with it steadier, less intensive rainfall. And so it passed.

This time last year:
On the road to... Derbyshire
London - constant, yet constantly changing
Ealing, home from home

Stormy Sunday

What a corker! A top-notch electrical storm passed through Jeziorki this evening, time to hone my lightning-catching photo techniques... I took many but only two were any good. Rather than fix an exposure time for an arbitrary 30 seconds, I set the exposure for 'bulb', aperture for f6.3 and waited for a strike. Some waits were longer than others. Without a screw-in fixture in the shutter button for a release cable, some pics came out blurred.

Both good pics were taken from my bedroom window and show lightning strikes over the Las Kabacki forest across ul. Sarabandy. The storm, having calmed down, is coming back, time to upload these pics to the blog, switch off and disconnect computer from mains, and rush upstairs to get some more shots!


...And back again, the storm having passed off to the north east of Warsaw. In the meanwhile, I managed to catch this one (left) as the storm made its second pass over Jeziorki. Note the colour of the lightning has changed from violet to red.

Stormy evening

A stitched-up panorama (click to view enlarged image) consisting of three wide-angled shots taken from the very apex of our triangular garden. The afternoon was sunny and fine, but the storm clouds were gathering. By nightfall, lightning illuminated the eastern sky. To the left of the photo, we can see the neighbours' oat field ripening. Our house is invisible behind the trees to the left of centre.

Stormy Friday the forecasters missed

This was the scene yesterday as I cycled home from work. This is ul. Puławska in Pyry, some 3km from ul. Trombity. From the time I left the office, I could tell that a huge weather system was bearing down on us. Could I outrun it? Not this time. Less than a minute before this photo was taken, the heavens opened, hailstones cascaded down, drenching all in their path. For the next six hours, thunder and lightning played across Warsaw, accompanied by heavy rain.

But how did the weather forecasters see the evening of Friday, 11 July? By 'weather forecasters' I'm not talking about what we get in the media, with all the generic accuracy of a tabloid horoscope, but from academic institutes which use sophisticated computer models to plot weather systems crossing our continent. I've tended to use www.new.meteo.pl to tell me what the cycling weather would be. But to get it this wrong? Below: the COAMPS model predicting rainfall for Poland for yesterday evening. Western Poland would have been expecting rain, central Poland, including Warsaw, would have been dry. Not a bit of it!

This time last year:
Summer attractions in Łazienki Park
Gloomy weather affected us last July too!