Stormy, stormy night.... totally orageuse!!

We knew it was coming...

This was the Carte de Vigilance

This was Meteo60's animation last evening... the red is the heavy rain!

so, after unplugging all the internet connections,...
and with cold-water-bottles in hand...
we went to bed!


Then... around 3:10AM...

FLASH, BANG, WALLOP!!

...it hit!!

This is the longére... lit by "flash"... the double images are movement over a 10 second exposure.

Strikes over Chevernay way... looking toward Petit Pressigny

Strike above La Jarrie / Grandmont / La Borde...

The trees were bent at a crazy angle as they thrashed in the wind...
the rain hammered down...
we can't be accurate about it, as there has been something jamming the rocker mechanism in the rain gauge...
but suddenly it started recording...
the problem had been flushed away!!

[Could have been a spider's web... or a potter wasp pot... we've had both!!]
It finished at 3.3mm...
however, the fizzical gauge, which was at around 15 or 16mm...
now is reading over 40mm! [Scale stops at 40!!]
Much closer to what we observed...
We waited until the electrical activity had stopped and reconnected the internet and took a look...

This is what the Level Orange Storm Warning said:

Bulletin de vigilance Régional.
CENTRE METEOROLOGIQUE INTERREGIONAL DE RENNES
Numéro:2607O02   
Emis le : vendredi 26 juillet 2013 à 04h00
par : Météo-France Rennes
Date et heure du prochain message : au plus tard le vendredi 26 juillet 2013 à 06h00
   
   
   
Type de phénomène
Orages.
Phénomène en cours.
Fin de phénomène prévue le vendredi 26 juillet 2013 à 09h00

It actually finished around 6:50AM here and we now [7:12] have broken cloud and blue bits!!   
      
Localisation
       
Début de suivi pour :
Aucun département
Maintien de suivi pour :
Eure-et-Loir (28), Loir-et-Cher (41), Loiret (45), Indre-et-Loire (37), Indre (36) et Cher (18).
Fin de suivi pour :
Aucun département
   
Description
       
Qualification du phénomène :
Situation fortement orageuse d'été qui nécessite une vigilance particulière dans la mesure où il existe un risque fort de phénomènes violents.
Faits nouveaux :
Confirmation de la prévision. Les orages ont gagné notre région, des rafales de vent proches de 90 km/h sont relevées à Blois, ainsi qu'une lame d'eau proche de 10 mm localement. De la grêle a été observée dans le Loiret.
Situation actuelle :
Les pluies orageuses couvrent une moitié ouest de la région Centre.
Le département du Cher est pour l'instant peu touché.
[but we could see a bulge in the storm heading that way....
look at the animations below!!]
And see Walt's post for the 26th July 2013....

Evolution prévue :
La zone orageuse traverse la région Centre du sud-ouest au nord-est. Les orages pourront s'organiser en lignes et être forts. Ils pourront s'accompagner de précipitations soutenues, de grêle ainsi que de rafales de vent pouvant atteindre 80 à 90 km/h, voire les dépasser ponctuellement.
[No hail (grêle) here... fortunately!!]
Quelques foyers orageux pourront déborder ponctuellement sur les départements limitrophes au nord (entre le sud-Anjou et le Perche en cette fin de nuit).
Cette zone pluvio-orageuse s'évacuera vers le nord-nord-est au lever du jour.
    
Conséquences possibles
       
Orages/Orange
* Violents orages susceptibles de provoquer localement des dégâts importants.
* Des dégâts importants sont localement à craindre sur l'habitat léger et les installations provisoires.
* Des inondations de caves et points bas peuvent se produire très rapidement.
* Quelques départs de feux peuvent être enregistrés en forêt suite à des impacts de foudre non accompagnés de précipitations.
   
   
Conseils de comportement
       
Orages/Orange
* A l'approche d'un orage, prenez les précautions d'usage pour mettre à l'abri les objets sensibles au vent.
* Ne vous abritez pas sous les arbres. [No ess-aitch-one-tee Sherlock!!]
* Evitez les promenades en forêts. [As above!]
* Evitez d'utiliser le téléphone et les appareils électriques. [If they are still working!!]
* Signalez sans attendre les départs de feux dont vous pourriez être témoins.

And here we have some animations for you...

This is the same map as above... but from 1:45AM to 4:45 AM

This shows rain that is too light to be felt....
however, these...
from...
show a more narrowed band of detail...
and, in the last one, the lightning!!

This is the rain picture...

and this is the lightning [each yellow cross!]

Have a nice day!!

Joachim breezes past

'Twas a dark and stormy night on Thursday. The weather service Météociel was forecasting winds gusting up to 125 kph and at least five centimetres of rain in twelve hours, and the following day La Nouvelle République advised us that an official tempest, named Joachim, has just happened. The wind speed meter on our weather station is broken, but the audible wind noise was considerable. As for the rainfall meter, it indicated that we had 247.5 millimetres of rain in 24 hours. That's a quarter of a metre all but, and totally out of proportion. It looks like the wind was affecting it, so we don't know exactly how much we got. Sandaysoft confirms that strong wind is a known problem with our weather station, and points us to a forum entry discussing baffles that could make it a bit more accurate.

On Thursday afternoon we watched in some anxiety as the bief rose from its normal tinkling brook to a roaring stream the colour of milky tea. Tim went down in the night to check on the water level and to close a shutter that had come unhitched. The following morning the rain continued to fall and the water continued to rise. The muskrat and the moorhen coped well with the force of the flow, crossing bravely sideways from one side to the other and finding slack water where they could make good progress under the bank.

Our water meadow.... the strip of water from lower left to top right is one of the mown paths... and the pond the other side!

At the peak, the buildings were still a good metre above the water level, as the watermeadows along the valley did their job. A "route inondée" sign near the junction to Favier indicates that the bief had burst its banks there, but water only partially covered the road and we were never cut off from the village. The worst damage we took was to the stable door, which was in a bad state to begin with and just got torn open. Our neighbour Richard evacuated his sheep from their home on the edge of his étang, carrying them by the feet upside down (rigweltered, as they say in Yorkshire) and docile, from their little shack to his trailer. We don't know where Jerry the outdoor cat was during the storm, but he turned up unconcerned on Saturday morning!
Heavy rain will drive earthworms out of the ground, and we saw several bird species taking advantage of this along the edge of the floodwater - lapwings, blackheaded gulls, crows and herons among them. A male sparrowhawk came to sit in our cherry tree, turning obligingly through 180° so we could admire him properly and take photographs.

Looking from the longere to the 'dry' bridge...

...and the view the other way.
La Forge is on the left with Bezuard behind, Moulin de Favier is in the middle and Favier is the next toward the right.
The bief was coping well with the right angle bend at the moulin!!

On our way to the Christmas Market at La Celle Guénand, we passed numerous washes of gravel and mud and one minor landslip on the road where rainwater had streamed off the fields. At Le Moulin Neuf, a big old poplar had come down, leaving a great plate of earth and roots projecting over the Aigronne. The commune had been quick to cut off projecting branches and clear the lane, but the main electricity cable was still hanging to the ground where the tree had pulled it down. Fortunately the cable still appeared to be in one piece.

The Aigronne and its watermeadows at Gatault
[Click on the photo to view full size]