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A new television series called 'Chronicles of the Sperrins' will be airing on BBC1 next week (March) on Monday at 20.00 available to watch on BBC 1 Northern Ireland and on BBC Iplayer. This is a four part series spread out over four weeks covering the Sperrins through all of the seasons during 2024. I've been fortunate to have been featured on the show within each episode documenting my photography adventures.
The first episode to air will be 'Spring' and will feature the epic G5 aurora we captured during May between Beaghmore and Davagh at the fairy tree (which is now felled by a storm!) which was a truly remarkable night both for myself and the film crew and director. The other episodes will include Noctilucent Clouds in Summer, comet C/2023 A3 T-A in Autumn and hoar frost/snow in Winter. All four episodes will soon be available to watch in one sitting on BBC Iplayer so please check it out if you are interested in this sort of thing, or if you would simply enjoy seeing the Sperrins showcased on television to a wider audience.
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February has fast become an interesting month for convective lovers across Ireland/N. Ireland which brought our first inland thunderstorms of the year, much earlier than usual. We have had several thunderstorm days, all of which have been low CAPE but strong shear events, in fact, it was this shear (40-60 knots DLS) combined with cold air aloft which generated some fairly impressive skies for the time of year. On Feb 22nd thunderstorms broke out across Kerry, Galway, Dublin, Donegal, border areas, Fermanagh, Down and Antrim.
These cells were all highly sheared and organised, some with bowing features and others with supercell traits on radar. Although I never heard thunder myself I did witness several of these storms from a distance which really impressed me. A thunderstorm over Lough Erne had its anvil sheared rite over my home in Cookstown!, it blew my mind that the cell extended across several counties, especially for a cold season storm. The highlight was seeing the storm over Co. Down from Cookstown, clear as day, with a huge while anvil sheared across the skies for miles with back sheared anvil sporting knuckles, the cell wouldn't have looked out of place in a Summer sky, it too had supercell traits visually and on radar. It also produced a 703kA positive c-g which is nearly at the top of the scale and exceptional for N. Ireland, these bolts can damage buildings, start fires and even generate an EM pulse affecting electronics, this was really impressive stuff for a cold season inland storm in February!
The following day another cell in 40 knots shear passed near Cookstown 40 min's before sunset. Despite the blustery wind I got the drone in the air to capture its rear as it cleared my house moving at high speed. The cell was lit beautifully white with a partial bow, the anvil was tall and steep with forming mammatus. It was that big I couldn't get the cell in the FOV until it moved miles down wind.
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Same cell moving NE towards Co. Antrim, to get a sense of scale compare it's size with the turbines and buildings below. The core was white on radar, no thunder which was shocking but I reckon it came close as it was feeding on the last instability and solar heating of the day. I hope this early activity will be a good omen for an active Spring and Summer thunderstorm season ahead, something I'm eagerly looking forward to!
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2025 began in great style with a G4 geomagnetic storm and SARS arc on New Year's Day followed by a sublime Venus-Moon conjunction then a week long cold spell which brought numerous snow showers and severe frosts. I spent three days on the hunt for Winter photo opps covering convective cells with snow curtains to frozen lakes, however it was January 9th which stood out as exceptional with freezing fog and -7C temps. We encountered beautiful hoar frost scenes in Omagh with trees covered in frost so thick it took on the appearance of snow. Frost covered everything and with blue skies and sunshine we obtained our finest images of the season. The chase converged on Gortin Glen Forest and lakes at sunset where I completed filming of Chronicles Of The Sperrins for the BBC which was a perfect end to the day. Two page report with 39 images and 1 video clip. - PAGE 1, PAGE 2.
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Astronomy is not the only subject I'm interested in, check out my N. Ireland Storm Chasing section and view the chase reports and images which detail not only storms but other phenomena such as a moonbows, noctilucent clouds, aurora displays and exciting nature related photo shoots.
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Martin McKenna
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