Baghdad Weather:

[David Draun]

Yeah, Spring is here. Actually it's starting to feel like summer. It's been quite hot recently. But today we had a little rain. I was shocked to see a Cb illuminated by lightning this morning though. It was just to my north at about 5AM. I waited for sunrise to take a picture. (I'll post it later) At sunrise I noticed that this thing had a well defined tilt to the updraft, as well as a rather robust and persistent overshooting top! Usually, a tilted updraft indicates severe weather, so I'm thinking this thing is dropping some hail wherever it is. As the sun rose, I noticed some other TCu, and Cb's building, and I thought this was going to be an interesting day. B)

It ended up being just a day for some nice cloud pictures. I was able to get a mammatus field as one anvil streamed overhead. And all these showers and storms were highly elevated. I estimated the cloud bases to be above 10,000 feet. There were a few CG bolts late this afternoon, but they were distant. It got really chilly too.

Climatologically, Baghdad sees about 8 thunderstorm days per year, and one day of severe weather on average. I'm still waiting for the bad one.

Still not a bad day for someone who just wanted to hear a little thunder.

 

[David Draun]

It looks good for Monday here. There will be a cold font coming SE out of the Mediterranean. Some pretty good chances of rain all over Iraq appear. We will have low dewpoints, so it will be an elevated, stocky thunderstorm day. However they are quite photogenic, and they can produce some fairly good lightning, but not much rain. Although, I heard convection from the other day was fairly heavy in southern Iraq, causing some flooding and limited visibility. It would be nice to see a couple more stoms before I leave here in a couple weeks. B)

 

[David Draun]

OMG! What a mess! A big cluster of heavy thunderstorms rolled on through this morning. It was almost like one of those nocturnal MCS's back home. The entire base is now a muddy hell hole. The lightning woke me up at about 5am. I didn't try to get pics though, the rain was too hard. CG's were a plenty though, especially after the rain stopped and I was walking to breakfast. Afternoon heating should get more boomers to go later

 

[David Draun]

Though I do not have access to radar here, yesterday's event just screamed MCS. It lasted about 11 hours from 2am to 1pm and was nearly non-stop. The satellite picture did show a very large convective blob during and after the event. Well anyway, the pudding is beginning to dry up now, and soon we will be dusty again. I wish I had my camera yesterday, the CG's were close and numerous.

Might have more rain/storms on Friday.

 

[David Draun]

I saw lots of TCu building today into a few heavy showers. They are still around, and perhaps I can get some lightning pics after dark. There seems to be rain nearby in the forecast for much of the week.

 

[Evan Bookbinder]

I saw lots of TCu building today into a few heavy showers. They are still around, and perhaps I can get some lightning pics after dark. There seems to be rain nearby in the forecast for much of the week.
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Heard we lost 5 marines due to the resulting flash flooding from this same MCS overturning their vehicle. Terrible terrible news...

So for those who still think it's safe to drive in flash flooding, here's the fact: The military vehicle that was overturned by flooding weighed 7 tons.

 

[David Draun]

That is correct. Flash flooding in the desert can be especially deadly and more likely to take you by surprise. The ground has dried out for the most part, but the creeks and ponds in the area are still rising, probably due to the runoff and rising river levels. Mixed forecasts for the next 3 days show a wide range of possibilites. US Airforce (Stars and Stripes) newspaper has us painted with rain and thunderstorms. Accuweather has us partly cloudy. And Weather Underground has us completely cloudless. There's so much forecasting discrepancy in this part of the world.

I saw a couple of storms that appeared to be supercells the other night. Some low-topped TCu showers got their act together at about sunset, and developed overshooting tops and rolled over anvils. They became illuminated by frequent lightning as they moved northeast. Once, again, I didn't get pics.

 

[David Shohami]

I see in the satellite you're getting good storms today!

 

[David Draun]

I see in the satellite you're getting good storms today!
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HA! What storms? There were some impressive (looking) clouds.We only had a few periods of drizzle, then a period of damage causing NE wind gusts with a weak dust storm blowing (dry) topsoil around. If there were any good storms they weren't around here.

I think we've seen the last of the rain for the year. April 2nd was the grand finale.

 

[MatthewCarman]

Glad to hear you got to see some storms and lightning. Anything is better than nothing I know how you feel david I have 2 bro's in iraq and they hate it. God bless you and be safe over there my friend.
-MatthewCarman.

 

[David Draun]

It looks like things are drying out and heating up over here now. Our first 100F is expected today, and there will be many more. Fortunately I won't be here for another summer. This is my last week here, and I'll be home very soon. I experienced here, from a weather standpoint, some very interesting weather. I would have liked to see a haboob, but all the dust storms we had were not of that type. I'd like to thank everyone for their support over the last 16 months, and I'll be back home shortly. I have been invited to chase with WVLightning, and I may see some of you guys out there this spring, though other responsibilities may hinder my plans. We'll see though.

 

[David Draun]

Well, I may be home but now I can post this picture of the cell I described at the begining of this thread. This was a Cb with a well defined overshooting top to the north of Camp Liberty near Baghdad airport back on March 28th.
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It's pretty cool, huh? I wish I was under it at the time.