Last night we got hit by a sudden storm, this particular type of storm is called a squall line storm.
I was ready for it and was following radars and satellite pictures, I wanted to photograph the lightning strikes when the storm gets close. Thunder is pretty rare in this time of the year in October but it can happen, especially if a squall line storm comes which is also quite unlikely in October.
What is a squall line storm ?
A squall line is a severe cold front line that can reach hundreds of kilometers, even thousands in some cases and is accompanied by many thunderstorms and even tornadoes can form in it. Usually, it is also accompanied by heavy rainfalls and very strong wind gusts. The squall line moves very fast and stormy conditions appear suddenly, that was exactly the case yesterday too.
Here you can see a radar picture of when the squall line was above the Baltic sea and moved towards us, Estonia.
Finland's southeast coast also saw some insane winds, up to 39.2m/s (87.68mph). This is a strong category 1 hurricane strenght.
When the storm reach the islands of Estonia, we already got some reports of heavy rain, winds and tunderstoms. Soon I went outside to see the storm approach and hopefully get some lightning shots. I went to a nearby small patch of field and only got one shot of the lightning strike that was inside the clouds and lit up the sky.
A minute or two after this shot the conditions got severe really fast and I had to get out of this field. Not a good idea to be a high object on a field when thunder gets right above the head. As I said the squall line moved really fast so I didn't have the opportunity to take my time and wait for lightning strikes. As I ran back home with my tripod a heavy rainfall started.
I went to the terrace at the back of my home and tried to take some photos again but the trees block my view of the sky when I'm under the roof. I took many shots in hopes to capture something but no lightning strikes appeared in this direction anymore. The wind was suddenly insane. I could hear the cones and small branches hitting the roof. This is the 10-second long exposure photo, you can see the trees blow violently.
Before I got very excited the wind suddenly started to quiet down. It was over as fast as it started.
We also experienced Meteotsunami, this didn't cause any floods tho.
What is Meteotsunami ?
These are large waves caused not by seismic activity but by air-pressure disturbances associated with fast-moving weather events. like the squall line storm in this case. The storm generates a wave that moves toward the shore, that's exactly what happened to our coast too. This graph illustrates it perfectly. Above is the sea level on our coast and below is the sudden air pressure change when the storm arrived
The sea level rose over 40cm (15.7in) in just a couple of minutes. Went back down quickly too.
You can also see how the temperature made a fast spike down when the squall line arrived. This is from my weather station.
Later in the night we also got even more insane rainfall events than during the storm. I was still up around 3 AM. That was the strongest rainfall event I have probably seen this year. I hardly saw anything outside. It only lasted about 2 minutes but it flooded the front and garden at the back of my home really fast.
Here you can see the rainfall event from my weather station data. The rainfall rate was 32.4 mm/hr (1.31in/hr). I a couple of minutes it fell 6.6mm ( 0.25mm ) of rain.
Anyway, it was an experience to see this squall line weather event, I had fun observing it. Fortunately no damage near my area but I saw photos in other parts of Estonia of downed trees and torn roofs. Even saw a picture of a huge wooden pole that had fallen through a car.
