Lyndhurst July Thunderstorm

There were no clouds in the sky so I decided to paint something in the Studio and have some fun with my aging oils before it was too late.... more

by Phil Chadwick

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Price

Not Specified

Dimensions

7.000 x 5.000 x 0.250 inches

Title

Lyndhurst July Thunderstorm

Artist

Phil Chadwick

Medium

Painting - Oil On Canvas

Description

There were no clouds in the sky so I decided to paint something in the Studio and have some fun with my aging oils before it was too late.

This afternoon thunderstorm was behaving as most do. The convective cell was riding the Lake Ontario lake breeze convergence line across Lyndhurst. We would not get a drop of rain from this storm even though it rained hard just five kilometres to the north. The southerly breeze being drawn into the convective cell was even fairly light. It was the calm before the storm. The rear flank downdraft would sweep across the lake after the storm had passed safely to the northeast of our Singleton Sanctuary.

Lake breezes are circulations created by heating over land surfaces as compared to the relative inefficient heating of darker and lower albedo water surfaces. The temperature contrast between the warm land and cold waters creates a circulation that blows onshore at low levels and returns over the water aloft. This temperature contrast is most pronounced on warm sunny days in the spring when the lakes are still cold from a winter of cooling. The specific heat or heat capacity of water is much higher than dry soil - five times higher in fact. On a sunny day, the dry land heats up while the water surfaces remain cold. Cool breezes blow off the water and onshore to replace the air rising convecctively over the warmer land.

The variability in the terrain will have important impacts on the extrapolation of the lake and land breezes. The contours of the land as well as the land use and variations in the vegetation controls the inland penetration of the lake breezes. The Oak Ridge Moraine on the north shore of Lake Ontario is a very important terrain factor. Practice and experience makes perfect though. The shapes of the Great Lakes do not change and with careful study a keen meteorologist can become very proficient at predicting just where the strongest convection might occur along those lake breeze fronts.

Uploaded

September 21st, 2022