Introduction
A severe convective outbreak with big hail and thunderstorms occurred over parts of Western and Central Europe on Monday, May 25th 2009. Overnight, a strong squall line that produced gusts in excess of 35 m s-1 developed over Northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands, uprooting trees and causing considerable damage to property. In addition, hail 10 cm in diameter was recorded. The severity of the associated weather events is also shown in the animation of the Meteosat 9 IR10.8 series of images overlaid with the weather reports of the ESWD. (courtesy of ESSL)
Figure 1.1:
In this case study of this first severe convective outbreak of the 2009 season, we will look at the various stages of the convection and describe them with derived products to place extra emphasis on their use for operational nowcasting. The EUMeTrain community would like to thank the respected authors for their ideas and knowledge invested in this case study.