The aim of this case study is to describe the synoptic situation in which the windstorm was initiated and developed, and to describe its characteristics by means of satellite, radar and lightning data and numerical simulation.
As the title of this chapter indicate, here you can find an overview of synoptic situation over Europe, generally, with emphasis on wider Belgium area.
The non-hydrostatic WRF model of 2.7 km horizontal resolution was used for experimental forecasts of thunderstorms over Belgium.
In European-scale cloud and WV patterns one can see the SW-NE-direction dark stripe across France and Belgium, which played an important role in the storm's development and in the downdraft intensity.
The radar imagery showed a bow echo in the studied storm system at several time steps
About 24000 CG lightning strokes were detected on this day in and around Belgium. Lightning data is obtained by a SAFIR lightning detection network operated by RMI.
In this section the pre-convective environment will be studied first on the basis of satellite imagery, then the convection initiation, and lastly the mature stage.