GREAT VIEW OF A FUNNEL CLOUD EARLIER IN WELLINGTON, UNITED KINGDOM! (credit: Wellington Primary School PTA via WeatherNation)

DISCUSSION: As a weak low-pressure continued to slowly move across parts of the British Isles earlier today, a round of strong to severe thunderstorms ripped through parts of Western Europe.  As some of these storms moved across parts of Western Europe and consequently encountered stronger vertical wind shear, certain storms developed pronounced rotating updrafts such as the storm captured in the image below earlier today in Wellington, UK.  Note how in this particular storm there was an incredibly low cloud base; indicative of a surface-based convective storm and also how there was clear evidence of a developing funnel cloud as well!  Though it did not last very long beneath the lowered cloud base near the center of the base of this thunderstorm (more scientifically referred to as a wall cloud), this indicates the presence of both sufficiently strong instability and vertical wind shear based on the occurrence of this funnel cloud for even a brief time!  To learn more about other high-impact weather from across Europe, be sure to click here!