The storm season is really going to pick up over Bangladesh in the next week. Going by GFS, CAPE should be consistently 3000-4000+ J/kg with 30-45 knot mid-level winds south of the Tibetan plateau/Himalayas.

Here's this mornings sounding for Kolkata (Calcutta)-
http://weather.uwyo.edu/cgi-bin/sounding?region=seasia&TYPE=GIF%3ASKEWT&YEAR=2012&MONTH=04&FROM=0100&TO=0600&STNM=42809
CAPE of ~3300 J/kg with no CIN.

Conseqently there are storms at the moment which can be seen here-
http://www.imd.gov.in/section/satmet/dynamic/insatnequad-ir.htm

Should be some interesting weather in that part of the world.

Here's this mornings sounding for Kolkata-
http://weather.uwyo.edu/cgi-bin/sounding?region=seasia&TYPE=GIF%3ASKEWT&YEAR=2012&MONTH=04&FROM=0800&TO=0800&STNM=42809
Moisture is pretty shallow in this sounding but most likely improves further east. Also, winds in the 700-500 mbar layer are much stronger than forecast by GFS. This may well be a error in the sounding...?

Finally, radar!!!-
http://www.imd.gov.in/section/dwr/dynamic/dwr.htm
Excellent quality really. The stations to select are Kolkata and Agartala (now is a good time to check this one).

Very interesting watching the radar. Looks like a supercell in southern Bangladesh going by radar - pretty sure I can make out a couplet on the velocity scan too.

Morning sounding for Dhaka (12/04/12)-
http://weather.uwyo.edu/cgi-bin/sounding?region=seasia&TYPE=GIF%3ASKEWT&YEAR=2012&MONTH=04&FROM=1200&TO=1200&STNM=41923
CAPE of ~4000 J/kg with negilagable CIN.

Squall line currently moving through Bangladesh-

Tough crowd, a squall line around 300 km in length with CAPE of ~4000 J/kg in it's path and nothing

Anyway, my take on things is that activity has generally dropped off over Bangladesh since my last post mainly due to increased CIN (broadly speaking). I'm sure there has been a few isolated strong storms (take this morning for example with a couple of storms initiating in NE Bangladesh before crossing into India - see http://www.imd.gov.in/section/dwr/img/Animation/dop_ani_main.htm).

Again, here is the morning sounding for Kolkata-
http://weather.uwyo.edu/cgi-bin/sounding?region=seasia&TYPE=GIF%3ASKEWT&YEAR=2012&MONTH=04&FROM=1800&TO=1800&STNM=42809

Nothing too amazing but the cap may or may not be breached again later this afternoon.

Yeah this is such an unstable place with huge storms but not many know about it.

Great links thanks

Well the cap certainly did break across Bangladesh, looks like a strong left-mover over northern Bangladesh and a right-mover passing to the west of Dhaka-


Wind shear over Bangladesh is not terribly impressive (30 knot at 5 km from the west with 20 knots at 500 m AGL from the south at Agartala, India) though CAPE is probably greater than 4000 J/kg.

Here is some more radar of the Dhaka storm from yesterday (sorry if this is image heavy)-






Nice V-notch and hook echo on several scans. I would have to guess this storm was producing severe weather of some kind.

Lone supercell (based on longevity and deviation from mean wind vector) over NE Bangladesh this morning (currently weakening). Almost an exact repeat of yesterday-

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h19/mmcctt/190412_MAXZ_1.gif

Kolkata sounding (0Z)-
http://weather.uwyo.edu/cgi-bin/sounding?region=seasia&TYPE=GIF%3ASKEWT&YEAR=2012&MONTH=04&FROM=1900&TO=1900&STNM=42809

CAPE of 4000 J/kg, again....though Dhaka and Agartala show considerably less CAPE with 2300 J/kg and 300 J/kg, respectively

Does this look familiar-


This is the latest scan. The storm is taking an almost identical track to the storm shown in my post above on the 19-04-2012. So far in Bangladesh, nothing has really amazed me in terms of wind shear this year (I have seen a lot better in previous years). It has to be said though that the number of days with high CAPE combined with adequate vertical shear for supercells is quite amazing. Also, the surface features don't move around a great deal (day to day) so the same areas just keep getting storms.

Two obvious supercells now. Major hook on the southern supercell. I wonder what the tornado potential is for these storms. Although low-level shear is not particular strong, the high/extreme CAPE may well boast the potential. It would be great to have some surface obs for the area. For Agartala at 2:30 pm, the temp was 33 C with a dew point of 24.5 C.

I might have to make a gif animation of these storms. The southern storm still a major hook, doppler winds are showing a couplet too (though hard to see any real detail).

Edit: The mesocyclone has now occluded for the southern storm.

Sorry for the terrible typos above. In my defence, I'd had a couple of beers. Anyway, here are the radar images from yesterdays storm-
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h19/mmcctt/210412_closerange_1.gif
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h19/mmcctt/210412_closerange_2.gif
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h19/mmcctt/210412_closerange_3.gif
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h19/mmcctt/210412_closerange_4.gif
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h19/mmcctt/210412_closerange_5.gif
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h19/mmcctt/210412_closerange_6.gif
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h19/mmcctt/210412_closerange_7.gif
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h19/mmcctt/210412_closerange_8.gif
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h19/mmcctt/210412_closerange_9.gif
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h19/mmcctt/210412_closerange_10.gif
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h19/mmcctt/210412_closerange_11.gif
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h19/mmcctt/210412_closerange_12.gif
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h19/mmcctt/210412_closerange_13.gif

Feel free to make an animation if you want. I did have a gif animator on my computer but my anti-virus didn't like it.

Here is the vertical wind profile-


Like I mentioned before, nothing amazing in terms of vertical shear but when you have dew points of > 24C with temps in the low 30's, things can get pretty explosive.

Morning sounding for Dhaka-

http://weather.uwyo.edu/cgi-bin/sounding?region=seasia&TYPE=GIF%3ASKEWT&YEAR=2012&MONTH=04&FROM=2300&TO=2300&STNM=41923

CAPE of 3300 J/kg and fairly strong mid-level winds (30-40 knots). Obs for Agartala (11:30 am local time) have a temp of 32.6 C with a dew point of 25 C. Will be interesting to see if the cap breaks this afternoon. Looking at the GFS model, looks like the potential for severe storms may increase over Bangladesh later in the week. Latest run for the 28th has 50-60 knot winds at 500 mbar over Bangladesh with a strong upper level jet (80 knot jet max at 300 mbar) moving into the area and CAPE approaching 5000 J/kg.

Also, news articles concerning storms from this season. Unfortunately, deaths often occur from severe storms in this part of the world. In no particular order-

http://www.unbconnect.com/component/news/task-show/id-74014
http://www.unbconnect.com/component/news/task-show/id-73909
http://www.unbconnect.com/component/news/task-show/id-73373
http://www.unbconnect.com/component/news/task-show/id-71341
http://www.unbconnect.com/component/news/task-show/id-73098
http://www.unbconnect.com/component/news/task-show/id-73046
http://www.unbconnect.com/component/news/task-show/id-73372
http://www.unbconnect.com/component/news/task-show/id-73920

Well, the cap has broken over NE Bangladesh. Great example of a cell split has occurred with a nice left/right mover pair.

The right mover has really taken off- persistent hook echo and clear V-notch. Certainly looks like a dangerous storm.

Here is the right-mover (cyclonic supercell) I was refering to in the previous post-



This storm is still going strong but has long lost its earlier classic structure. Another storm in northern Bangladesh looks good though and is now showing a hook echo.

Dhaka sounding (0Z)-
http://weather.uwyo.edu/cgi-bin/sounding?region=seasia&TYPE=GIF%3ASKEWT&YEAR=2012&MONTH=04&FROM=2400&TO=2400&STNM=41923

CAPE of 2500 J/kg is shown in the sounding with strong mid/upper level winds. GFS forecast CAPE for this afternoon is 3000-4000 J/kg for eastern Bangladesh (though I often feel that GFS "under forecasts' CAPE for Bangladesh. Obs for Agartala at 8:30 local time had a temp of 30 C with a dew point of 25.5 C. I guess we will probably see the cap break over northern Banladesh again this afternoon leading to a few isolated supercells.

Some amazing storms! Love the hook on that last image you posted. Also love the work you are putting into the thread. Even though this is the first time I have posted here, I have been a regular visitor.