Australian Severe Storms, Weather Events and Storm Chasing

[Shaun Galman]

Hi all,

From the 4:54 pm STW:

A Tornado was reported earlier this afternoon near Nimmitabel in the Southern Tablelands.
Golf ball sized hail was reported from Manilla, and wind gusts of 91km/hr at Walgett.

I can certainly believe that David!
We had a real nasty cell approach around 4pm-ish with a real nice bow shaped RFB on the leading edge, several strong CG and a greenish hue. The onslaught of rain, hail and wind was ridiculous, however it was luckily that it was only short lived (moving East at a fast rate). The hail was furious and we did see stones up to 2cm but I couldn't catch any on camera due to being stuck inside while the rain and hail came down sideways lol. We received 10mm rain in only 4 minutes!

I managed a few good structure photos and a few core shots that I will post when I can. Looks like the evening may still be interesting?

[Jason(pato)]

Gday All,

I too noticed the report on the tornado and was waiting for a pic to surface. This photo was taken by Heather Leckie:
 


Cheers Jason


PS - Weatherzone discussion here and here

[Harley Pearman]

I have been watching that thunderstorm near Cooma for several hours. It appears to be slow moving but long lived especially between the 1 pm to 5 pm period. It has been moving in a NE direction and as I type this, a severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for parts of Canberra (7.30 pm).

I was watching the radar at work as it was passing very close to Nimmitabel and it looked impressive with a core that was in the black range. There was a severe thunderstorm warning on it at 1 pm for damaging winds and large hail centred on and close to the town of Nimmitabel. Other warnings were issued for parts of the south coast including Moruya and Batemans Bay.

Additionally following the southerly change across North west Sydney some thunderstorm activity has broken out affecting Blacktown to Baulkham Hills. It produced a heavy shower and 2 thunderclaps where I live. The raindrops were exceptionally large but no hail.

Another storm cell is observed SSE towards the Parramatta area that has recently intensified and is producing a reasonable shower.

Further small storms have been observed to the NW out towards Richmond and further to the NW.

However following the southerly change, the bulk of this early evening activity is mainly over north west / northern Sydney and or to the north of the metropolitan area.

Harley Pearman

[Richary]

That looks pretty impressive! Be interesting to see if someone reports a damage trail.

[Ursula]

Hi,
I looked at the pic of the Tornado and remembered a similar one a few years ago late on Boxing day, it build up just south of the Captains Flat Radar, moved across the valley not far from here then to the bay and did some damage on the coast and on the race fleet, Sydney to Hobart that is.

It is quiet here now for the last 1/2 hour, it has been a long afternoon, wasn't game to on the PC, there was sheet raining with small hail at one stage and water everywhere, a few lightening strikes. plenty of rumbling, but couldn't make anything out, no visibility, when the sea breeze kicked in this afternoon it was so strong it looked like rain, almost and right into the storms along the ridges (great divide), so there should have been plenty of moisture going up the hills.

[Michael Bath]

That is a pretty impressive tornado - hopefully a lot more pictures will be placed online.

From radar it would appear the tornado occurred between 1 and 2pm just north of Nimmitabel.

---> Canberra 128km radar loop

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
for LARGE HAILSTONES, FLASH FLOODING and DAMAGING WIND
For people in the CENTRAL TABLELANDS, SOUTHERN TABLELANDS, ACT, NORTH WEST SLOPES, NORTH WEST PLAINS, CENTRAL WEST SLOPES, CENTRAL WEST PLAINS and parts of the HUNTER, ILLAWARRA, SOUTH COAST, SOUTH WEST SLOPES and UPPER WESTERN Forecast Districts.

Issued at 4:54 pm Tuesday, 23 December 2008.

Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce large hailstones, very heavy rainfall, flash flooding and damaging winds in the warning area over the next several hours. Locations which may be affected include Tamworth, Orange, Katoomba, Canberra, Goulburn, Cooma, Yass, Moree, Narrabri, Walgett, Dubbo and Parkes.

Destructive winds are possible in parts of the Southern Tablelands.

A Tornado was reported earlier this afternoon near Nimmitabel in the Southern Tablelands.

Golf ball sized hail was reported from Manilla, and wind gusts of 91km/hr at Walgett.

[Paul Graham]

I was driving from Melbourne to Sydney. I first observed convection iniating on the Victorian ranges from near Wangaratta. Further north, it became clearer there were two main regions of convection: one to the east along the ranges and the other to the west toward the Central West. A flanking line from the storms over the Monaro extended towards Sydney but cells were very sluggish, perhaps due to gravity waves from other strong cells over the Central West. I hope to post some pic's tomorrow.

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi guys,

That is an impressive cone - quite large too although one cannot see where it exactly was toucing down. Nice catch and in open country! You can just see the RFD and I think the lack of precipitation in this rain-free base region suggests that the RFD could have been rather warm and thence more ideal for tornadogenesis.

Wow!!

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi guys,

Ok so there was a tornado down south but quite a few other storms around. I only was able to get to this storm near Bathurst and let go the other one as we had to get back to Sydney this evening.

Here are some of the pictures from that storm between Bathurst and Oberon (right mover):











Did anyone else get the left mover? I intended to chase it but got drawn in to this one. Could never see the other one and probably it has escaped beyond Bathurst by that time.

This one incidentally produced hail to 2-3cm but only on the eastern parts of Bathurst as I turned south to Oberon.

Links to all images for 23 December 2008

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Shane Watson]

Targeted Bathurst today, patience certainly payed off. And Jimmy, as far as I know I got the left mover you're referring to (The storm that went up behind the eastern line of storms). I am extremely tired and desperately need sleep as I am coming down with a cold and still half jetlagged. Will discuss it more tomorrow if I can find some time.

Got some very healthy hail as well. Would have been atleast 6cm, probably 7 before I reached it. Got to it about 40mins after the storm has moved through that region



Click here for a few more

[Jimmy Deguara]

Shane,

Very nice indeed! I wished I had gone back to it now! Nice one - and nice hail as well.

Where was that hail reported?

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Shane Watson]

Just added a few more pictures. The hail was on Peel RD going north out of Bathurst. It would have been maybe just south of Wiagdon...

[nzstorm]

It would be nice to see a high res. radar image of that tornadic storm yesterday. Upper level dynamics looked good yesterday. Great photos.

[Shane Watson]

Upon measurement of my hand (I know its a bit dodgy and will carry a ruler next time). But I'd say that stone would have reached about 7cm, so before I got to it, it may have been a more solid 7cm stone.. not sure. (There definitely could have been biggers ones in the paddock which was fenced off).

I really put myself in quite a bit of danger to get some happy snaps of that storm yesterday. I had to run up a hill on the side of a road (Decent sized hill), was exhausted up the top. Got a heap of snaps... Little did I know, the storm was going to throw out sporadic 4-5cm hail stones ahead of the core, I heard them smacking into the grass... then I BOLTED down the hill hoping that none would hit me... (Really dont like that road north of Bathurst for the views). Just for reference, the road south of Bathurst has some great views... I went about 30km down and there were views right down.

[Michael Bath]

Shane - that's risking life and limb for photos :)

Here's some more weather data for the 23rd December including wider area radar showing other significant cells.

Wagga 00z


Sydney 04z


---> Sydney 256km radar loop


---> Canberra 128km radar loop


---> Canberra 256km radar loop


---> 1km VIS Satellite loop