Australian Severe Weather Forum

Nice to get verification of what was happening out there Shauno. Moree radar did show some strong cells in your area. Very nice rainfalls too - could do with some of that here. Managed to get 6mm a couple of hours ago from the leftovers though it looks good for some mid afternoon storms here later, but rapidly clearing.

We received 8.2mm but Gatton to the west of Brisbane had 41.2mm from the rain band.
They originally had storms predicted for Brisbane this afternoon but have down graded that to showers, but tweeking a few figures on the skewT with forecast max and probable dewpoint does show the conditions favorable for storms with a slight chance of being severe.

It is my daughters fete today, many months of preperation have gone into this day, they are having a classic car club exhibition, hot rods and monster trucks, seen some of the beast and they are prestige to say the least and worth a small fortune. Some pretty good rides and entertainment. Why am I telling you this: it is the mathematical equation and formular for the perfect storm to brew and throw everything into chaos. Fortunately I will have my camera. (lol)


Cheers and happy chasing

Col

Hello guys I had a nice day today. Our family went down to Yamba today and what could have happened to make our day better happened. A storm, because I did not know it was going to storm I used my camera on the phone so the quality was not awesome but ok. And also this was only a minor cell but worth posting. Below is the radar image relevant to the 3rd picture I do not want the radar image to be changed into a loop so that people can see when the storm was taken.

Upper Western, North West NSW Storm Photos. 4th September 2009

Hi everyone,
I will finally throw a few shots up now. There wasn't much in the way of decent lightning photos due to well.. absolutely torrential rainfall. Catching lightning at this time of the afternoon is hard at the best of times anyhow as we all know (think I was only managing marginal exposures at the best? Listed in the EXIF data below) I did catch a bolt and a weak remnant that you can see next to the UHF antenna on the BP servo in the top photo.

Let me just say that the sunset was the most beautiful I have seen in a while. It was unbelievable to look up at the mammatus and virga striations on the back end of the crisp anvil as the storm moved on passed us. I wish the lower level cloud was absent from our view once we set up to shoot it? Oh well, next time

I'll post the photos in sequence. The first couple we took in Opal St. in the middle of the mayhem. Yes the water is covering the road and footpaths. It was about ten inches deep and you could get a canoe going down there lol! We had to just sit it out until we could manage to jump across it and race back to Russ' car. (that we unfortunately left outside our gallery on the other side of the street?) Some low lying parts of town went about two feet under water! The other street flood photo -third one down- is in Pandora St. which has a steep runoff and still went about a foot deep over the road in places.

The sunset photos just speak for themselves, no colour alterations done either! :D

All in all a very good start to the season I'd say! Russ and I were saying only today that we have never seen a storm of this magnitude anytime before December in the last six years?

Take care guys,
Shauno

Wow for an inland town that is a lot of rain. Is it from just 1 storm or is it from many? Keep these shots coming.

stormboy

Hi stormboy,

All that water is from the one storm that arrived around 5pm-ish pictured in the photos. We had fairly widespread flooding across the opal fields also (as far out as 30K's away) We ended up getting a few readings of 36 and 37mm  across town, all in a total of 10 minutes.

Cheers,
Shauno

Well you have hot to be happy about that. You got a nice storm and good rainfall because i have looked on Google maps it looks pretty dry where you live.

stormboy

Nice one, Shauno.  Finally you're getting some storms and may it last!  You need to cut that tree down next time for landscape shots..unless the bolt takes it out for you on the next event!  Lovely colors in those sunset shots and a very nice rainfall event for you out there.

Good spot for a family outing yesterday Stormboy. The BoM issued a warning though it did not stay in place for long


I was in Ballina for a family outing too - but could only see the tops of the storm.  It's more than I would have seen from home

1.37pm


2.33pm



Could do with a big wet storm here too Shauno. Have had to buy some water as the household tanks are very low.

Yes i do agree yesterday was a very nice day. We also have some water tanks and they are full now from an overnight downpour that lasted 20 minutes, but before that they were very dry. What will tomorrow bring? Thundery rain or storms who knows. Happy chasing

stormboy

Hi Shaun,

I bet since you're out far west, you have a relatively flat surface area? Flooding must be a big problem, even 15-20mm could cause the ground to get very soggy, due to poor drainage right?

Hi guys,

It was definitely great to see that amount of rain out this way. It was very dry here and most of the dams were just puddles basically. Not so dry now however

MB: That low water issue sounds a little worrying? I hope those HP cells start to fire in your area pretty soon! I guess this town is lucky to have a basically endless supply of artesian bore water though it costs us around $670 a year via the council rates.

Hi Steven,
We sure do get soggy in parts! Though surprisingly, we are pretty high up in places here! We are located on a large formation of ironstone and sandstone ridges that are 20-30metres higher in places than the surrounding plains. The town is positioned sort of half on the higher ridges and half on the flatter areas. I pity the people that live on the low lying areas as they cop pretty severe flooding during decent storms and downpours, some of the businesses suffer badly also with water running completely through them once the drains are at capacity. (If you google earth us and put on the 3D terrain you will see it all nicely)

Many years ago they installed a large drain that we call the Dooly. It was named after a small boy who passed away long ago at an early age. He used to sit on the edge of it and play his trumpet each morning before school. This drain funnels much (but not all) of the storm water through town and off into several massive dams that supply water for all the parks, sports ovals and bowling greens in town. The drain is 3mtrs wide and ranges in depth from 1 to 2metres.

I have a quick shot of it in action soon after this storm had passed that I will post for you. Normally you can't see the drain during a storm of this capacity as it overflows dramatically due to the funnel-like nature of the ridges surrounding the town.

I live on a ridge that is about 6metres above the towns elevation and even we get a badly flooded yard at times. 

Take care,
Shauno
     

Hi Shaun,

That is quite fascinating, considering that the average height of Lightning Ridge is 150m, but I guess that doesn't matter much. The land is still flat in most places.

I've seen quite a few "doolys" around, but they are mostly in areas where there's flat bushland or small creeks and they sometimes run parallel to houses or businesses. Oh and also on motorways too.