Storm Australian Severe Weather Forum
Severe Weather Discussion => Australian Severe Storms, Weather Events and Storm Chasing => Topic started by: Michael Bath on 09 November 2006, 05:20:40 AM
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Some photos from a chase last night with Rodney. It was a very tiring and difficult night chase but got some rewards from several storms that moved across the Northern Rivers. Was just too tired to check the next lot of storms that moved over around 4am I think it was : )
Photos taken at Mallanganee, Whiporie and Casino.
(http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/thumbs/2006110701.jpg)
(http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/thumbs/2006110702.jpg)
(http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/thumbs/2006110703.jpg)
(http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/thumbs/2006110704.jpg)
(http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/thumbs/2006110705.jpg)
(http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/thumbs/2006110706.jpg)
(http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/thumbs/2006110707.jpg)
(http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/thumbs/2006110708.jpg)
MB
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Today is looking quite nice particularly over inland southeast Queensland. I would very much like to teleport myself to Dalby right now ::) I think there will be sufficient instability and shear through the 500-700mb layer to support some outflow dominant HP beasts and some giant hail.
Very often, these areas fire up like this under upper troughs in October, so perhaps we are running a few weeks behind schedule - one can only hope. I am prepared to write Sydney's season off if something significant does not fire up by the end of this month and will spend the summer playing golf and at the beach :'(
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Large HP moving towards Kyogle at 2:20pm - possible inflow notch although very linear (the most intense echoes)
Edit: at 2:30 looked much nicer ...damn I'm jealous. Severe multicellular complex east of Crows nest. At 2:40 'Kyogle' HP seems to have weakened a little and may have moved into cooler air, although still a nice N infeed over the border. We'll see on subsequent frames.
At 4:20 (EDST) the Kyogle cell is now sporting what may be a decent hook moving towards Surfers. The complex further north mentioned earlier also evolved into a large HP. Incredible day up there.
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Hi David,
Storms still going strong and now heading for Southport 4:20pm DST.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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Just saw your reply Jimmy - I have been editing (adding to) my previous post since things were quiet and to avoid short multiple posts.
Yes very nasty storm indeed.
Here is 64km radar (I note has weakened in subseqent scan) - beautiful supercell -->
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Hi David,
That radar image makes it very powerful! Defintiely a dangerous storm. Almost has a form of sclassic structure appearance though lots of precipitation in there.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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Hello
I noted this storm developing near Casino at 1.40 pm on radar. I saw it too and I suspected that it contained significant hail. I also noted another weaker storm to the south WNW of Coffs Harbour and NNE of Dorrigo at the same time. That was tracking in a NE direction. That one may have developed further too.
Harley
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I live at Maroochydore, and the storm struck at about 3:30, before that there was constant rumbling from thunder and was getting windy, unfortunately we had a visitor but had to leave, I first heard about it on the radio at around 2, then that prompted me to log on and to my amazement and shock there were severe cells with brown on the radar, with quite severe cells around the Caboolture area.
We saw the sky go greeny, and in about 3 mins we saw pea sized hail mixed in with rain going ding ding against the windows, I didn't see any golf ball sized at all, nor did it get very windy at all and moderate rain only fell. A bit disappointed but then again my adrenalin was intense. At about 4:35 we heard a big bang!!! but that's about it. And no damage happened but I've seen worse.
Unfortunately the Brisbane Doppler radar was knocked out from 4:30 to 6:30 PM.
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Hi Steve,
Welcome to the forum. The size of the hail often depends on where in relation to the storm you are and whether the storm is still intense - in other words what life cycle stage the storm has evolved.
The storms sound like having been save overall.
Oh and, you being in Qld, you may want to remember to consider adding the EST with your times - I assume you are on EST as per normal.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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Sorry, in NSW it would be 3 pm or 4 when it happened here, so next time I'll the EST, those images are taken from the radar archive, but are you allowed to upload images from your computer so these images won't disappear? or isn't this allowed? thanks for welcoming me and I look forward to participating in the forum.
(I would say if it has courtesy of Bureau of Meteorology it is ok - thanks for clarifying - Jimmy Deguara).
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Chased with Rodney and Beck yesterday, leaving Lismore about 1pm as the storm which was to be one of the main HP supercells was gathering strength near Drake.
Click on pics for larger view.
Just north of Casino 1.40pm
(http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/thumbs/2006110801.jpg)
Larger view: http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/photos/2006110801.jpg
Facing east looking massive thick anvil
(http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/thumbs/2006110802.jpg)
Larger view: http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/photos/2006110802.jpg
We proceeded to Wiangaree which is about 20ks N of Kyogle. It gets very difficult around here due to the hills but still managed to find an ok spot to watch the storm come over. These photos are between 2.17 and 2.33pm. We left 30 seconds before the precipitation hit.
Inflow was full on !
(http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/thumbs/2006110803.jpg)
Larger view: http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/photos/2006110803.jpg
(http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/thumbs/2006110804.jpg)
Larger view: http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/photos/2006110804.jpg
(http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/thumbs/2006110805.jpg)
Larger view: http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/photos/2006110805.jpg
(http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/thumbs/2006110806.jpg)
Larger view: http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/photos/2006110806.jpg
(http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/thumbs/2006110807.jpg)
Larger view: http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/photos/2006110807.jpg
(http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/thumbs/2006110808.jpg)
Larger view: http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/photos/2006110808.jpg
We then shot NW and let the storm largely pass just to our SE. The rear flank downdraft hit us with violent winds, flangs, and torrents of rain ! Hail 1 to 2cm hit as well. Rain rates were phenomenal - would have been easily over 50mm with flash flooding in this area.
Back at Wiangaree stones were evident perhaps up to 3cm. No large stones seen here.
Regards, Michael
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Wow that third last shot does it for me! That is exactly how I imagined it to look while looking at the radar. Inflow bands on the left and the rfd, green as it is, cutting through on the backside. I would love to see some images as it was approaching sw of Southport - at that stage it really looked extremely impressive as a supercell.
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Hi Michael,
Very impressive structure - WOW! Definitely it looks like inflow as feeding in at a rate of knots. Would have been worth while going but I would not have made it based on your times given unless I left 5am. Very clean structure! I would imagine large hail to have been contained in this storm than 3cm hail.
Was it very lightning active?
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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What a beast!!! I'm so glad you were in position MB when it was going into it's flying eagle position! The storm scale dynamics Brings back memorys for me of feb 2nd 2005 in sydney but the cell has a different look about it, much much much meaner imo!
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There were quite a few powerful bolts when it got close and shortly before we left that spot, but I did not see too many prior to this time (hills in the way too), You could hear them, and the AM static was off the scale. A lot of CGs hit near us when the precip was occurring.
I haven't seen any pics further down the storm's track apart from one Dave Ellem had from Springbrook. I suspect low cloud may have mucked up the views.
Yeah - it was a bit early in the day for you to have got up here Jimmy !
Also - there was no way to keep chasing this storm after Wiangaree - it is all the border ranges and no roads until it comes off the mountains west of the southern Gold Coast. Even the guys with access to mobile radar on the Brisbane side could not intercept it.
MB
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Yes Anthony said he missed the storm and I know the road network when we chased last year - it is a bummer. The storm weakened and then intensified. The weakening phase once again allowed it to venture northeast until it hit the coastal strip.
Jeff you say flying eagle - in what stage and which radar image are you referring? Michael and Rodney were unable to venture anywhere near the eastern side of the ranges which is where the main radar images were taken.
Any chance of getting hold of doppler radar images Michael particularly when there was a hook?
This is indeed another example of a mini supercell outbreak and yet again no tornadoes intercepted amongst all the chasers chasing around. This yet again emphasises the importance of specific dynamics to be in place for tornadogenesis and adds fuel to the debate against the argument supporting numbers of tornadoes in Australia.
Nevertheless it goes to show you that 30 knots at 500hPa can still spawn structured supercells.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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I thought Jeff was referring to visuallly a flying eagle - not radar ?
Hopefully some doppler will become available very soon. The winds were stronger below 500:
Brisbane sounding:
http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2006/soundings/2006110800brisbane.png
Moree sounding:
http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2006/soundings/2006110800moree.png
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This is radar for when we were looking at the storm:
(http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2006/radar/200611080300.gif)
(http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2006/radar/200611080310.gif)
(http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2006/radar/200611080320.gif)
It had a weakening just after this 0320z image (0330 missing - typical), before reintensifying.
MB
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Hi Michael,
So as to not confuse what you may be referring to, a flying eagle referred to the radar defined supercell structure (slang or jargon)
Check out here.
(http://www.vvm.com/~curtis/GRK1933RZ.gif) Image courtesy National Weather Service
The supercell overshoot creates a shadow in the windstream like a rock in a stream (although we have to be careful using this analogy given we are talking about fluid dynamics).
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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Some sembelance, not exact, maybe more a visual. When i heard the rock in stream analogy i thought jimmy have you lost your marbles?
Looking at the sounding profile I just dont think there was enough direction change within the shear structure to fully organise the updraft(Contentious i know), Also given the not exceedingly high CAPE values and evident non intense updraft maybe the lower level wind pattern was enough to disturb any weak vortice that was going to spawn?
Im not entirely sure about these, but i thought id put my ideas out in the open to your critiques.
John, IMO this was definitely not what I would call a 'potent' situation from charts / models (Feb 2nd, since it has been compared to this event, was). That said these two storms did organise beautifully and no doubt had very, very decent mesocyclones - both were long-lived and intense (the northern storm looked did look like an ugly big HP blob compared to the southern storm). Anyways, there was no problem at all with updrafts fully organising (in fact, it doesn't get all that much better). The problem (for tornadoes), as evident if you look at Michael's pictures, is that the storms are extremely wet - largely since the mid-level flow was weak (for a tornadic supercell event). RFD buoyancy is thought to be important to tornadogensis and you can bet these storms had cold RFDs from all that rain and hail - care to comment Michael?. Also, storms did move sharply left such that SRH would be enhanced, but overall environmental shear through 0-1km or 0-3 km, take your pick, were fairly weak. BUT -- it is worth noting that there may have been a tornado with the northern storm!!!!
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Tornado with the northern storm - has that been verified? The shear was better in that region.
John I am not sure what you were trying to imply in your statement in regards to the analogy? I guess I forgot to mention the hook signifying the head of the eagle. What sounding were you refering to John?
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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David - I can't really say how cold it was after the precip, as we were in the car for that whole time after we left the spot where the pics were taken. It was not particularly warm at the surface as you can see from the Casino obs. Storm was probably influenced by the ESE wind shift prior to the stratocu filled S'ly
As I mentioned earlier, the rainfall was intense with flash flooding observed - would have been more than 50mm
Casino AP
temp / DP / wind dir/spd/gust
08/06:00pm 17.2 15.2 SE 22 33
08/05:00pm 19.0 15.5 SSE 19 32
08/04:00pm 20.8 17.6 S 26 35
08/03:00pm 20.0 17.1 ESE 26 35
08/02:00pm 21.5 16.5 ESE 30 41
08/01:35pm 22.8 16.6 ESE 32 39
08/01:00pm 26.4 15.5 ESE 13 19
08/12:00pm 26.0 16.3 N 19 26
08/11:00am 25.3 15.1 N 19 28
08/10:00am 24.0 15.5 N 19 30
08/09:00am 21.7 15.3 NNW 13 20
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My appologies, MB I thought you on the northern side of the cell in Qld. I didn't realise at first that you were in fact on it in it's earlier life ( i should look closer at the radar timestamp!). Well that just increases my opinion of this supercell! Fair dinkum if it looked that good at Kyogle how good would it have look west of the Gold Coast with it's strongest radar echo?
Don't get me wrong about my comparison to feb 2nd 2005. it was merely a comparison of storm scale dynamics or the way the storm looked compared to the supercell in Sydney on Feb 2nd. I wasn't comparing the systems as a whole though the Feb 2nd 2005 system was far more potent as proved by the viloence of the winds on that day, both mesocyclonic as well as rfd.
As for the flying eagle signature - the radar scan at 0500utc shows as good as almost any scan can get a calssic HP supercell signature with curved outflow, inflow notch, hook, curving rfd outflow front and a split in the downstream outflow caused by the updraft. Taken as a whole you can call this a "flying eagle" signature. The radar signature when you were on the supercell MB displays a weaker "flying eagle" signature but it's still there imo.
Man there is nothing I love seeing more than that signature on a radar! Awesome!!!
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Don't get me wrong about my comparison to feb 2nd 2005. it was merely a comparison of storm scale dynamics or the way the storm looked compared to the supercell in Sydney on Feb 2nd. I wasn't comparing the systems as a whole though the Feb 2nd 2005 system was far more potent as proved by the viloence of the winds on that day, both mesocyclonic as well as rfd.
Hi Jeff, after seeing the photos, Jimmy and I has discussed the similarity in appearance of the Kyogle storm to the Feb 2nd -- hence the comment I made. Then again, since they are all similar phenomena I guess it makes sense that they look similar!!!
Thanks for your observations Michael!
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Radar loops:
Grafton 128km 23z - 07z (10am to 6pm local)
http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2006/radar/20061108070001.gif
Grafton 256km 23z - 07z (10am to 6pm local)
http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2006/radar/20061108070002.gif
Brisbane 128km 0030z - 0650z
http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2006/radar/20061108065001.gif
Brisbane 256km 0030z - 0650z
http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2006/radar/20061108065002.gif
500m resolution MODIS satpic at 0340z:
http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2006/satpics/200611080340.jpg
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Actually I appreciate you making thes loops up becuase I missed out from making one although I saved a couple of images for my blog. Radar archive only keeps old radar images for up to two weeks then they disappear. I was fortunate to save a radar loop set for the 21st of October 2006 that had a spectacular storm move through our area, or at least it looked like it. But I lost it :(
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No worries - I save all loops for all days where storms occur between Canberra and north of Bris - ie - to cover everywhere both Jimmy and I chase - for the purpose of adding to reports when appropriate.
Got archives going back to when radar first became available in 1998.
MB
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I didn't have the internet back then, however I heard the Bureau gave access the radar images to the general public in 2001. For me, the next time a storm comes around I'll save the images, and put them in a loop.
Anyway, keep those loops on coming.