Storm Australian Severe Weather Forum
Severe Weather Discussion => Australian Severe Storms, Weather Events and Storm Chasing => Topic started by: Michael Bath on 20 September 2009, 09:08:31 AM
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Models are tipping a significant rain and wind event over large parts of Southeast Australia from Monday. We might see some dust storms ahead of the rain too.
Southeast to brace for stormy week
Martin Palmer, Saturday September 19, 2009 - 14:59 EST
South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania will need to batten down the hatches next week, as low pressure systems line up to batter the southeast.
It will begin on Monday, as a complex low pressure system sweeps into the Bight. Northerly winds will begin to strengthen over South Australia as a secondary low feeds south into a deeper system. The combination will drive increasingly strong winds ahead of it.
By Tuesday winds will, if anything, be stronger, with projected gusts up to 110km/h in the Adelaide area.
The system will drive winds into the rest of the southeast during Monday, reaching Melbourne later in the day. Tuesday will be particularly windy for Victoria. Currently it appears the worst could impact later in the day as a low approaches from the southwest and a front sweeps through.
Gust speeds up to 135km/h are possible in the most exposed areas along the coast and ranges of Victoria.
A series of lows and fronts will then rattle through during the week, bringing further pulses of gale force winds. Potentially damaging gusts above 90km/h are possible right across South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania at least until Friday. Keep up with the latest at weatherzone.com.au
- Weatherzone
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There were a couple of significant thunderstorms in northeast South Australia (northeast Pastoral district) yesterday afternoon and evening.
Warnings were issued at 6pm and continued until 2.30am 20th Sep.
Oodnadatta took a direct hit with gusts to 117km/h and heavy rain - 10mm in 4 minutes at one point. The cell can be seen on satpics for about 7 hours.
Sounding for Woomera to the south. Plug in the Oodnadatta obs and it's rather unstable.
(http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2009/thumbs/2009091900woomera.png) (http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2009/soundings/2009091900woomera.png)
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We just had a small thunderstorm pass overhead. Not as much rain as I would have expected looking at the radar, fair amount of thunder but any visible lightning was all up in the sky. Still a nice early start to the season. Let's hope this year is better than last summer!
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It has been another very nice week and warm. The good part is that for the next 2 days thunderstorms in the afternoon are forecast for NE NSW and SE QLD. So hopefully a good lightning show is near.
storm boy
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For SEQ, Monday and Tuesday there may be the odd chance of a little thundery rain in and around Stanthorpe, Warwick,etc ( which could be short lived due to the fast moving band) and once that clears out, there is a very dry strong ridge or trough that will bring in very hot North westerly winds. This will increase the risk of fire and warnings will most probably be issued.
By Friday a third trough will be come through and due the dryness of the air, no cloud or rain will accompany this trough eastwards at this stage. ( According to BOM)
So besides a slight chance on Monday of thundery rain for inland areas it is looking gloomy for storms up here. It is going to be a hot windy week and fire could be our main concern. { Time for a storm dance:)}
Brisbane outlook is :
Forecast for Monday
Fine. Mostly cloudy with light to moderate N to NW winds, tending moderate N to
NE in the afternoon.
Precis: Fine, mostly cloudy.
City: Min 17 Max 31
Bayside: Min 15 Max 29
UV Alert: 8:30 am to 2:50 pm, UV Index predicted to reach 8 [Very High]
Tuesday Fine and hot. Windy. Min 19 Max 33
Wednesday Dry. Gusty W to SW change. Min 19 Max 30
Thursday Dry. Min 14 Max 28
Friday Fine. Min 12 Max 29
Saturday Fine. Min 16 Max 31
Sunday Fine. Min 14 Max 29
The humidity is so low.
It is like our surfing safaris we used to do, when there were no waves we used to be the most crankiest, depressed blokes around. Now its happening with storms. :)
The NSW mid coast is looking promising for storms (Coffs Harbour ETC) Monday and Tuesday,
Col
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Western Sydney Thunderstorm 20/9/2009
There were three thunderstorms that passed over the Sydney Basin during the afternoon of 20/9/2009. The first one passed over Campbelltown region, a second one passed over the Windsor region (Outer North West Sydney) which produced a rain shower and at least five audible thunderclaps including a single cloud to ground lightning strike mid afternoon but the third I believe was the best of the three.
I took a handful of photographs at Prospect just prior to it. Following that, I drove into the core of it experiencing some quite solid rain but no hail. However the raindrops were large. Some moderate downdrafts were experienced at the rear of the storm followed by a period of continuous thunder which became less frequent as the storm passed further away to the North East.
The event produced 10 mm of rain at Kings Langley, 6.8 mm of rain at Solander Road - Kings Langely, 7 mm at Baulkham Hills, 7.5 mm at Baulkham Hills Swimming Pool, 7.2 mm at Hornsby and 6 mm at Turramurra. The storm was relatively narrow as it tracked in a North East direction across Western and Northern Sydney.
The photo taken below includes a small lightning flash. The scene is at William Lawson Park Prospect looking west off Myrtle Street moments before the storm hit approximately 2 km south of where I live.
Harley Pearman
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Hi,
My main target for storms was Sydney so it was here where I remained until the more substantial cell came through from near Jenolan. It had reasonable structure given it was high based. The storm was long lived and isolated. Hail was reported from the cell though it was moving too fast and even on the M2 motorway was I even able to catch up. The following photographs were taken from Rune's favourite lookout at Quakers Hill. I have timelapse of the cell as well and those cloud base to cloud base lightning were captured.
(http://www.australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/0920jd02.jpg)
(http://www.australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/0920jd03.jpg)
(http://www.australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/0920jd14.jpg)
(http://www.australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/0920jd15.jpg)
(http://www.australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/0920jd26.jpg)
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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Todays chase involved a trip to the Southern Highlands which proved fruitless. Cumulus dominated much of the sky, and this was high based and moisture starved. A 20-25kt westerly at the surface and 4-5c d'ps had me worried,so we immediately returned to the coast as congestus towers appeared a little healthier down that way. We got back to Nowra and immediately got onto a developing cell which went up on the edge of the sea breeze. The storm was weak and extremely high based but it did produce a handful of quality CG's. One of the cgs was a quality staccato which hit 3kms from us, of which I nailed on video. Another CG was a clear air, striking into clear blue sky. The storm rapidly moved out to sea and decayed.
We noticed another lot of cells to our west near Yass . The anvil from these storms blanketed our area preventing any further convection.
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Storms look promising for Tuesday for the Mid North Coast, nice wind shear suggested by GFS, good turning and quite stong. To bad I'm working from 5-8pm I'll probably miss some great lightning off shore because of this :( . I think a couple of severe storms might be possible in the area late in the afternoon? And even an off Shore SC later after dark? What do others think? wish I was working tomorrow instead of Tue's dam it, I would of headed south maybe to Nambucca. I think this will likely see the first severe storms of spring for the MNC :)
http://shear-atmos-fear.deviantart.com/ (http://shear-atmos-fear.deviantart.com/)
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Some powerful and full of lightning storms in the southeast this morning in the Ceduna area in SA. Just look at all the lightning strikes in this image. Today’s the day hopefully for some nice storms :)
stormboy
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Last week I spoke with Jimmy about this next upper trough, which looks to be ejecting out over the eastern states on Tuesday, as one of those potentially significant negative-tilt upper troughs that can produce tornadoes. In this particular case it looks like it might be a good rain system but anything is possible!
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There's a couple of very strong cells showing on the Adelaide radar - even at 250ks out. Left mover through Cleve area looks dangerous.
The low level shear is fairly exceptional for AU - tornadoes do look possible!
(http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2009/thumbs/2009092100adelaide.png) (http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2009/soundings/2009092100adelaide.png) Adelaide 00z
(http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2009/thumbs/2009092100woomera.png) (http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2009/soundings/2009092100woomera.png) Woomera 00z
The tail of cloud extending from the strongest cell is very interesting too. VIS at 00Z attached.
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Two news reports from ABC.
The first is about the Oodnadatta storm on Saturday afternoon.
The outback town of Oodnadatta was hit by a violent squall on Saturday night as 26 millimetres of rain fell in less than 30 minutes and winds of 117 kilometres caused damage.
It is believed a new five-metre high shed was completely destroyed in the squall, which began at about 6:00 pm local time.
The community on Sunday was still coming to terms with the damage.
Narelle Fullarton, who runs Allandale Station, says a new shed collapsed on top of two trucks at the station in the frightening storm.
"You couldn't see from our outside kitchen to the end of the carport, which is probably only a couple of hundred metres [away]," she said.
"We've just put up a brand new truck shed ... and the wind got into that and most of that is up on the hill and on the roof of our house."
Despite the damage, Ms Fullarton was keeping positive in the aftermath.
"The only one advantage is the creek's full, because we had about 40 mills in 10 minutes," she said.
"But that wasn't really a true reading because the top of the rain gauge blew off, so I presume there would have been another 30 mills on top of that."
Matt Collopy from the weather bureau says storms are continuing this morning.
"There's not much in the way of radar coverage up that way," he said.
"But we do have a lightning detection network which shows a lot of lightning flashing away up around the Oodnadatta area still.
"So while we don't expect those particular storms to be severe, there's certainly still storms hanging around that way and we're watching them quite closely.
"I think they're a pretty hardy bunch up that way, and they do see storms and so forth, not regularly, but it's not out of the ordinary to see gusty thunderstorms across that part of South Australia.
"So whilst this is a very strong gust, it's something that they would have seen in some form or another in the past."
And the second is about large hail that has hit the Eyre Peninsula
Huge hailstones and lightning have been reported as severe storms move across South Australia.
A fierce storm has damaged property at Elliston on western Eyre Peninsula as it hit the town just before 9:00am ACST.
Andrea Taylor at the local caravan park said the storm dumped hailstones up to three centimetres in diameter.
"There's some dents on bonnets, roofs, sunroofs are damaged," she said.
"I've rung up the council and they've got damage done to their cars.
"It was a quite ferocious little storm. There was rain after the white stuff and a massive thunderstorm. I saw lightning strike one of the trees in the park."
The weather bureau has issued storm and gale warnings as the severe weather passes across the state.
- ABC
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Ugh I am so angry atm. >_>
I'm in Melbourne for an event I'm attending, and Adelaide has some of the most impressive looking storms I've ever seen on its radar. A very dark storm went right over Moonta. I hope it hasn't caused too much damage, as it wasn't a happy looking one.
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I noticed the sounding and radar images this morning, MB. Whopping shear with nothing under 50kts in the lowers to some extent! The cells I viewed this morning on the radar were very impressive. Jane was online at the time I was viewing and suggested she drop everything and find an intercept location for this line moving through! Am confident of some amazing photos and reports as this system moves on.
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Had a very nice looking wall of cloud just scrape to the north of us some came so close we had a few minutes of very windy southerlies. Now the cloud has gone further north and it is very still and some light rain is here now. Not much with storms at the moments apart from the now offshore wall cloud storm. Adelaide saw severe storms today. They just kept ripping through.
stormboy
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Gallery of hail and dust strorm photos for South Australia 21 September 2009:
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/gallery/0,22613,5060615-5014156-16,00.html (http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/gallery/0,22613,5060615-5014156-16,00.html)
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Michael, Jimmy et al from this afternoon's SA radar are you able to ascertain whether supercells were present?
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Hi guys,
Great pics stormboy!
Looks like tomorrow (Tuesday 22nd September) will be a little interesting! Not too often that the EWN alert will warn you a day ahead of severe weather! I'm looking forward to seeing something. It's been raining all day here which has been a blessing as it has been very dry of late.
Some good ground moisture should help things along storm-wise :)
I hope the damage from wind gusts are kept to a minimum down South.
Kindest regards,
Shauno
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There has been nothing but drizzly rain for 2 hours now. As for the southeast just take a look at all the lightning strikes in the Mildura area. Looks like tomorrows storms foe the NE NSW have been cancelled oh well. Is it at least raining decently at lightning ridge Shawn?
stormboy
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Mike,
When you see structure like that particular cell that went through Cleve, I am pretty confident it was a supercell. It was a long lived cell as Michael suggested. And the shear profiles powerful!
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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There has been nothing but drizzly rain for 2 hours now. As for the southeast just take a look at all the lightning strikes in the Mildura area. Looks like tomorrows storms foe the NE NSW have been cancelled oh well. Is it at least raining decently at lightning ridge Shaun?
stormboy
Not too much in the way of decent totals so far stormboy as it's only steady, drizzly kind of rain. There are a few minor puddles here and there so I'd say 2-3mm, something like that? I will get a mm total as soon as I can.
Take care,
Shauno.
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Kudos Jimmy. Given the obscene shear I had a thought there ought to be supercells but did not want to go out on a limb to say so categorically not knowing too much about radar reflectivity for supercells. A friend of mine phoned me as the lines went through Adelaide and she allowed me to hear the cracks of thunder as the lightning flanged around her - how dare she!
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Not too much in the way of decent totals so far stormboy as it's only steady, drizzly kind of rain. There are a few minor puddles here and there so I'd say 2-3mm, something like that? I will get a mm total as soon as I can.
Take care,
Shauno.
Well pretty much the same here just checked out the backyard rain gauge it reads 3mm very very little rain but we are enjoying it as its been dry here from the huge leap of the floods this year to absolute dryness.
stormboy
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Melbourne rainfall to 5 am 22/9/2009
Overnight rainfall for Melbourne (21/9/09 and 22/9/09) and surrounds has been the best for a long time. When looking at various rain gauges and weather stations around the city via Weatherzone it is apparent that the city has received helpful falls of between 12 mm and 24 mm. This is the best rain event this year for the city.
Although some stations in the Melbourne region have recorded more including Avalon and Wooloomanata 32 mm, Wallan 28 mm, Altona 26 mm and Granite Road 25 mm.
This follows on from the events that occurred around Adelaide 21/9/09 including 25 mm in Adelaide City.
Additionally I was viewing the lightning data on GPATS for the period 6 pm - 20/9/09 to 6 pm 21/9/09 and noted that large areas of South Australia was peppered with 42,130 lightning strikes including 1,050 across Adelaide and suburbs. Another 8,823 strikes across New South Wales mainly in the far West and South West and a further 1,935 across parts of Victoria occurred. Quite an active day for thunderstorms across the affected areas.
Harley Pearman
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As I mentioned earlier in my post on this thread, fire would be our greatest problem up in QLD especially with a strong dry front coming through. We have been issued in SEQ with a severe warning for very strong dry winds. We have several fires burning right now and with a northwesterly turning westerly with gusts up to 90+ km/h and low humidity with plenty of fuel from a lack of rain it could be an intense few days ahead. I also understand Northern NSW is under a complete fire band as well.
Stay safe
Col.
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256km Radar Loop for Adelaide (Buckland Park), 21:00 20/09/2009 to 11:00 21/09/2009 UTC
(http://www.theweatherchaser.com/radar-thumb/IDR642/2009-09-20-21/2009-09-21-11/300.s.png) (http://www.theweatherchaser.com/radar-loop/IDR642-adelaide-buckland-park/2009-09-20-21/2009-09-21-11)
When you loop loads you can then change it to the closer scales or Doppler.
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Really an amazing system. I can not recall a storm system with shear as strong as that. The Woomera sounding is great, 80 knot NW'ly at 500 hPa with strong NE'ly surface winds. That is just scary. The LCL's were just way too high for tornadoes though. Dew points were only around 12-13C and with temps in the high 20's to 30's the LCL heights would have been around 2-3 km. There was a strong cap in place which is what probably stopped storms firing to the north of that monster that moved from Port Augusta to the NSW border. I would have love to have been there.
Michael
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Nice pic of the cloud structure just NE of Adelaide in this one...
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/gallery/0,22613,5060622-5014156-11,00.html (http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/gallery/0,22613,5060622-5014156-11,00.html)
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Hi all,
Now that's an impressive radar signature MB! I wish I was there also! Chaser heaven :)
The rain got pretty heavy here last night, winds became gusty also. As of 9am EST this morning (Tue. 22nd September) we've had 12mm in total.
I heard the odd small hail stone hit the roof last night around 10pm. I would imagine only a tiny 2-3mm in size.
Some light showers are just starting again now (1:18pm EST)
See how the afternoon plays out.
Kindest regards,
Shauno
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Looks like a bit more storm activity for the central parts of NSW with a storm warning issued.
BOM
for DAMAGING WIND and LARGE HAILSTONES
For people in the ILLAWARRA and parts of the SOUTH COAST, CENTRAL TABLELANDS, SOUTHERN TABLELANDS, CENTRAL WEST SLOPES, CENTRAL WEST PLAINS, SOUTH WEST SLOPES, RIVERINA and LOWER WESTERN Forecast Districts.
Issued at 2:04 pm Tuesday, 22 September 2009.
Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce damaging winds and large hailstones in the warning area over the next several hours. Locations which may be affected include Nowra, Bowral, Orange, Goulburn, Yass, Parkes, Young and Wyalong.
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according the the radar, the front with a purple cell is currently just north of Yass, Tarago is next towards Ulladalla/Nowra depending on the wind there. I had some lightening and small hail early this morning about 1-1.30 am. I took a pics, several actually but didn't turn out bar one, the sky is dirty/hazy, plenty of topsoil in the air which is hard to breath in and a bit muggy.
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As at 3.27pm Tuesday 22/09/09 I counted 39 weather warnings for Australia. It is quite an eventful day. I have posted an WZ map to try and give an idea of what is happening.
There is storms, dust storms, strong winds, cold fronts, fire especially in QLD and the list goes on.
Col
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one cell is moving slightly north of Braidwood towards Nerriga and the coast
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one cell is moving slightly north of Braidwood towards Nerriga and the coast
yes that cell looks significant at this point. Anomalous propagation from a fairly wicked flow through the mid levels.
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Interviewing an SES person at the moment on the ABC, and they were saying lots of calls from the Crookwell area where cricket ball size hail was reported.
Here the first band has mainly gone a bit south but some quite heavy rain so far, though the next cell currently near Lithgow seems to be lining me up a better. All lightning so far rain wrapped to the south or in the clouds, plus rain blowing in from the south so not setting the camera up looking that way!
Haven't seen a windfinding look like this before, even when I had it local to me in Adelaide. From the first main cell that tracked Warragamba towards Sutherland.
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Just a little note from Mooroolbark - my rain gauge had 19mm in 4 hours. No lightning here, nor storms (or my dog would have gone mad), but plenty of solid rain, and some nice wind gusts overnight too. I noticed suburbs to the SE of me, did cop a battering from hailstorms - sheets of ice spread through Narre-Warren and Berwick areas. And looked like plenty of thunder activity more than 100kms to my north. A great rain event, and one that is much needed here.
Hope the catchments are getting their share too...
I also heard reports of a tornado in Nthn SA? Is that right??
Big Pete
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One report stated Big Pete, http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26109630-421,00.html (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26109630-421,00.html)
and another site http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1096557/Hail,-storms,-fire-and-tornado-hit-Australia (http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1096557/Hail,-storms,-fire-and-tornado-hit-Australia)
The bureau said a tornado was recorded by a severe storm monitor in the midnorth of South Australia, with the strong winds experienced over that state now extending across western NSW and into the ACT, bringing thick dust.
But I have not found an official report from BOM yet, still early but it is very possible
Col
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looks like the storms are gone now, been going on all afternoon and night with only the occasional small hail, some wind gusts and plenty of lightening and rain, will have a look in the morning to see how much.
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11mm here at my place in Sydney from the first band, though a friend at Mortdale commented it was hammering down and almost hail. The one that was lining up here earlier fell apart and didn't arrive :-( Another band coming through on radar but doesn't look like much. Not as windy yet as forecast, in fact almost calm. See what it is like in the morning when I have to drive to Newcastle for a 2 day job (on tiled rooftops, hmmmm. Hope it dries out).
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Well the severe storms missed us, but instead everything is red this morning. Am I back in Adelaide? Going to be a fun drive to Newcastle through this, all Sydney Ferries cancelled due to poor visibility with the dust storm.
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7mm of rain here on Monday night with storms that came with plenty of strong wind.
17mm of rain last night. The first storm came through around 10.30pm, not much rain in that one but it did come with a barrage of impressive CG's and crawlers.
Second storm hit 1am, small hail, gusty wind and plenty of lightning and booming thunder again.
Overall fantastic news for the crops which have been doing it really tough in this region for the last few months and are now just hanging in there.
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Well we got a bit of the storm last night here in Caringbah, but the bulk of the lighting was to the south over the National Park, did get some heavy rain though, cant say how much cause the rain gauge is mainly full of mud...
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To add a little more to what has been an somewhat of epic event over the last 2 days, Melbourne was hit with 2 small earthquakes yesterday evening, there was no reported damage but the MSN report states :
Two small earthquakes have hit Melbourne's south, but there are no reports of damage.
The earthquakes were about 14 seconds apart and hit the Mornington Peninsula region at about 6.20pm (AEST) on Tuesday, Geoscience Australia seismologist David Jepson said.
They recorded magnitudes of 3.0 and 2.6, with the epicentre about 25km south of Frankston.
"These are too small to cause any damage, we would expect," Mr Jepson told AAP.
Trying to follow up further with Big Pete question regarding a tornado in South Australia
I also heard reports of a tornado in Nthn SA? Is that right??
Big Pete
All reports seem to have vanished at this stage except the two I posted yesterday. I don't know if the Storm spotter (or as BOM called it, recorded by a severe storm monitor) was correct in his call, or if it is been analysed and awaiting official status, but all reports have gone cold.
Col
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For anyone interested, I am updating live images of the current duststorm over Sydney..see here (http://www.wthrman.com).
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Wow, that is surreal by any stretch of the imagination! Especially for Sydney.
Any word yet as to whether the dust is heading north as well? Shall SE QLD see any of the dust at all?
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Upper Western/North West N.S.W. Storm & Dust Report. 22nd-23rd September 2009
Hi guys,
Some very cool photos by all in this thread!
What an amazing weather event indeed! It's a real Mars-scape out there! :)
We had several, very active storm cells come through our area last night. These were very squally and fast moving. The first signs came around 7:45pm EST with an almighty CG hitting in town. Russ saw this as he was on his way to pick me up. There wasn't even any of the usual pre-storm thunder rumblings to let us know something was arriving. It was just on top of us immediately, so thank goodness for radar!
I counted 8 cells all around us at one point and stars overhead! I managed a couple shots, nothing spectacular. Russ however got a ripper that I missed due to well.. just pointing in the wrong direction lol. It came as a cell swung in from the North then headed South East just beyond town. The updraft tower was really up there for a short period, allowing the CG to pick up pace. I will see if I can persuade Russ to post his photo along with my couple. We stayed out until the storms were on the horizon and too far away to photograph, around 10pm EST.
Rain was very minimal, coming from the first cell. Possibly only 1mm at max.
Now the dust came in thick and fast at 10:50pm EST on the back of the storm front. I didn't dare venture outside with my camera as we all know what how much DSLR's love dust on their lenses and in the camera body ;)
I did look outside now and again and it was even hard to discern the lights in my street.
Still VERY dusty now 10:03am EST. Everything is covered in a film of red dust, even inside our house and it's pretty well sealed up.
Kindest regards,
Shauno
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Check ths clip from Broken Hill 22/9
Broken Hill comes over pitch black during a dust storm (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrlD22HwPvI#normal)
You'll cop it over SE QLD as well - see the attached VIS image
Full on dust storm here - the most dramatic I've ever seen. Has even dropped the temp 3 degrees since it thickened.
http://australiasevereweather.com/video/webcam.htm (http://australiasevereweather.com/video/webcam.htm)
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Hi all,
Visibility is extremely low here on the gold coast at the moment. I am staying out in the hinterland region and it seems the surrounding hills have been hidden in a shroud of dust, the wind is pretty strong here. I don't think in the 12 years i have lived up on the gold coast i have ever seen a dust storm like this one, all i can see, smell and taste is dust. i hope this all clears soon
karina
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A few from here on the Sunshine Coast
(http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/DanTheReptileMan/Picture162.jpg)
(http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/DanTheReptileMan/Picture169.jpg)
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Hi guys,
Thought I'd post the best photo I managed last night during the small squall line.
Hi MB, boy that Broken Hill dust video is seriously awesome! That would be something to experience. Looks like most of Australia will be a bit lighter! Most of it has blown out to sea lol!
Still very dusty here. Looks like it's far from over.
Take care, (particularly if you wear contact lenses or are an asthmatic)
Shauno.
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Nice lightning Shauno - been a while to see any round here !
Have to make do with the dust - which was pretty impressive today - as impressive as dust can be........ Have not had any of that Mars type colour like other areas have but visibility got down to about 150m I guess. Temp dropped 3 degrees after the thick stuff hit after 10am. Visibility about 2ks now.
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Hey guys WOW how’s this dust storm I have never seen one in real life just video. Today Wollongbar tafe power got cut off as 4 trees knocked over our powerlines there and it is still out. So I hear that a second band of dust got developed after about 2pm so will tomorrow be the same? No red please! too bad the VIS website is down
stormboy
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Pretty hazy most of the morning and then around 11:00 am the dust really started to role in. Hopefully the sequence of photos will show the progression here in Brisbane. Visibility was fairly poor at its peak. It is still a little dusty but most of it is now on its way to New Zealand according to reports.
Believe it or not, but it is true, I missed the flu all season, then last Thursday I ended up with Swine Flu, so the dust, even with the whole house closed up, was not very pleasant with regards to the respiratory system. ( never coughed so damn hard in my life and flammin painful) I would image a lot of people would have headed for hospital who were worse than me or with asthma.
Col
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I shut my windows as I expected the dust to arrive and by 3pm we experienced the full onset of it, and perhaps the worst of it at the time we virtually power walked (covering our faces practically) the 200m to the bus stop. I was running late for an appointment so I got out of it before having to wade through the strong dusty winds again. My eyes watered and stung like crazy and it was slightly difficult to breathe (as you would expect). I should have worn a mask.
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Western Sydney Thunderstorm 22/9/2009
Prior to the event from 5 pm I noted on GPATS that a series of thunderstorms across Eastern / Central New South Wales had produced some 2,040 lightning strikes between 3 pm and 4 pm.
From 6pm looking west from Seven Hills (Western Sydney) a considerable amount of lightning including cloud to ground strikes were observed however by the time the storm reached into the Blacktown / Seven Hills area, the amount of lightning had significantly decreased.
Rainfall increased steadily then ceased but as the main storm cell passed over, a significant downpour passed through the area that brought some strong wind including a brief power loss / fluctuation around portions of the suburb. Rainfall decreased thereafter and had ceased by 7.30 pm.
Rainfall totals were light to moderate including 13 mm at Seven Hills and 12 mm in Blacktown. Generally falls varied between 10 and 14 mm in the Blacktown / Parramatta region. Lighter falls occurred over North East Sydney and places like Mona Vale had no rainfall.
There were limited opportunities to obtain lightning photos where I was due to the wind and rain. My best one is below taken off Hartley Road at International Peace Park - Seven Hills.
Harley Pearman
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Dust storm 23/9/2009
So unusual to have an evening thunderstorm only to wake up the next morning and see dust and lots of it. I first thought that it was fog but I soon realized that it was too dry to be fog and it had to be dust.
Arriving at Auburn for work (Western Sydney) after sunrise, I proceeded to take these photos including one at around 7 am.
I remember the 8 February 1983 dust storm at Albury in Southern New South Wales as a boy and this one reminded me of that event.
The photos are taken around Auburn in the Auburn Road, Queen Street and Beatrice Street area after sunrise 23/9/2009.
Harley Pearman
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I have a few video stills(from lightning chasers footage) . Please excuse the very poor quality, i'm only trying to show the very nice structure that was available near Borrowa. This was the storm that tracked over Crookwell delivering the golf ball sized hail.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/pingtang100/small.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/pingtang100/small1.jpg)
Anvil rain was already throwing out ahead of the storm even at this early stage!!!! Alot of the structure may have been obsured by the time this storm got to Crookwell.
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The radar loops are impressive for the 22nd Sep. This first one is from Canberra and shows the cell passing over Murrumbateman at 4.50pm. There are reports of a "tornado" from there but probably straight line winds.
128km Radar Loop for Canberra, 03:00 22/09/2009 to 18:00 22/09/2009 UTC
(http://www.theweatherchaser.com/radar-thumb/IDR403/2009-09-22-03/2009-09-22-18/300.s.png) (http://www.theweatherchaser.com/radar-loop/IDR403-canberra/2009-09-22-03/2009-09-22-18)
The same cell was seen by Michael King about 5pm Bungendore:
http://s396.photobucket.com/albums/pp41/upper_level_disturbance/ (http://s396.photobucket.com/albums/pp41/upper_level_disturbance/)
(http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp41/upper_level_disturbance/013-6.jpg)
The broader scale loop shows the cell which hit Crookwell at 3.40pm - that Pingtang refers to - plus a number of other significant cells.
256km Radar Loop for Canberra, 03:00 22/09/2009 to 18:00 22/09/2009 UTC
(http://www.theweatherchaser.com/radar-thumb/IDR402/2009-09-22-03/2009-09-22-18/300.s.png) (http://www.theweatherchaser.com/radar-loop/IDR402-canberra/2009-09-22-03/2009-09-22-18)
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Galleries of dust storm photos from 23 September 2009:
---> Jimmy's taken at Schofields (http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/jd20090923.html)
(http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/thumbs/2009/0923jd01.jpg) (http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/0923jd01.jpg) (http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/thumbs/2009/0923jd03.jpg) (http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/0923jd03.jpg) (http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/thumbs/2009/0923jd06.jpg) (http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/0923jd06.jpg) (http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/thumbs/2009/0923jd07.jpg) (http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/0923jd07.jpg)
---> Michael's taken at McLeans Ridges (http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/mb20090923.html)
(http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/thumbs/2009/0923mb03.jpg) (http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/0923mb03.jpg) (http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/thumbs/2009/0923mb07.jpg) (http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/0923mb07.jpg) (http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/thumbs/2009/0923mb12.jpg) (http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/0923mb12.jpg) (http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/thumbs/2009/0923mb19.jpg) (http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/0923mb19.jpg) (http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/thumbs/2009/0923mb27.jpg) (http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/0923mb27.jpg)
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heres a couple of pix from sydney cbd , quite an event and something i have only seen a few times near mildura and broken hill
apologies as there seems to be a issue at moment it can only post one image
EDIT: Nick - to get around the attachment error, attach one at a time, save, then modify post etc
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Hi all,
That is surely some pretty nice updraft structure on the Crookwell area storm!
It would be interesting to know the numbers, ie; the tonnage of dirt and dust that blew across the Eastern states over the two days.
The cleanup has begun here. Everyone is hosing houses and driveways down. The car washing duties are next on the list :)
Nice to actually have clear blue skies again!
Kindest regards,
Shauno
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G'day Shauno and all,
This report might answer your question
It would be interesting to know the numbers, ie; the tonnage of dirt and dust that blew across the Eastern states over the two days.
The report by Geoff Chambers states:
The dirt shifted across NSW, north to the Gold Coast and as far afield as the southern alps in New Zealand.
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research expert Dr Ross Mitchell said around 16 million tonnes of dust could have been whipped up by the dust storm.
He based that on detailed calcuations of a similar event in October 2003.
Dr Mitchell said the Birdsville weather station recorded its lowest visibility figure at the peak of the stormfront.
"The main source region is the Lake Eyre basin, where there has been quite a bit of deposition of fine material after the recent floods," said Dr Mitchell.
"That available material has been blown out. It's not uncommon to see a dust storm in that region but it is unusual to see it traverse the continent."
Monash University head of environmental science Professor Nigel Tapper said he would be interested to see whether the Heron Island weather station, run by his institution, recorded a dust level.
"It's a remarkable event, which started in the basin," said Prof Tapper.
"There were two storm fronts, one that pushed through Victoria and ended up in New Zealand, where the southern alps will be covered in dust and the other that moved east and north to the Gold Coast."
Both Dr Mitchell and Prof Tapper said climate change may have contributed to the freak weather event.
Griffith University DustWatch head Dr Craig Strong said the dust bomb had been building for 10 months on the back of floods, drought and strong winds.
From all reports I have read a great deal of the dirt has headed towards New Zealand.
Cheers
Col
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The radar loops are impressive for the 22nd Sep. This first one is from Canberra and shows the cell passing over Murrumbateman at 4.50pm. There are reports of a "tornado" from there but probably straight line winds.
Hi Michael,
I heard/read a report from a Murrumbateman local that they had a storm in the late afternoon (the one you refer to above) which wasn't too bad but then at about 10pm another storm came through and sounded like a freight train, etc, etc. I think they were saying that it was the later one which was the possible tornado producer.
Macca
[EDIT] - Just loaded the radar for later that evening and there is quite an intense cell right near/on Murrumbateman at pretty close to 10pm. It is a reasonable distance from radar and has a nice shape :). Also just loaded the Wagga Wagga 256km radar and note that which doesn't show much due to the large storms near that radar site at the same time. Appin radar (256km) shwos it up quite nicely for its distance from radar (although don't mistake it for the cell nearer to Young which is even more impressive on radar...makes you wonder how many tornadoes could've been produced on Tuesday night given the conditions...).
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Back to the dust storm, after posting my 2 photos from the backyard yesterday morning I had to drive to Newcastle. Visibility was about 500 metres most of the way and gradually decreased as I headed north, but probably more just to more dust arriving than the location.
Working on rooftops all day was interesting, eyes sore and very glad to find the motel and a shower at the end of it. Skin was feeling really dry and chapped, partly because of the gale force winds I suspect as well as the dust. Haven't had a chance to look at the photos I took driving up the F3 and at Newcastle, but will try to get to them in the next couple of days.
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Some of your dust has made it to Auckland this morning. Visibility about 5000m.
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Steve,
You need to ask the NZ authorities to give us back our soil!
Macca, were the cells in question long lived on the night? Yes some nice shaped cells but then they quickly merged with other cells, weakened or died out. The dynamics were incredible of course and tornadoes were certainly on the cards. Night time though is basically a no go zone.
Sorry for not getting back to all of this chase but it was not exciting news and I have also been busy on other items. I went out on the night (it was great to be simply amongst it) and was in those areas a little too late due to the time I was able to leave and distance I had to travel. Perhaps it would have been better to head down the Hume and head west. But my target was nearer the Cowra region, west and southwest based on earlier models I had access to. I was hoping at least one or two cells would left move along some sort of boundary but the shear itself was incredible.
My evening and night chasing was basically unsuccessful due to the time getting out there, the speed of the storms and the pathetic visibility of structure on the night due to low cloud and possibly dust! I have a couple of pictures on the run but you just watched storms disappear even from a distance. And then I thought that with tree lined roads and low visibility, being in the path of a core was simply not the best idea. Our road network is simply not ideal to deal with systems of this nature and you can easily lose your bearing. Getting to the storms without any specific organisation is simply too difficult to follow. I have chased very fast moving and violent episodes in Tornado Alley back in 2007 but that was more a day time situation. Better road network and also less trees.
(http://www.australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/0922jd12.jpg)
Evening storm near Young - likely a lower topped supercell. What I liked about this cell is despite the incredible shear, the storm updrafts bubbled upwards - observed at the back! I thought I would be able to intercept this cell - how silly to think that. I had my bearing wrong by a few degrees - I said goodbye to the storm!
I did make it to Young before the 9pm cells hit, but the storms were producing anvil crawlers - obviously some large drops indicating imminent hail but I was basically decided not to hang around in terms of a midnight return home and the reasons above. I felt it was a likely probability of accidently running into a cell on the way home rather than trying to chase in a fassion of a soccer goal keeper trying to catch multiple balls.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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Well I don’t think that it is going to happen but Saturday has some strong winds forecast and there could be another chance of some raised dust but like I said hopefully not!
Areas include more of the northwest and northern tablelands as well as the northern rivers, Sydney, se QLD again and possibly Canberra. Today there was a reported dust storm over Bourke.
stormboy
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Gonna add some more to this posting, as it has been VERY heavy with rain here in the last couple of hours... 17mm in box hill in last 2 hrs, with a lot more on the way...
Big Pete
(Hope all is ok with those in NSW and QLD with the dust)
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Warwick Qld 23rd Sep 2009.
A few images that show the storm front associated with bringing the dust into Qld. Friends at Inglewood mentioned seeing the dust at 6.30 am and it rolled over Warwick at 7.15am. We had no rain and from what I can see it was mostly clear behind the front except for the dust! It was thick and concentrated over SE Qld.
Regards,
Chris.
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2656/3952168845_33cdc7436d_o.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2562/3952946404_72f29b508f_o.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2508/3952168311_b6c786583b_o.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2494/3952946710_654bb25b4d_o.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3487/3952945908_3413e6f6f1_o.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3178/3952210503_1ba2a5d2fe_o.jpg)
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Downpour leaves muddy mark (Border Mail 24/9/09) - Some rainfalls for 23/9/2009
In addition to the dust storm, I was reading one report in the Border Mail titled "29 mm downpour leaves muddy mark" by Sarah Dean dated 24/9/2009 in which it is stated that the Border (Albury - Wodonga) was caked in brown mud after a heavy downpour that brought 28.8 mm of rain. It is stated that the twin cities were lashed by a thunderstorm creating a lighting spectacular but causing minimal damage between 12 midnight and 5 am.
However it appears some or much of that rain fell as mud in which orange dust / mud coated cars and washing hanging on clotheslines. Another report stated that an outdoor swim centre had to close as the swimming pools had mud in them following the event.
Also good rains on the 23/9/2009 brought much needed relief to some North West Victorian towns such as 40 mm at Ouyen. Urana in the Riverina scored 49 mm, Burrinjuck (South West Slopes) 30 mm, Coolamon 27 mm and Batlow 25 mm also saw relief from the dry.
While the good falls were patchy in nature, the system has delivered helpful rainfalls where needed.
Harley Pearman
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Well the infa red satellite is not the best but you can clearly see the new dust storm half way over NSW now and moving East. Looks like it is allot thinner so maybe it will be a haze and not a brown thick layer of dust.
stormboy - woo Dusty!
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You need to ask the NZ authorities to give us back our soil!
LOL,
I noticed some traces of settlement on my car. It was bright orange, incredible to think it came all the way from the Australian outback. The dust was reported widely over the north and west of the North Island.
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Morning Duststorm - Photos taken in Blacktown 26 September 2009
I was aware of the second dust storm across Western New South Wales and early morning 26/9/2009 it arrived into Sydney. Not as intense as the Wednesday morning one but still dramatic.
I took these photos at around 6.30 am off Bungarribee Road Blacktown looking east showing the event. Sunrise could not be seen and the dust is enough to curtail the suns strength.
Harley Pearman
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We copped some of the dust storm last night, our roof was red this morning and the car didn't look too clean!
Some nice storms pushing up this afternoon.
In the first photo can someone let me know if it is a mid level funnel, I would love to know but it's not too easy to see.
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Kristy,
Nice mammatus in those images. Did the storms provide further rainfall for the crops there?
The first image you mention could be the outline in between two mammatus bubbles. Hard to tell otherwise.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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We recieved 4mm overnight and a further 2mm today. Not much but any rain is good rain!
Some small hail came down in a shower this afternoon but it blew over in seconds.
The storms today were moving really quickly and the wind was strong and gusty all day, not to mention freezing cold. Today's maximum temp only got to 11.6 degrees.
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In SEQld we are being hit with the second wave of a dust storm. Winds are ranging from 67Km/h in Oakey to 50 + km/h.at the Brisbane airport.
We have the house completely shut up but the dust is coming in and making it rather unpleasant and hard to breathe. The dust seems to be finer than that of Wednesdays storm.
This event hit Brisbane around 6:10pm.
Meanwhile fire fighters are fighting 28 fires across QLD tonight , The ABC reports that 385 fire personnel and 136 appliances are being used in the fire fighting efforts. This is also adding to breathing problems. There are several fires near our place here in Brisbane.
Col.
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below is the second dust storm approaching the northern rivers
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my attatchment was too big for the above post so here is part two of an extended view
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Certainly amazing to get a second dust storm reach the coast so soon after Wednesday's storm of dust! I was in Brisbane for the ASWA meeting and there was a slight dust haze all day but it certainly thickened up later. Arriving home the visibility reduced to about 1.5km - that compares to about 250 metres on Wednesday. It still looked impressive - like in Harley's photos. This morning (Sunday 27th) there is still plenty of dust but the visibility is at least 15-20ks.
Great to see a few flood warnings in VIC - been a long time since many of those streams have been in flood. Lots of rain and floods in TAS again but they do NOT need it.
Have not had the chance to read all the forums but guess snow levels have been pretty low.
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i went to Hay in the riverina of nsw to watch the 2nd dust storm pass by . It gradually got thicker over about a 2 hr period.
good fun but the locals just went about business as usual , even doing tennis practice under lights
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G'day Shauno and all,
This report might answer your question
The report by Geoff Chambers states:
The dirt shifted across NSW, north to the Gold Coast and as far afield as the southern alps in New Zealand.
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research expert Dr Ross Mitchell said around 16 million tonnes of dust could have been whipped up by the dust storm.
He based that on detailed calcuations of a similar event in October 2003.
Cheers
Col
Thanks so much for the answer Col! Very interesting and impressive!
I've been talking with a few people about a more sinister side of the dust storm in the shape of radioactive particulate matter spread from the Maralinga Nuclear test site in S.A.
I heard something about it on the radio but missed most of the story.
Seems plausible I guess? Not sure of the quantities though, I'd say it would be a fairly minor percentage of radiation per ton.
Take care guys,
Shauno.
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I've been talking with a few people about a more sinister side of the dust storm in the shape of radioactive particulate matter spread from the Maralinga Nuclear test site in S.A.
I heard something about it on the radio but missed most of the story.
Seems plausible I guess? Not sure of the quantities though, I'd say it would be a fairly minor percentage of radiation per ton.
It really is a worry, but you wonder if we would ever get the real truth or if they would be gagged. There seems to be a lot of theories regarding the radioactive possibilities of the storms. One of the better articles reported by Greg Roberts from News .com reads in part:
A TEAM of Australian scientists are analysing the dust that has engulfed eastern Australia this week to see whether it is dangerous.
The dust storm is believed to have originated around Woomera in outback South Australia near the massive Olympic Dam uranium mine, prompting fears it was radioactive and dangerous.
Climatologist Professor Nigel Tapper, from Melbourne's Monash University, played down the risks to humans but said the dust might threaten important eco-systems such as the Great Barrier Reef.
"Certainly the dust storm could have potentially come from those outback areas, we believe it has mainly come from dry lake and creek beds and elsewhere in the Lake Eyre basin," he said.
"That (radioactive) stuff has been spread around over a long time so I would not have thought there would be much of an issue around that.
"The main concern is over fine dust that goes right into the lungs triggering asthma and other respiratory problems."
One of the main concerns on the evening news tonight was the infections, diseases and conjunctivitis of the eyes that will develop in people and I suppose animals over the next few days from all the dust and pollution that has been blown across the South east of Australia.
Cheers
Col
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Interesting thought about the possible radioactivity from Roxby Downs etc, though having worked there very briefly I don't think there woud be too much radioactive soil sitting around. Maralinga is a different possibility but as mentioned it would be pretty diluted by the time it got here.
As for the weather changing, slightly off topic but was down in Bowral on Sunday where wind chill at 3pm made the apparent temperature -5.3, a slight change from last week. And it felt a lot colder at the top of Mt Gibraltar! On the way home came up the M7 then onto the M4 and there was what looked like a lenticular cloud to our SE, not as well formed as some I have seen in here but had the multiple layers in 2 connected clouds. Unfortunately by the time I got to somewhere I could stop the formation wasn't as visible due to the change of angle so didn't take a photo.