Storm Australian Severe Weather Forum
Severe Weather Discussion => Australian Severe Storms, Weather Events and Storm Chasing => Topic started by: Michael Bath on 07 February 2008, 07:34:15 AM
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Quite widespread thunderstorm activity over parts of NSW and QLD at present - a continuation of activity that has been going most of of the AM hours. BoM warnings are current in both states.
The activity has now spread to the ranges and will soon be moving into the coastal regions - especially NE NSW and SE QLD.
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Hi Michael,
This storm front arrived here (and subsequently woke me) at 6:30am. I grabbed the camera and raced down for a better look as we were already under a large, mammatus covered anvil shield by then, gloriously lit by the orange rising sun no doubt :) I took a few shots towards the East of the orange mammatus and turned around to see an orange-gold shelf cloud on approach in the distance (thats a first for me!) crawler lightning was abundant and grounding with the odd CG now and again but torrential rain soon ensued around 7am and I headed back home. We ended up receiving a further 20mm after Monday's 40mm downpour and as the ground is still saturated it didn't take much to turn the roads into rivers once again.
We were under the Upper Western area severe storm warning but that seems to have moved along now so it's not looking too great as far as storms for this evening but we take everything we can get here! ;)
Currently- Pressure 984.21mb. 34º. Wind 7.1kph from the SW. 64% Humidity.
Cheers,
Shauno
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(http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/8489/6febstormfy4.jpg)
Snapped this from Penrith Station facing south with my phone around 6pm. Amazing just to watch it build
and evolve as it approached. Large heavy rain drops initially with around 15mm falling in 15mins. Pretty much a due east track and starting to ease off now.
Was going to chase but left my kit in the office thinking I wouldn't need it tonight...!
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Hi,
We have had continuous rain to heavy rain for about an hour - not torrential at any point but consistent and heavy enough to ensure that creeks will once again go over tonight. We have consistent thunder and lightning at the moment as well.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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Hi,
Rain areas eased off by 7:30pm.
This is my shortest storm chase - both in time and distance. I grabbed the car, drove out the drive way, turned left and parked 100m from my house. I took 6 pictures and headed home. Ok - it was raining at the time - I normally walk to the view point:)
Here is a picture of the approaching gust front.
(http://www.australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2008/0206jd02.jpg)
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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Storm Report, Narrabri/Wee Waa, North West Plains
A Davis weather station just west of Wee Waa recorded a 109km/h gust at 10:30am as the storm line came through and recorded 36mm of rain. An identical station 7km away recorded an 84km/h gust at about the same time and finished up with 20mm.
A short time later a weather station near Culgoora, SE of Wee Waa recorded 61km/h gust and 18mm of rain. Another storm this afternoon brought the total there to 37mm.
The rain had eased off as the system approached Narrabri where only about 9mm was recorded, however the Narrabri Airport AWS still recorded a 61km/h gust. Another station a few km further east recorded 57km/h.
Today was certainly the most exciting day for us this week since, although there has been plenty of high precipitation storms active in the general area, few of them have been near the automatic weather stations and none of the previous days had recorded winds of these velocities.
Best wishes,
Dave
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Hi all,
I did get a glimpse at one storm to the west of my workplace at Nunawading (Ö-E Melb), and the tower was breaking through the top atmosphere layer (above the normal anvil region) - don't know if it produced a heavy downpour - but it did look spectacular - unfortunately no pics as I was driving at the time (can't drive and take pics from a camera-phone at the same time without being booked these days!)
Big Pete
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Had a severe storm in Coffs today which caused some flash flooding on top of already swollen creeks and saturated ground. Took these photos while in town with my camera phone and some others at home. Last pic shows a micro burst which soon became a total white out.
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/enak12/February%206%202008/DSC00012.jpg)
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/enak12/February%206%202008/DSC00017.jpg)
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/enak12/February%206%202008/IMG_0031.jpg)
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/enak12/February%206%202008/IMG_0044.jpg)
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/enak12/February%206%202008/IMG_0048.jpg)
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I chased locally today and wasn't dissapointed. In fact the cell that developed on the mountains SW of Penrith was one of the best looking i've seen all year and not only that but I saw rapid scud upmotion at one point as well as two seperate areas of pretty good rotation. This cell exibited very interesting and absolutely photogenic structure before dumping a phenominal amount of rain just south of Penrith which caused very impressive flash flooding.
Jeff.
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Enak ... that's a nice looking cell you've captured there. Did it form towards the Dorrigo escarpment and more north? Nice strong updrafts.
Some of the cells out towards the western suburbs took on some pretty nice structure at certain points. I was quite impressed at the shelfy that moved across the Hills region before unloading a short burst of heavy rain. Around 20mm recorded in the rain gauge.
Excuse the noisy photo below, light was poor so I had the ISO a little higher.
(http://sydneystormchasers.com/system/files/images/08-02-06-02jh.jpg)
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Hi james the first cell was looking south towards Bellingen/Nambucca area I think it might have tracked SE from around Dorrigo though. The second storm with the shelf cloud formed just NW of Dorrigo like you said.
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I worked in town today (Sydney CBD) and while driving home about 4 there was some nice cumuloninbus building up to the west. Nothing really obvious though and when I got home checked and not much about. The Sydney area severe storm warning came in a bit later, nothing spectacular tracked over here though from about 6:45 to 7:30 we had some quite heavy rain at Rydalmere, about 30mm all up. Most of the lightning was in the sky but a couple of close CGs (of course always the direction I wasn't looking).
enak-12 - My parents live 20km north of Coffs Harbour at Woolgoolga. I had seen that one go through on the Grafton radar and mum said in an email tonight the rain fell out of the sky like a solid wall. Seemed to be a quite intense band and moving very quickly.
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Here's a couple of pictures from the cell SW of Penrith today between 445pm and 520pm. Badgerys Creek scored 75mm all up which was on the south side of the heaviest rain. I haven't seen Glenmore Parks yet nor St Clair and I believe they will have similar if not higher readings. You could see a breif area of highest intensity echo on the Kurnell Radar at one point.
Jeff.
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Jeff,
You know, I could have sworn I saw a split earlier and then this cell also intensified and showed a V-shape on radar. However it was short lived. You pictures are interesting showing signs of orgnisation if at least briefly.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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Hi Gang
was out in Richmond- Windsor area for my last job for the day and was able to find a good clear spot on
the nth side of the river at Windsor to watch a decent cell move down off the Blue Mtns. 1530 - 1730EDT.
Quite a bit of rain, no hail at my location. Was lightning active but not intense. A lot of lightning buried in
the clouds, with occassional nice CG's. Coming back towards home, down old Windsor Rd, I could see and photo the the cell that Jeff described and photo'ed above. It finally overtook me and by the time I got home
(West Ryde) the rain was heavy and again a reasonable amount of lightning overhead. Still no hail.
finally died out around 1930EDT
Cheers
Dave N
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Some flash flooding occurred from storms over the Northern Gold Coast and SE Brisbane suburbs. Top fall was 142mm, but many were in the 100 to 130mm range. The bulk of this fell in an hour so quite intense.
At my place we had gusty winds and heavy rain as a weakening gust front passed over from 4.45pm. A bit of lightning but nothing very exciting.
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Report 7th February 2008 Storms and heavy rain.
Yesterday was one of those days that even a glimpse outside the window and I could tell without models storms were to occur.
Being at a swimming carival, I was able to watch the development occur with daytime heating. Altocumulus began to heap up. Some cumulus developed namely over the ranges. But it was the southern and southwestern skyline that developed predominantly and an anvil finally passed over during the early afternoon period. Within the hour, we had torrential rain that lasted about 20 minutes. The lightning activity was not so intense but as the core passed to the northeast, the lightning frequency and intensity seem to maximise.
After the main core had passed, a shelf cloud developed along leading edge of the outflow boundary forming along the western part of the core. This was quite picturesque but unfortunately no pictures.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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Report February 6th 2008
Here is a panorama of the cell from the 6th SW of Penrith. This pano was shot during the later stage of this storm just before it became fully outflow dominant.
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Majestic and vibrant looking guster there Jeff.
The following photo is from the 6th of February 2008 of the guster as it approached Parramatta from the sw. Visibility was not the best due to light rain from another cell to the north.Cheers, Con.
(http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w28/elenecon/Storms%20season%2007-08/0-9.jpg)
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6th Feb: The cell that rolled off the Blue Mountains and then went onto to pummell Western Sydney was certainly a sight to behold. Racing to the nearest vantage point (on foot) when I heard those first few rumbles, what confronted me to the not too distant west, had me standing in awe. The structure and myriad of colours was amazing to watch as it built.
I was at Werrington at the time, and what followed here was some very heavy and consistent rain, and occasional strong wind gusts. Considering the rainfall totals in South West Sydney, which included 60mm at Bringelly, 69mm at Rossmore and 87mm at Badgerys Creek, I'd say the most intense/dynamic parts of the cell were to the south and north (reports of damage Richmond/Windsor) of here despite the ominous appearance to the monster towering over this location. The already flooded South Creek not to far from where I was that evening quickly rose again, and the taking into account the totals above I'm sure it continued to rise even further as the night went on, as those areas mentioned are part of the creek's upper catchment.
7th Feb: I was able to witness yesterday's storms in my home territory - the lower mountains. They were rapid to built and drop their load and due to this quick succesion, minimal organisation could be seen. Numerous seperate cells rolled over this area one after the other, pumping out copious amounts of driving rain, sheeting and spraying off every hard surface. Some gusts were strong enough to blow bark and twigs of trees. Some localised flash flooding to report of which is saying something about the rainfall intensity considering this is a mountainous area with porous soils.
Mike
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Yesterday a severe storm rolled through the Sunshine Coast and delivered this awesome shelf cloud. This is Maroochydore looking south.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v333/JakeC/_MG_5410sml.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v333/JakeC/_MG_5419sml.jpg
These are NOT my photos, they were shot by someone from the WZ forums. Thanks to Jake.
When this storm passed through at 4 pm, it weakened on top of me, nonetheless it looked very threatening but resulted in nothing but a bit of wind and funnily enough, this shelf cloud developed to my east despite the fact I live close to the beach.
Thats all from me.
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Steven,
That is quite spectacular and nice southeast Queensland shelf cloud. I know jeff Brislane once said that that region tends to have some of the most impressive shelf clouds you can ever ask for.
As to severity, yes to me shelf clouds are associated with winds and heavy rain - not so much with very large hailstones. I guess what you experienced is not such a surprise. Great for pictures of course!
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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Hi Jimmy,
I personally haven't seen anything as spectacular as this before in my area and in regards to severity, it brought back memories of the "good 'ol days" of my younger childhood when these big storms use to roll through and do quite some damage quite on frequent occasions, things have changed in recent years unfortunately so these kinds of spectacular events are a rarity. It's amazing at how such a beast can do so little damage, but I'm pretty sure the vicinity of my area was spared.
The power, spectacle and beauty of nature is one of the reasons why I began my interest in the weather and it's just the tip of the iceberg!
Regards,
Steven
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That first one is awesome! I have started trying to remember to carry the camera with me all the time "just in case" so I'm not limited to what I can catch on the mobile. Camera is only a small digital pocker size job, but shoots 7 megapixel so if a cloud like that comes up I should be prepared!
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The Southern Qld coast is probably one of the best places in the world to see outflow structure that large and impressive! I don't know why they get them more frequently there (even more so than NE NSW) , but they do. From what i've seen documented as far as rain hail and windspeeds go they very rarely have large hail and wind gusts over 100km/h unlike similar structured storms in the USA which often produce giant hail and 100mp/h wind gust's and which develop in much more volatile atmospheres than seen in Qld.
Those shots are very impressive photogenically.
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Storm Report - Wednesday 6 February 2008
Driving home from work along the M4 and looking at the storm west over Penrith was impressive. I decided to drive to Penrith and have a look at it. As I closed in on that storm, I observed banding of cloud and unique dark hues and colours that I have not seen for a while.
I was caught in a traffic jam approaching Penrith. Just near the St Clair exit, I heard a report on 2UE radio of small hail falling at Glenmore Park. I watched a patch of cloud in front of me turn from a dark colour to a white colour which was over Glenmore Park. I took the St Clair exit, turned south, parked of the road and let that white area of cloud pass over me.
It turned out to be a dumping of rain rather than the small hail. Rain was very heavy.
There was little wind as the storm front passed over. There was allot of water or overland flow over the road where I was. After about 20 minutes I decided to drive NE back through Mt Druitt then Parklea following the core of the storm for at least 20 km.
I drove through some very heavy rain. There was flooding along Powers Road due to the rain intensity. Part of Mt Druitt suffered a blackout and I passed one traffic accident most likely attributed to this storm.
Rainfalls in some areas affected were significant being:-
Badgeries Creek 87 mm
The area near Badgeries Creek and vicinity scored anywhere from 50 mm to 87 mm.
Kings Langley 40 mm
Seven Hills 29 mm
Toongabbie 42 mm
There is a recorded fall of 74 mm near Ingleburn.
I noted that I was in the vicinity of some of the areas that scored the higher rainfall totals and hence the flooding or overland flow that I observed either on the road or on the side of roads.
Incidentally the storm weakened east of Parramatta and rainfall totals were quite light, especially over Sydney's north eastern suburbs.
Before this storm hit western Sydney, I was watching on radar at work a significant storm system or squall line occurring on the New South Wales north coast. I had a look at it on a lightning tracker as well and noted some 16,400 lightning flashes in one hour from that system.
Harley Pearman
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Storm report - Thursday 7 February 2008
Thursday lunch time, a small thunderstorm approached Auburn from the south dumping significant further rainfall over Liverpool and then Bankstown. However a new separate thunderstorm cell developed just to the north of Auburn at around 1 pm and the southern storm weakened just as the northern storm intensified.
Quite interesting to watch the northern storm strengthening while the southern storm died into a light shower.
That northern storm moved through Hornsby and Mona Vale.
Of interest was the amount of damage caused. I have briefly summarised these from a Sydney Morning Herald report later that day:-
a) 14,000 homes blacked out at Sutherland following a powerful lightning strike on a power station at Menai. It hit a 132 kilovolt power transformer which caused a fire.
b) A lightning strike onto power lines at Mona Vale plunging some 26,000 homes into darkness.
c) Heavy further downpours at Liverpool and Bankstown with 30 mm falling. Although afterwards I saw one rain gauge part of the network in the southern Sydney area registering close to 50 mm of rain.
d) There was an isolated heavy fall at Terry Hills to the north as well.
After this event, a weaker storm cell moved through large areas of western Sydney from 4 pm to 6 pm dropping further rainfalls in excess of 20 mm before clearing northwards by 6 pm. That last storm caused traffic gridlock and chaos on Windsor Road and other roads and it took me more than 90 minutes to drive from Auburn to Bella Vista, a distance of 18 km.
Harley Pearman