Author Topic: Eastern NSW / SE QLD Storms 10th - 12th Feb 2007  (Read 43190 times)

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Offline Michael Bath

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Offline Michael Bath

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RE: Eastern NSW / SE QLD Storms 10th - 12th Feb 2007
« Reply #16 on: 12 February 2007, 05:37:51 AM »
The chase yesterday was a rush job as I was supposed to be home looking after the kids... But around 1pm radar showed some development near Glen Innes and I just took off estimating I would have 2 hours to get to the target if those cells kept going and the shear forecast was about right. GFS had undercooked the instability on the northern part of the Northern Tablelands though.

The drive from my place to Tenterfield normally takes 2 hours, so the 1 hour 50 mins was good going. I stopped for fuel and then noticed the bloody vibration through the steering was back. Had only just had the wheels balanced and aligned on Thursday after I noticed a problem on Wednesday evening. Grrrrrrrr,  I pressed on even though it seemed worse than the other day.

Headed straight south down the New England Highway as the severe storm came into view properly - I had caught glimpses of it in the distance during the drive up the Divide. It really did appear to be a very powerful storm.  I wasn't sure of side roads here, but sort of knew there were some roads east of the highway before I would get to Bolvia Hill and too many trees. Sandy Flat was the location where I took the pics of the base. A local stopped to check if I was ok, so asked him what the road was like to the east .... "you can go 8ks east with mainly just open paddocks, then it goes north but into trees". 

I headed east and soon encountered strong outflow, a little rain and then sporadic hail 1cm to 2cm diameter. The cell had just beaten me and was passing north of the dirt road I was on. I measured some stones then caught a glimpse into the northern valley - it was white with hail !  The road then took me right into the hail swathe where the cover of mainly 3-4cm stones was impressive. I don't recall seeing so much hail cover from large hail before, actually I haven't seen this much with small hail either.  I measured some stones at almost 5cm. I moved a bit further north where the hail fog and snow effect was magic.

All the while deep booms of thunder echoed through the area from the hailstorm, and also another storm to the SW.

After I had the hail fun, I headed back north to Tenterfield to keep out of the rain and see if the next cell would be any good.

The cell I had been on intensified again just NE of town but it was moving into inaccessible country and I was still worried about the car problem.


Larger view: http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/photos/2007021009.jpg

I waited back in town briefly and thought I may get the NRMA to check it as I could not see anything wrong with the tyres. Mobile phones dead - no signal ! great - maybe the tower had been disabled by the storm. So much for getting it checked. Used a payphone but it went to the local's mobile answering machine. Really useful. Just as well the car wasn't completely stuffed.

I decided to keep going to the next potential target as I had expected more storms to persist from the Inverell direction into the evening. I ended up about 50ks west of Tenterfield on the Bruxner Highway. I was hoping the mobile phone tower was ok down this way and just as well it was - so I could at least phone home and let Al know what was going on :)  The vibration in the front of the car had become very bad now so I took my fourth look at the front right - major bulge in the tyre surface - not sure why I could not detect it previously - and no wonder it was bad. Changed it and was right after that !!  I suspect this was the cause of the problem I went into get fixed on Thursday - not happy Jan !

Cells developed into the evening providing some lightning opportunities though nothing was really close. The main one developed west of Texas and moved east just north of me. I tried a few locations near Glenlyon Dam and then back along the Bruxner. Several big anvil crawlers occurred and interesting roll and shelf cloud structures on the southern side of the storm were lit up.


Larger view: http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/photos/2007021010.jpg


Larger view: http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/photos/2007021011.jpg


Larger view: http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/photos/2007021012.jpg

Michael

« Last Edit: 04 October 2007, 02:34:24 AM by Michael Bath »
Location: Mcleans Ridges, NSW Northern Rivers
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Offline Michael Bath

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RE: Eastern NSW / SE QLD Storms 10th - 12th Feb 2007
« Reply #17 on: 12 February 2007, 05:42:48 AM »
MichaelT - what was the time of the lowering ?  Would be good to have a look at the radar at the time.

MB
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Offline David Brodrick

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RE: Eastern NSW / SE QLD Storms 10th - 12th Feb 2007
« Reply #18 on: 12 February 2007, 08:21:20 AM »
We had some nice storms around Narrabri last night as well. There was a very high level of lightning activity. Also a short-lived circular base feature.



Larger Photo


Larger Photo

Full report at http://narrabriweather.net/events/10Feb2007.html

Offline Mike

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RE: Eastern NSW / SE QLD Storms 10th - 12th Feb 2007
« Reply #19 on: 12 February 2007, 01:47:45 PM »
Michael/T - that is such a fantastic shot of the lightnign over the ocean.  Just so awesome . well done and well timed!
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Offline Jimmy Deguara

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RE: Eastern NSW / SE QLD Storms 10th - 12th Feb 2007
« Reply #20 on: 13 February 2007, 01:56:55 AM »
Hi guys,

I got back from Saturday and Sunday chasing last night. For Sunday, the action took of late so not much to report given I had to be back and beat all the kangaroos so I mised out on what would have been an impressive lightning show. But Saturday was pretty nice particularly the cell that passed near Gulgong.

Jef, no I wasn't the one who reported the 5cm hail near Rhylestone. I was too far away when those updrafts became very strong and moved off the range. Similar near Scone apparently. Powerful overshoots.

Some nice storms all around from the various chasers here in Sydney well done! I'll post the pictures when I get home later.

Regards,

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Offline Michael Bath

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RE: Eastern NSW / SE QLD Storms 10th - 12th Feb 2007
« Reply #21 on: 13 February 2007, 04:44:39 AM »
All my photos for Saturday's hailstorm and lightning chase in the Tenterfield area can be seen here:

http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2007/mb20070210.html


Radar loops:

Grafton 128

Grafton 256

Michael

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Offline David C

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RE: Eastern NSW / SE QLD Storms 10th - 12th Feb 2007
« Reply #22 on: 13 February 2007, 06:38:50 AM »
MichaelT - what was the time of the lowering ?  Would be good to have a look at the radar at the time.

MB

I agree MichaelB, MichaelT it does look like a vortex of some sort (and the other photos of the storm are excellent!). I dont think the radar would pick anything else up since it would be on too small a scale - always worth a look at the storms around at the time though. Any evidence of any localised strong winds Michael, if you have had a chance to check it out?

Those hailstorms storms further north were very nice too - that hail fog pic is a beauty. The last week has been excellent....
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Offline Jimmy Deguara

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RE: Eastern NSW / SE QLD Storms 10th - 12th Feb 2007
« Reply #23 on: 13 February 2007, 10:50:27 AM »
Hi,

I spoke to Jeff Brislane earlier and he suggested that the storm near Rylestone producing hail to 5cm was on Saturday. This was east of the storm I chased - no wonder it had a deep green tinge right through and was very lightning active at the time. I could not get under it in time - where I was hail to 1cm and drenching heavy rain occured. I was heading back from near Wellington when I noted the storms there were a little higher based.

Anyway pictures will be up soon.

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Jimmy Deguara
« Last Edit: 13 February 2007, 05:45:09 PM by Jimmy Deguara »
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Offline pingtang

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RE: Eastern NSW / SE QLD Storms 10th - 12th Feb 2007
« Reply #24 on: 13 February 2007, 11:53:29 AM »
Good afternoon.

I have a few more pics of the Canyonleigh storm.Photos taken approx 3kms west of the Hume Highway.


The storm is very much outflow dominant now.Heres a pic of a developing shelf cloud. Torrential rain and 1-2cm hail immediatly followed.



Some brilliant pulsing CGs ahead of the main core.Despite the heavy rain,I pulled over and tried my luck. I couldent nail a good one,but im still quite happy with this.



The storm weakened into a mass of thundery rain,so we headed for home.Just after nightfall a convergence line developed 5kms to the east of my house. 



The thunder and lightning continued throughout the night,along with some very heavy rainfall. I recorded 110millimetres in just 6hours between 10am and 4pm. Nowra AWS 10kms to my south recorded 103mms in 5hours between 9am and 2pm,Sunday. Heres some links of some of the flooding near Nowra AWS.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/pingtang100/P1013652flood.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/pingtang100/P1013637edit.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/pingtang100/P1013635.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/pingtang100/P1013682flood.jpg


Quite eventful couple of days :)




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RE: Eastern NSW / SE QLD Storms 10th - 12th Feb 2007
« Reply #25 on: 13 February 2007, 12:43:41 PM »
Nice photos pingtang. We just had a great storm build up very quickly just in front of an appraching squall line that at one stage spanned from Rowena to Stanthorpe.
The rainfall looked EXTREMELY heavy, although it was concentrated north of town - the most our automatic weather stations recorded was 15mm in an hour but I suspect the totals were two or three times this in other areas.

Very impressive shelf cloud and some other lowerings:

Larger photo


Larger photo

Regards,
  Dave



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RE: Eastern NSW / SE QLD Storms 10th - 12th Feb 2007
« Reply #26 on: 13 February 2007, 02:37:37 PM »
Here are a few pics of the storm we watched west of Mittagtong. We were heading west to intercept the cells on the Dividing range but we never got any further than the top of the last decent before goodmans ford. When we got there we realised pretty quickly that it was not in any hurry so we stayed there and watched the whole show. I first saw the base at 3:50pm and started taking photos at 4pm. By 4:25 it was starting to become undercut and I took my last pic below at 4:40pm. It dropped heaps of cg's including many branched stacattos. We never got into the outflow so I have no idea if there was hail but I know it would have been a treacherous drive up the mountain to Wombeyan Caves with the intensity of the outflow.

We had an easterly blowing for nearly the whole time we were there and at times it was quite gusty and there was good inflow into the base and good speed in the upmotion of scud under the base.


























Jeff.
« Last Edit: 13 February 2007, 02:46:05 PM by Jeff Brislane »

Offline Jimmy Deguara

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RE: Eastern NSW / SE QLD Storms 10th - 12th Feb 2007
« Reply #27 on: 13 February 2007, 04:43:33 PM »
Hi David,

I changed the title to include your action there. Nice shelf cloud. It looks like the entrance to Narrabri?

Pintang, Michael T, Michael Bath, et al nice photgenic storms - well done! Nice green tinge in some of the pictures - that is what I enjoy seeing:) Nice hail drifts there Michael! I posted the same time as you Jeff - so I will add very nice lookout perspective of the severe storm you were on Jeff! All the storms you guys were on Sunday are photogenic.

I will add a couple of pictures basically from Saturday's chase - Sunday was not a proper chase given I had to leave whatever was developing out there. The main centre of attention was this cell that passed east of Gulgong Mudgee line and produced the report 5cm hailstones at Rylestone. Based on my timing there was little chance of me intercerpting it unless I headed towards Ulan and possibly east of there. I only had to be there perhaps 15 - 20 minutes earlier!

Correction - the cell that produced the 5cm hail was further east this was next in line but does not appear intense on radar - perhaps attenuation?

Near Wellington


The Rylestone storm near Gulgong now north of Gulgong - it seem to be moving rapidly from my perspective


I gave chase up towards Dunedoo in case of new development but I guess should have taken the road to Ulan - time to buy a compass:)



All storm pics for this day

http://www.australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2007/jd20070210.html

Not much the next day leaving too early in case of Kangaroos (even then on the way to Lithgow one Kangaroo followed another as they charged across the road) in front of me

http://www.australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2007/jd20070211.html

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara
« Last Edit: 13 February 2007, 05:42:33 PM by Jimmy Deguara »
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Offline David C

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RE: Eastern NSW / SE QLD Storms 10th - 12th Feb 2007
« Reply #28 on: 13 February 2007, 05:16:19 PM »
More awesome pics Jeff and Jimmy......this event was beautifully covered by all you guys.

Jimmy pic no.3 is AWESOME...that feathered appearance looks like a meso there!!  What does everyone else think?
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Offline Michael Bath

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RE: Eastern NSW / SE QLD Storms 10th - 12th Feb 2007
« Reply #29 on: 14 February 2007, 03:18:12 AM »
Neil Cox has kindly sent in these photos of the Port Kembla waterspout. It occurred 4pm on 11th Feb.

Nine of Neil's photos can be found here:

http://australiansevereweather.com.au/tornado.htm



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