Author Topic: Darwin Storm events 2007/2008  (Read 103344 times)

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Offline Mike

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Re: Darwin Storm events 2007/2008
« Reply #75 on: 28 November 2007, 12:03:53 PM »
27 November2007

Some decent convective stuff around this arvo, so much so that BoM issues a severe weather warning - now that is something - but alas, they cancelled it soon after posting the warning!  The storms just don't like coming to town on occasions and this is why I don't chase the big storms unless they come within 40km of town - it's just not worth the petrol!  The time you spend chasing out there to intercept them, they're blown out when you get there...makes for frustrating chasing on occasions.

Sometimes it's better to sit at home and watch the clouds come in, if they pass the 50km radar line there's some hope!

Mike
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Offline Jimmy Deguara

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Re: Darwin Storm events 2007/2008
« Reply #76 on: 28 November 2007, 02:59:58 PM »
Mike,

Quote
Hi Jimmy.  In reference to dryline storms - sorry about that - was thinking about something I read in the paper here last week when they came through and I'm sure it mentioned the words 'dry line' in the story about our weather - look, it may have been something else in reference to it and we'll just forget about that bit in my last post, it was something that was sticking in my mind when posting :)  Would be nice though!

I think you may be referring to gulf lines. I confirmed this name offline with Macca who may want to elaborate on this. It has been a while since I have read the paper making reference to this storm complex type.

Oh and what is this? It seems Macca is up in the northwest and now Nick Moir is also treading up into that territory! Enjoy the storms during what seems to be an active season - has not been one for a while!

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara
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Re: Darwin Storm events 2007/2008
« Reply #77 on: 28 November 2007, 04:30:59 PM »
I'm not sure if it is technical a dry line but certainly west of the coast line in NW Western Australia there is often a very sharp moisture gradient. Take Broome, it currently has a dew point of 25.6C while further inland at Fitzroy Crossing the dew point is -1.3C. The Broome sounding often has massive elevated mixed layers that cap down the moist boundary layer. It's not rare there to have 3000+ CAPE and no storms. Form my understanding I would call that a dryline. I'm not sure if that is a feature in NT storm setups or not though.

Offline Jimmy Deguara

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Re: Darwin Storm events 2007/2008
« Reply #78 on: 29 November 2007, 04:58:33 AM »

I will begin another section where the dryline can be discussed further in detail. The topic has been started here:

http://www.australiasevereweather.com/forum/index.php?topic=641.msg5314

We will keep this thread realated to Darwin 2007/2008.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara
« Last Edit: 29 November 2007, 05:15:25 AM by Jimmy Deguara »
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Offline Mike

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Re: Darwin Storm events 2007/2008
« Reply #79 on: 01 December 2007, 10:18:50 PM »
December 1 2007

Hi all.  Back from some R&R from the NT NE coast.  Nuff all storms at night - big one the first day i was there but more on that later....

Darwin: Line of multicells converged on the rural area around 6-9pm.  Again i was at dinner break from work but there was a supercharged lightning display - was actually a little boring (did i say that!) watching the clouds lit up light xmas trees continuously!  The storms were a little way from where i was at the wharf but managed some nice shots whilst i was there.  The occasional CG, one nice one which i captured - but one shot intrigues me.  You will see a photo of a vertical bolt at the top of the dome - have i captured a blue jet???  There would be no reason to suspect that I haven't considering the highly charged storms - maybe those in the know could comment on it.

Will post some pics from the trip soon - neat stuff actually!

Mike

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Offline Mike

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Re: Darwin Storm events 2007/2008
« Reply #80 on: 03 December 2007, 08:25:42 AM »
Not so much a chase report but some pics from my R&R trip away on the Cobourg Peninsular last week.

Photos i've posted show some CUs building on their way to the NE side of Darwin and the nice aircraft shots show the Tiwi Islands to the north of Darwin.  This is Hector convection country.  I was amazed to see how much cloud convection there is on these islands and with the Arafura sea surrounding it the ocean was cloudless!  No wonder hector storms reach massive sizes, there's just so much fuel for the storms to propogate there and the land mass is large enough to sustain daytime heating to assist it with the amount of moisture around from the sea.  There were some large CUs building in the centre of the islands and moving westward which is the norm..

There's three reasons you don't swim in the ocean surrounding the NT, (1) Crocs, (2) box jellyfish (3) and sharks!!! - this thing was only 10 metres off the beach where i was standing - yikes!


A storm rolled through the afternoon I got there and although it was rumbles galore i did not see any lightning per se, the rain certainly closed in quickly and the only lightning I did see was bright anvil crawlers - even during the day!

Only saw the top of Hector on the second day, the tower was just imense poking above the low level stuff and natural bushland restricted my views.

I noticed Darwin got a very large line of storms that evening - much to my disgust!  All in all a very relaxing time off and was not overly concerned whether it stormed or not!

Inland storms the forecast for today in Darwin.  westerlies are pushing anything away from darwin but the storms that have been forming inland have been monsters.  Will have to see what transpires later on to see if I'll head out.  Nick Moir arrives tonight and we'll probably team up and chase them during the week.

Mike
« Last Edit: 03 December 2007, 08:33:22 AM by Mike »
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Offline Michael Bath

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Re: Darwin Storm events 2007/2008
« Reply #81 on: 03 December 2007, 10:42:47 AM »
Hi Mike - RE: blue jet.   I was under the impression this was only something you could see above an anvil from a long distance away.   You will get little upward zits now and then at the top of strong updrafts. I agree the very straight nature of the one you photographed is interesting.

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Offline Mike

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Re: Darwin Storm events 2007/2008
« Reply #82 on: 03 December 2007, 10:58:44 AM »
Yes hence my curiosity!  Perhaps it's just a strike between the cloud above and the dome - don't know - i was looking for the flare above it but is not visible...one for the 'dunno file'.

Stinking hot here. gusty winds and a couple of things building out afar - my beer is cold enough to keep me from wasting my time chasing right now, but later who knows!
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Offline Mike

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Re: Darwin Storm events 2007/2008
« Reply #83 on: 05 December 2007, 06:07:47 AM »
December 4 2007

Lots of storm action this morning in the wee hours.  A squall line developed ove Katherine 290km to our south and overnight reached darwin producing some wonderful lightning in all areas.  Went out about 4:30am and managed a few, but not worthy of 'keepers' - so much CC lightning that it made the CG's just too bright.

Nick Moir and I have been chasing yesterday also down at Jabiru about 200km to the east - some pulsy stuff but died - so we classed that as a bust!  The westerlie winds in the mids were creating havoc with the storms, really killing them off.  Today is a lot better as they ease hence we'er heading down south to intercept the squall lines developing again. Last night it was a pearler there apparently.

BoM says that tomorrow and thursday will be going off for squall lines here, with a trough line sitting through us and much more fuel in the next few days to spark them off fully.

Should be interesting to say the least.  Nick is a well experienced chaser, certainly has taught me so much in the two days with him.  Lots of stories of his trips to the US and in Oz with Jimmy et al - a few laughs were had - all positive of course!

Gotta go - chasing a wait'n!

Mike
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Offline Adrian

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Re: Darwin Storm events 2007/2008
« Reply #84 on: 05 December 2007, 07:40:13 AM »
Dec 4 2007

Have to concur with Mike, lots of CC's and the a few good CG's (will post some photo's tonight), however the CG's were very few and far between.  Hit the road at about 0430 as well and headed down to the wharf where upon the rain set in.  Bailed back to the house and managed to get 2 good CG's, before the storm moved out of range at about 0540.

Cheers,
.adrian

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Re: Darwin Storm events 2007/2008
« Reply #85 on: 05 December 2007, 12:30:25 PM »
December 04 2007

Here are a few photo's from the thunder and lightning show that was put on in Darwin in the early hours of this morning.  Have also added the radar image, but unfortunately only took the snapshot after the storm passed town.  I think it was moving NW, as it pretty much bypassed the city.

Mike will have to catch up with you and have a beer at some stage.... possibly after the silly season ??


Cheers,
.adrian

Offline Mike

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Re: Darwin Storm events 2007/2008
« Reply #86 on: 05 December 2007, 06:33:36 PM »
December 4 2007

Beaut pics there Adrian.  will def catch up with you for that brew.

Nick Moir was also out chasing at that time, he just about covered the whole of Darwin in two hours!  He captured some nice shots from all over the place - the guy is a machine!

Nick and I just returned from Katherine around 10pm today (Dec 4) after chasing over 800km.  We intercepted what could 'possibly' be a supercell - height of storm was over 23km, hail, microbursts, wind gusts of at least 90kmh, trees felled - the list goes on. We core punched twice and have some wonderful photos.  Will do a full report tomorrow with photos.  An outstanding experience in storm chasing, something i'll never forget!  The storm was just way to big to be a severe pulse - it lasted over 4 hours on its own!

Mike (red eye'd and pretty buggered!)
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Offline Mike

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Re: Darwin Storm events 2007/2008
« Reply #87 on: 06 December 2007, 05:03:06 AM »
Storm chase report from December 4 2007

840km chase run: After Katherine’s two previous days of massive lightning and storms from the trough Nick Moir and I decided to go down for perhaps a third event.  All the numbers were huge, CAPE at over 4800, LI’s at -8+, humidity and temps were great 38c and 24 for DP’s.  Quite high but the humidity right through the morning ranged from 87% but slackened off to around 50% when we arrived, still quite good.  Upper temps were around -7C at 600 which was ideal for this storm to get going.  The storm that we encountered at a top reaching 23km and something about 50DZ which is attributable to hail or something..:)

The upper level cloud cover had finally burnt off and cumulous were slowly but surely converging into the area we were wanting. BoM was 60% confident of something happening, but not to the extent of the last few days previous.

Radar obs showed storms building to the SE but a convergence line was forming to the W/SW.  GIF wind profiles had convergence lines to the SE and also in that area.  We headed out to Tindal airport to get some clearer air for the obs and for cloud observation and it was not long before we decided that heading west toward Kununurra was the best option as the storms that were pulsing were tracking that way.  We calculated that the Victoria Highway was smack bang where we needed to be to intercept the cell.   We were about 140km from the actual system and could not determine what was happening as we could not see the cloud bases.  The closer we got we saw cells pulsing with pileus and still rising – a good sign – especially when they were at the front of the storm.  This showed us that the cell was healthy and with plenty of fuel gathering within.  We reached the storm and it was beautifully organized.  Lots of warm inflow.  We stopped at several places to get some structure shots and there were plenty of strong CGs.  We backtracked towards Katherine to get around to the inflow region as the location we were at was getting too much precip coming our way..

We found a great spot next to a large antenna tower and that’s when the beast exploded!  We were taking shots outside and the inflow was alternating with outflow – excellent mixing of both, warm air pushing behind us into the cloud and then cool outflow air facing us – quite odd!  We noticed the cloud and rain shaft turning a dark green which was awesome to view, so we decided to core punch the thing to see what was happening inside. Then the wind picked up as we approached and within a few minutes it was pelting down – the winds we estimated were at least 80-90kmh due to small branches being ripped off trees and flung across the road as we drove and lots of leaf litter making things difficult.  We had to slow down the driving speed as the water on the road was atrocious, no aquaplaning for me!.  Several older but large trees were felled along the way.  Hail fell as we pulled over to a side road to get some photos of strong CGs. The hail was minimum 1-1.5cm in diameter.  It was surely at least 2cm in the core on the other side.  Driving out of the core we encountered another outflow region with the same results.  Two separate microbursts with hail.

 Lightning had started a great scrub fire on the side of the road on the way back to Katherine and we got heaps of great shots of us both in the thick of the flames getting photos.  Added to that mammatus had formed above us which was a nice treat.  Nick is a pyromaniac and was just throwing himself into the flames, waiting for the wind to pick up from the outflow and whip up the flames, I got some great shots of him in the thick of things.

The storm lulled a little so we fuelled up back in Katherine and checked the obs again and decided to head north to intercept what we saw was a separate right mover detaching from the main system and heading for Pine Creek. 

Our timing was to get to the lookout and get some lightning.  We reached the lookout around 6:30pm and set up, the storm was still in the throws of weakening a little and there was only zits of lightning – no new pulse towers formed in the inflow and it must have got caught up in dry air as there was no more movement of the storm.  The anvil was fibrous on the eastern side, but on the western side it was a bit better structured and most of the lightning was on that side of the storm.

After about an hour of waiting we decided that was it and headed home.  On the way the cell fired up again and was throwing out some odd angled CGs.  We desperately tried to find an opening in the scrub to get some photos and found a side road and did a U-turn and faced the storm.  Not having anything to focus on was a real pain and just as soon as we set up the thing died – ironic to say the least.

No complaints from us as far as the chase went.  We got all the attributes of a very severe storm and personally finding hail that size in two separate areas of the storm was excellent.  I did not get any CGs unfortunately, in fact Nick only managed a couple – that’s how fast they were striking! 

I’ll have to down load a bunch of photos to the forum later on as all my storm shots are on his laptop as I wanted to make room on the card.  Will do that later on as we’re heading out again to chase down at Jabiru about 240km to the SE.  Goss from BoM is that around 1pm we should see some squall lines develop, they won't reach Darwin they say which will peeve a few chasers up here!

The photo's are worth the wait and Nick is pretty happy with what he's found thus far as far as tropical storms go, he was stunned to see how much CAPE and the like we have, he mentioned that with those numbers in NSW they'd get huge supercells.

Mike

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Offline nmoir

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Re: Darwin Storm events 2007/2008
« Reply #88 on: 06 December 2007, 11:49:53 AM »
 The katherine chase was long , fun but frustrating as just as we positione ourselves to get a good look at the storm as it grew northwards it was murdered by dry north west inflow. but was surprised to get hail. no decent pix of any base when the storm was more singular and isolated because of TREES!!!!!!!!

any way heres a few pix

nick
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Offline Mike

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Re: Darwin Storm events 2007/2008
« Reply #89 on: 06 December 2007, 12:02:03 PM »
here's some photos to start with....one is of Nick in the thick of the fire.  will post some further stuff soon.

Mike
Darwin, Northern Territory.
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Lightning Research 2010/14