Author Topic: NSW / S QLD Rain/Storms (incl Dunoon Tornado) 24 - 26 Oct 2007  (Read 166402 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Jimmy Deguara

  • Australian and Tornado Alley storm chaser
  • Administrator
  • Wedge tornado F5
  • *
  • Posts: 2,218
  • Gender: Male
  • Storm Chaser since 1993, Tornado Alley 2001
    • Australia Severe Weather
Re: NSW / S QLD Rain/Storms (incl Dunoon Tornado) 24 - 26 Oct 2007
« Reply #75 on: 28 October 2007, 02:27:18 PM »
Fanstastic we had that large storm possibly another supercell on here as well. Michael and I were wandering what it may have been doing and what it looked like when it turned left. Great stuff.

Any idea of the damage it may have caused in the region it affected?

What shows in both pictures are deep inflow bands/beavertail.

In regards to the Ninemsn footage of the second source of the tornado is awesome high contrast. WOW! Well done to the lady who captured it! This tornado has gone for quite some distance.

Kind regards,

Jimmy Deguara
-------------------------------------
Australian Severe Weather
www.australiasevereweather.com

Australian Thunderbolt Tours
www.thunderbolttours.com

Phone  0408 020468  (International :  61  2  408 020468)

Offline Michael Bath

  • storm chaser
  • Administrator
  • Wedge tornado F5
  • *
  • Posts: 1,602
  • Gender: Male
    • Australian Severe Weather
Location: Mcleans Ridges, NSW Northern Rivers
Australian Severe Weather:   http://australiasevereweather.com/
Lightning Photography:   http://www.lightningphotography.com/
Early Warning Network: http://www.ewn.com.au
Contact: Michael Bath

Reed Timmer

  • Guest
Re: NSW / S QLD Rain/Storms (incl Dunoon Tornado) 24 - 26 Oct 2007
« Reply #77 on: 28 October 2007, 11:29:57 PM »
AMAZING pictures and videos Jimmy!

Definitely one of the best up-close videos I've ever seen...let alone from Australia!

I wish I could have been there with you.

Textbook left turn with that supercell on radar.

Congrats,
Reed

Offline Michael Bath

  • storm chaser
  • Administrator
  • Wedge tornado F5
  • *
  • Posts: 1,602
  • Gender: Male
    • Australian Severe Weather
Re: NSW / S QLD Rain/Storms (incl Dunoon Tornado) 24 - 26 Oct 2007
« Reply #78 on: 29 October 2007, 04:28:56 AM »
Finally had a chance to upload some photos of the supercell thunderstorm that went on to produce the tornado at Dunoon. Was out at Casino initially watching the early development and met up with Jimmy. This pic at 12.49pm:



1.16pm was about the time the cell started to organise, it (and another cell to its south) had been fairly low topped prior to this.



1.48pm in Casino



2.05pm about 5ks ESE of Casino



2.28pm in the hail core at Tatham (southwest of Lismore) - stones were up to 4cm but mostly 2 to 3cm diameter. After this I had to head home for work.  Drove through torrential rain and hail for what seemed like ages, only coming out of the rain close to home at McLeans Ridges.



This is the view of the intensifying storm closing in on Dunoon at 3.30pm. Heavy rain soon blocked my view. The thunder was constant for at least 40 minutes.



4pm looking at the back end of the tornadic supercell. The Dunoon tornado was just about to dissipate.



The full gallery of my photos for 26th October can be found here:

http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2007/mb20071026.html

MB


« Last Edit: 29 October 2007, 04:42:55 AM by Michael Bath »
Location: Mcleans Ridges, NSW Northern Rivers
Australian Severe Weather:   http://australiasevereweather.com/
Lightning Photography:   http://www.lightningphotography.com/
Early Warning Network: http://www.ewn.com.au
Contact: Michael Bath

Offline James

  • Elephant Trunk F2
  • *
  • Posts: 149
  • Gender: Male
    • Sydney Storm Chasers
Re: NSW / S QLD Rain/Storms (incl Dunoon Tornado) 24 - 26 Oct 2007
« Reply #79 on: 29 October 2007, 05:35:25 AM »
Great photos there Michael. The last shot really grabbed my attention. Is that cloud like feature adjoining the rain curtain the actual tornado (can only see the top half)?

Offline Shaun Galman

  • Stove pipe F3
  • *
  • Posts: 441
  • Gender: Male
    • ridgelightning.com
Re: NSW / S QLD Rain/Storms (incl Dunoon Tornado) 24 - 26 Oct 2007
« Reply #80 on: 29 October 2007, 06:45:55 AM »
Hi guys,
WELL DONE JIMMY AND MICHAEL!!!
I saw the footage on the news last night and was totally stunned! The shot of the sheet iron going into the sub-station is one for the vault! The pictures show it in much better detail, particularly the shot of the house that has been unfortunately semi-detatched? The shots of the supercell are spectacular also!
Was there much in the way of significant rotation with this supercell, or more to the point, could you notice any while out there in it? 
From the pictures the characteristics of that severe cell look almost textbook!

This has indeed been an amazing start to the storm season!
Great job by all who managed shots of the supercell! (we are all jealous out here) :)

I hope theres a supercell/tornado DVD in the making soon guys!
Take care.
Shauno
Chasing Region: Lightning Ridge. N.S.W.
Website: www.ridgelightning.com

stewart

  • Guest
Re: NSW / S QLD Rain/Storms (incl Dunoon Tornado) 24 - 26 Oct 2007
« Reply #81 on: 29 October 2007, 01:12:42 PM »
Great job mike and jimmy ;D
i could not get any pics as i had other thing i needed to do ::), but yeah good footage of thew tornado, the storm made the news also the paper, as shaun said a great start to the storm season ;D

CHEERS ;D

Offline David Brodrick

  • Elephant Trunk F2
  • *
  • Posts: 130
    • Oz Forecast
Re: NSW / S QLD Rain/Storms (incl Dunoon Tornado) 24 - 26 Oct 2007
« Reply #82 on: 29 October 2007, 01:22:26 PM »
Did the BOM update their warning to include the tornado warning after you rang it in Jimmy?

Offline Michael Thompson

  • Multi-vortex F1
  • *
  • Posts: 57
Re: NSW / S QLD Rain/Storms (incl Dunoon Tornado) 24 - 26 Oct 2007
« Reply #83 on: 29 October 2007, 02:57:20 PM »
Hi Michael B

Nice set of pictures there. I would guess that the last one shows a decent hail shaft, possibly a downburst with high hail content.

You have a few good days lined up for that area this week! ( mind you the 3200 CAPE progged for Scone next Sunday has got to be too good to be true )

and finally congratulations Jimmy, of course I am jealous, but realistically you have put the hard miles, so it was deserved.

Reed Timmer

  • Guest
Re: NSW / S QLD Rain/Storms (incl Dunoon Tornado) 24 - 26 Oct 2007
« Reply #84 on: 30 October 2007, 12:28:42 AM »
Great photos Mike.

I love how the tail cloud is oriented from left to right.  Mirror image of the NH.

It looks like the storms may be rather low-topped.  Was this true? 

Based on the sounding it appears the EL was below 30,000 feet, but this may not have been coincident with peak heating.


Offline Michael Bath

  • storm chaser
  • Administrator
  • Wedge tornado F5
  • *
  • Posts: 1,602
  • Gender: Male
    • Australian Severe Weather
Re: NSW / S QLD Rain/Storms (incl Dunoon Tornado) 24 - 26 Oct 2007
« Reply #85 on: 30 October 2007, 03:34:29 AM »
James - I'm not sure what feature you are referring to, though I could not see the tornado at any stage. Locally heavy rain ruined what would have been a view of it. The last photo is the rear flank of the storm with heavy rain and hail south of the tornado.

Shauno - Jimmy was not able to see any base rotation prior to seeing the tornado due to all the damn trees in that area. However - have a look at the other video clip by the local resident at Modanville and you can see more of the base features.

Reed - the storm tops were peaking about 30,000 feet during the initial thunderstorm development, but it soon pushed much higher. The Brisbane sounding is about 200km north of the event and a few hours prior. GFS had warmer upper temps in Southeast QLD compared to Northeast NSW where the Dunoon tornado occurred.   Storm tops I saw mid to late afternoon would have been about 40,000 feet.

Regards, Michael

Location: Mcleans Ridges, NSW Northern Rivers
Australian Severe Weather:   http://australiasevereweather.com/
Lightning Photography:   http://www.lightningphotography.com/
Early Warning Network: http://www.ewn.com.au
Contact: Michael Bath

Offline Richary

  • Barrel tornado F4
  • *
  • Posts: 680
  • Gender: Male
Re: NSW / S QLD Rain/Storms (incl Dunoon Tornado) 24 - 26 Oct 2007
« Reply #86 on: 30 October 2007, 01:38:48 PM »
Excellent work people. I was in the process of moving from Adelaide to Sydney (via Sydney and Coffs Harbour then back). I saw the tornado footage on Prime News at Lake Macquarie on the Friday night, then Jimmy's story in the Sun Herald yesterday.

I had just arrived at Ermington to sign the lease on the new house with the storm fast approaching with lots of CGs. Then I got to the new house at Rydalmere and the heavens opened. Stopped long enough to make out the driveway and drove into the carport. Lots of close CGs here and some light hail. Unluckily the few shots the camera took didn't capture anything, I have determined that in 7mp in won't continuous shoot and in 5mp it will only do 2 in a row. Have to try 3mp and see if it cooperates more. The older Fuji X700 may do better, but it is in a removal truck and won't arrive for a few days. Shame, there were some spectacular hits nearby.

Oh well, have moved to Sydney and looking forward to a lot more storms!

Offline James

  • Elephant Trunk F2
  • *
  • Posts: 149
  • Gender: Male
    • Sydney Storm Chasers
Re: NSW / S QLD Rain/Storms (incl Dunoon Tornado) 24 - 26 Oct 2007
« Reply #87 on: 30 October 2007, 04:19:26 PM »
No worries Michael. I only had a quick glance at the photo and wasn't sure if there was cloud like structure on the top middle of the precip. That dark section is certainly the heaviest precip/hail curtain I have seen in some time!

Offline David C

  • Global Moderator
  • Barrel tornado F4
  • *
  • Posts: 643
  • Gender: Male
    • Thunderbolt Tours Storm Chasing Adventures
Re: NSW / S QLD Rain/Storms (incl Dunoon Tornado) 24 - 26 Oct 2007
« Reply #88 on: 31 October 2007, 06:55:33 AM »
Last night I watched the footage with Jimmy and Paul, and I have to say, the stuff available online tells only part of the story. This was a quite long-lived, at times large tornado, and had very rapid motion in the condensation funnel and the inner debris cloud. The extent to which it grew in size in a short space of time was remarkable. We'll probably see an F-rating of 1 or 2, depending on the structural aspects of the few buildings that were damaged, but there is no doubting that this was a strong tornado.

As for Sydney (26th Oct), well, the cold pool drifted virtually right over us and here we lacked sufficient mid-level winds for more sustained updrafts. I think deep inflow was there and some nice storms did organize.

I planned on an extended lunch break and with my work being minutes away from the M2, that was the obvious route to go west. Basically sat and watched radar periodically, and darted out as a weak cluster/brokem line of storms was tracking SE towards the outer NW metro area. As I pulled off Old Windsor road I could see that the base was dark, although typical in appearance of disorganized activity; competing updrafts collapsing and their outflow generating new cells, on the sthn flank in this case. Nice CGs at the time. No point going on for this garbage, so I figured I would shoot some brief video of the lightning from a vantage along Jimmy’s street, just in case he could not chase (we have a bit if a running joke re schofields and storms – little did I know what he would experience some 90 minutes later!).

What did interest me was that there appeared to be some solid convergence, a focused line of convective updraft bases. These remained rain free for some time and became substantial. There southern ½ of the metro area and beyond was free of clutter and getting some good insolation. I new things would get interesting at this point as dark menacing bases grew larger in size.

It wasn’t long before the first CGs rained down, powerful strobing bolts all around as I headed south along Windsor road to the M2.



Along the convective line, a dominant updraft, I would guess somewhere over the hills district, appeared to clear precip out on either side. I knew that I had to head back east and could only think of a 4th floor balcony at work providing the only decent N to NW view. All this time I was heading east on the M2 I could see glimpses of interesting base structure through the mirror. Would it crap out before I got a look? Fortunately not.

The next sequence of images are looking WNW from the building at the north flank of intense radar echos. (location marker on google map below, black arrow direction I am pointing camcorder).



I was pretty much leaning over the balcony to try and get this angle in, showing clearly the rain free region that persisted and the intense core to the north. If only we had better flow aloft!!



The CG lightning was frequent and strobed.






There was a good NE infeed at cloud base



I darted across the other side of the building for a view form the southward facing balcony. New bases developing, more dilution of convective energy and more lighting. As the storm moved over North Ryde, there was heavy rain and very frequent lightning and gunshot thunder.


Storm Chaser,
Thunderbolt Tours - USA & Australia Storm Chase Tours
www.thunderbolttours.com

Offline Michael Bath

  • storm chaser
  • Administrator
  • Wedge tornado F5
  • *
  • Posts: 1,602
  • Gender: Male
    • Australian Severe Weather
Re: NSW / S QLD Rain/Storms (incl Dunoon Tornado) 24 - 26 Oct 2007
« Reply #89 on: 31 October 2007, 10:07:57 AM »
Another video of the tornado is available here taken by Tim Hollis at Modanville

http://www.abc.net.au/northcoast/stories/s2075207.htm

Sure shows how big the tornado got !
MB


Location: Mcleans Ridges, NSW Northern Rivers
Australian Severe Weather:   http://australiasevereweather.com/
Lightning Photography:   http://www.lightningphotography.com/
Early Warning Network: http://www.ewn.com.au
Contact: Michael Bath