Author Topic: VIC/NSW Thunderstorms ( incl Victorian tornado discussion ) 9 - 12 February 2010  (Read 59558 times)

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Offline Brad Hannon

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Here's some shots from Thurs 11th Feb including tornado:

« Last Edit: 14 February 2010, 04:34:06 AM by Brad Hannon »
hmmm June 2nd......

Offline Brad Hannon

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Some more images from Thursday 11th Feb:
hmmm June 2nd......

Offline Brad Hannon

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And a few more to tide you over.....:
hmmm June 2nd......

Offline Jimmy Deguara

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Hi Brad,

Nice storms! Some interesting structures there too! Well done.

Can you please annotate the images so visitors are reminded which reference are the tornadoes eg photograph 09 is the ...

I see nice gust front interaction here. Seems like a gustnado exists in the dust - need to see some video as it is not exactly clear here. There is another phoograph which shows precipitation like column - can you place a few more pictures showing this as a sequence - thanks.

I assume the wedge status pictures are still to come.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara
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Offline Jimmy Deguara

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Brad and John,

We any damage photographs taken beyond the road? Here is a link to the damage survey from the Dunoon multivortex tornadic event we suggested high end EF-1 possibly low end EF-2.

http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/stormdamage13.html

http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/stormdamage12.html

http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/stormdamage11.html

On this page just below the Greensburg tornadic damage, there is a few year old damage from a tornado that crossed the road from a confirmed tornado 20km or so E of Coonabarabran.

http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/stormdamage05.html

The region south of Walcha got hit by a tornado in 2002 which we gave a rating in the F2 range due to structural damage to a house but the tree damage was quite significant

http://australiansevereweather.com/storm_news/2002/docs/200210-01.htm    towards the bottom

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara
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Offline Harley Pearman

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Storms Albury Wodonga Region February 8 2010

February 8, 2010, I decided to head to Albury Wodonga region for 4 days for a break which included some minor storm chasing and storm photography.

Late Monday, some thunderstorm activity had developed over the Kiewa Valley near Mt Bogong (North East Victoria) that tracked north west towards the twin cities. However being convective in nature they collapsed soon after sunset. Despite this, the cloud towers provide a spectacle late afternoon. The region has suffered from drought and low rainfall of recent times and any storms or rainfall activity is welcome.

The photos below are taken not long after I had arrived and are taken from Ellis Street Thurgoona looking south east toward the Kiewa Valley. It was not worth chasing this cell as it weakened not long after I had taken them.


Harley Pearman

Offline Harley Pearman

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Storms Albury Wodonga February 9 2010

A similar pattern occurred again on February 9. Late afternoon storms developed largely across the same areas that tracked north west toward the twin cities. Convective storms propagated and decayed across terrain to the east and south east.

I found out that the storms were producing little rainfall but lightning was more of a concern and a few small fires were reported due to lightning strikes. Fortunately they were contained early. The first two photos show the cells propagating east of the twin cities or Lake Hume. I am taking these at Lavington looking east.

Late afternoon or evening, a storm propagated close to Albury Wodonga (third photo). It was elevated and produced minimal rainfall. Lightning was more of a concern due to the dry vegetation. This cell quickly decayed after I took some photos. The third photo is looking south west from Springdale Heights.


Harley Pearman

Offline Harley Pearman

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Storms Albury Wodonga Region February 10 2010

There was more thunderstorm activity during the afternoon which increased in nature for a few hours. I managed to chase a storm around Huon Hill toward Bandiana which produced a substantial rain shower. That storm decayed soon after. Interesting the weather stations for the region did not indicate any rainfall falling anywhere. Hence it appears that the storm passed over a region that did not include a weather station to record it.

There was more afternoon thunderstorm activity but the problem was that too many storms developed. Cells were small and short sharp showers were occurring but decaying quickly. Eventually too much cloud cover inhibited any further storms late afternoon. Rainfall was short, sharp but highly localised. Again, given the nature of the vegetation, grass fires started by lightning strikes was more of an issue.

The 2 photos attached show the typical nature of the storms south of Wodonga taken on the Murray Valley Highway. This is one of many small but brief cells that developed. Similar cells developed around and near Mt Baranduda, toward Beechworth and even into the Kiewa Valley. Chasing was hard as the storms did not last long.  


Harley Pearman

Offline Harley Pearman

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Wagga Wagga rainstorm / Thunderstorm 12 February 2010

Friday 12 February 2010 I drove to Wagga Wagga under cloud and as I was approaching the city on the Olympic Way, I noted a thickening cloud cover to the north west not too far away from me. I stayed in Wagga Wagga to see what would happen as that cloud bank was headed directly toward the city. Light showers started to occur which increased in intensity.

Not long after midday a thunderstorm embedded in the rain / shower activity passed directly over the city producing a heavy downpour. Locals were caught by surprise. As this city has suffered drought and still in drought, people started to gaze out of windows of buildings and even stood outside watching it. This storm was truly embedded within the cloud cover. Gutters were overflowing and water was gushing across footpaths and roadways for a period.

I took this photo during the height of the storm under a shelter with other locals outside Wagga Wagga Markettown on Forsyth Street looking north west. This storm certainly put a smile on people's faces.

Harley Pearman

Offline Jimmy Deguara

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Harley,

That storm on the 9th February 2010 in Albury looks severe - nice crisp side anvil. the distant base indicates that any features would have been about 20 to 30 km further to the southwest or west. It may have been in a weakening phase not long after this given the base seems to have closed in although it is hard to make a definite judgement from the image.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara
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Offline Harley Pearman

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Albury storm 9 February 2010

Jimmy, I attach 2 additional photos of that storm near Albury or Nail Can Hill for your perusal and or comment. I am interested now and I provide you some additional comments to what I observed from my location.

One photo is taken earlier at 7.49 pm (Not 6.49 pm) and one photo is taken later at 8.08 pm (Not 7.08 pm) I was outdoors at 6.30 pm and only noticed some cumulus clouds in that vicinity or to the west of Albury. I did not see any thunderstorm clouds across that part of the sky. The day had been hot and generally sunny being 34 degrees Celsius but it was a dry heat. Storm cells had been building to the east and south. I was watching the western sky and between 7 pm and 8pm this cell developed.

Occasional thunder was audible after 7.30 pm. I could see a solid rain curtain fall from it and the anvil did spread north east overhead but as shown in the second photo taken at 8.08 pm, the storm is showing signs of weakening (Left hand side of the photo). I could again see clear sky to the west of the cell. I did not chase it because I was interested in a developing cumulus tower (Second photo) even closer to me and I thought that another storm would develop close to where I was. Unfortunately nothing occurred and the cloud broke apart after sunset. Generally the storm had a short life span.

The photos are looking west towards Nail Can Hill close to sunset.


Harley Pearman

Offline Brad Hannon

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Brad and John,

We any damage photographs taken beyond the road? Here is a link to the damage survey from the Dunoon multivortex tornadic event we suggested high end EF-1 possibly low end EF-2.


Hi Jimmy, we found little significant damage away from the main path (side roads were investigated) which amazingly followed the general direction of the road and rail line for the distances John noted.  The nature of the damage path is such that there is a bitumin road adjacent to a dual rail line with in turn is abutted by a dirt road - all running parallel to each other with farmland on both sides.  Therefore the width of the road/rail is quite wide and the damage was often observed across the whole width, accounting for the estimates of width of the damage path being consistently 100m (or more at times).

Having looked at your links provided I would have to say we observed significant widespread tree damage and scattered tree debris very similar in nature to the Dunoon pics but no structural damage of any real note.

For those interested in the damage survey and the area in question, here is a map link showing the towns mentioned.  The damage path/s follow the direction of the railway line (north east from Avenel) which has a bitumin road alongside on the south eastern side and a dirt road alongside on the north western side.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=avenel+victoria&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Avenel+Victoria,+Australia&ei=acV4S8ewE4ugkQX8vOz5Cg&ved=0CAkQ8gEwAA&ll=-36.843087,145.352211&spn=0.196724,0.43808&z=12

Our location during the storm when we were seeing, photographing and videoing intense storm behaviour was from Kirwans Bridge Longwood Rd generally looking SE to SSE towards Locksley and Avenel.  Having reviewed photos (with high contrasting) and then found the damage path, the pieces of the jigsaw are coming together.

As John mentioned, reviewing our photos (in high contrast where necessary) revealed some amazing storm behaviour including a likely very large wide circulation with defined angular side walls (which we can now say corresponds well with the location of Avenel and Locksley) well before the action from the same storm closer to Longwood which produced the multi-vortice dusty tornado. It became apparent that a damage survey was appropriate so off we went.  However, we werent anticipating the length and width of the damage path we would find, nor did we expect that we would find such impressive damage from as far southwest as Avenel.  The nature of the damage includes significant amounts of grass flattened and clearly facing different directions, long thin grass reeds embedded and protruding under the rail line between the sleepers, many dozens of large gums damaged or brought down over long distances with many 100's of limbs and branches hanging in other trees or laying in different directions along the damage path.  The evidence of vorticity throughout the damage path leaves us in no doubt that this was a tornadic event and matches our observations, photos and video at the time.  Further investigation is needed closer to Longwood and on the eastern side of the Hume where our photos also indicate possible further tornadic behaviour including another suspicious looking large circulation to our SE becoming rain wrapped by a huge RFD as we raced NE up the Hume.

Brad.



hmmm June 2nd......

Offline Brad Hannon

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Nice pics and reports there Harley!  well done.
hmmm June 2nd......

Offline Jimmy Deguara

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Brad and John,

You mentioned on the phone that there was debri cleared off the road by perhaps SES guys and you left that out. How did you get to distinguish those that were touched by workers from those that weren't? Furthermore, the trees in question in some cases seemed rather weak from years of drought I guess? Is this the case in some of the images? Finally, how many people did you try and interview? You talked about the one whom you interviewed and said it was a bit of wind and was not really interested - were there others? When there is a tornado, the noise sounding like a freight train is obvous even from 100 metres away as was the case in the Dunoon tornado since the damage path leads to the initial conclusion of a similar strength tornado in the preliminary estimates.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara
« Last Edit: 16 February 2010, 12:14:06 PM by Jimmy Deguara »
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Offline Brad Hannon

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Hi Jimmy, to add to John's reply there were plenty of examples of substantial tree limbs that had been chainsawed and left in piles roadside but we didnt focus on those due to the plentiful undisturbed damage, the majority of which was healthy. Note that there was also significant older tree damage and fallen limbs which we discounted as likely being from the New Years Eve (squall?) that came through this area. The other thing I noted was tractor or front end loader tire tracks (in the fresh mud tracks left by roadside flash flooding) leading up to debris that had been pushed away from the road in a few places.

The guy I spoke to (who clearly wasnt interested in talking) lived within 50m of flattened long grass and some minor (compared to the rest) tree damage but was at the very start of the damage path as we observed.  Keeping in mind the long damage path that was heading directly away from this house and the heavy rainfall it is quite possible that they heard nothing 'abnormal' in their opinion.  Furthermore, along the entire lengths of the damage paths I recall seeing only one farm (set back 100's of metres from the road), one closed council maintenance yard, one small industrial plant and a cattle yard and thats about it.  Hopefully the next stage of our investigation may find more locals closer to Longwood and the Hume.

Brad.
hmmm June 2nd......