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Severe storms pound the Mid North Coast near Macksville with hail, violent winds and very heavy rainfall: Wednesday 28th December 2005
Report compiled by Jimmy Deguara and Michael Bath

If you have any photos or video of this event, please email.

After a build-up of relatively weak storms near Coffs Harbour, the main trough began to approach from the southwest with impressive lightning static.

I positioned on the mid-North Coast south of Macksville where high based storms came into view. The storms were not tapping into the low level moisture though the updrafts were developing rapidly. It seemed after a reasonable wait, one storm near Port Macquarie began to indicate a hail structure! Thunder could be heard from storms associated with this line of discrete cell activity.

Finally storms began to intensify further west along this line. A detached shelf cloud structure began to develop becoming more impressive with a double layering! And then lightning! At first not so frequent but as the storms became surfaced based, the lightning activity exploded!

Moving near Macksville and Nambucca Heads, and winds were certainly and unexpectedly fierce based on what structure was coming through - I guess the lightning behaviour was the main hint of what was to unfold. It has been a while since my car shock in ferocious winds. I parked myself in the safest position with less debris. It was very powerful - video very spectacular.

Moving down the coast to Kempsey, I was treated to a beautiful sunset display reflecting off the remnant anvil!

Dave Sercombe photographed the same storm from Coffs Harbour bertween 5.40 and 6.10pm:

Severe outflow at 6.10pm [900kb AVI]

See also the report by Michael Bath of storms at Ballina later in the day.


Radar

From Bureau of Meteorology

  • Grafton local scale loop 0200z to 1300z 28/12/2005 (1pm to midnight NSW time)
  • Grafton medium scale loop 0200z to 1400z 28/12/2005 (1pm to midnight NSW time)
  • Newcastle medium scale loop 0100z to 0800z 28/12/2005 (noon to 7pm NSW time)


    Satellite Images

    From Weatherzone

    02z 03z 04z 05z 06z 07z 08z 1pm to 7pm local


    Analysis Charts

    From Bureau of Meteorology

    Williamtown sounding at 11am 28/12 local

    28/12/2005 06z


    GFS Model Analysis

    From NOAA 28/12/2005 06z analysis

  • Liftex Index
  • CAPE
  • Relative Humidity surface
  • Relative Humidity 850 hPa
  • Relative Humidity 700 hPa
  • Relative Humidity 600 hPa
  • Relative Humidity 500 hPa
  • Relative Humidity 300 hPa
  • Temperature (C) surface
  • Temperature (C) 850 hPa
  • Temperature (C) 700 hPa
  • Temperature (C) 500 hPa
  • Temperature (C) 300 hPa
  • Winds (knots) surface
  • Winds (knots) 925 hPa
  • Winds (knots) 850 hPa
  • Winds (knots) 700 hPa
  • Winds (knots) 500 hPa
  • Winds (knots) 300 hPa
  • Winds (knots) 200 hPa


    Document: 200512-08.htm
    Updated: 31st October 2006
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