Storm Australian Severe Weather Forum
Severe Weather Discussion => Australian Severe Storms, Weather Events and Storm Chasing => Topic started by: Michael Bath on 24 February 2009, 08:25:42 AM
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BoM have just issed a severe thunderstorm warning for a large part of central NSW including Canberra and the Blue Mountains. Plenty of lightning on tracker over the past hour.
Next few days should see some more thunderstorms over NSW in particular.
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Looks like the conditions today surprised the BOM a little.
The cell over Warragamba looks interesting (3pm). Left mover with possible early supercell appearence ("<" shape). I guess it will lose intensity towards the coast.
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Hi guys,
Certainly is an interesting day down south. I noticed that Nowra is about to have a storm onslaught that is well into the severe range on the Cooma radar. Sydney got lucky also by the looks.
I was keeping an eye on that weaker storm line building out near Bourke/Brewarrina earlier on near to 4pm. I saw 3 large anvils forming (still visible now on the VIS sat- 5:55pm EDST) out to the West and they looked interesting. Temps are fairly warm today at around 34ºc and there feels to be some humidity about.
Most of the Cu field we were under earlier seems to have burnt off, leaving the main cells to do their thing. If they make it over here tonight at any point I will surely get out there amongst it :D
Kindest regards,
Shauno.
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We had a storm tracking in towards here that formed SW of Penrith, but apart from a few rumbles and spits of rain nothing happened, it petered out by the time it hit Parramatta.
The earlier storm that formed in the northern part of the Blue Mountains and tracked north of Glenorie underwent a few different changes in intensity during it's life, briefly reaching a nice black core just west of Mangrove Mountain at about 5:50pm before falling apart.
In some ways it's a shame these storms came through as they have probably taken enough energy out of the atmosphere to diminish the possibility of the ones coming in from west of the mountains making it this far east. We can live in hope though!
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I was out and about earlier around Penrith. The original cell that developed SW of Penrith showed some interesting low precipitation characteristics before deteriorating just south of Penrith. I intercepted the decaying updraft west of Mulgoa in the hope of seeing some hail but there was nothing.
I headed back into Penrith just after 4pm and watched the next cells develop in a line from the Blue Mountains east to Penrith itself. There were some interesting but brief features before a short but powerfull microburst dumped over South Penrith providing the last excitment of the day.
Currently it looks like we should see some more squall line type cells in the next 1-1.5 hours but maybe not that exciting.
Jeff.
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Lots of flashes and rumbling to the west now, though all ICs at least from this distance (It's still a fair way off). Hopefully it will get a bit more spectacular as it gets closer.
Ended up being a bit of a letdown. Mostly ICs with the occasional crawler. Tried getting a few photos but from what I saw on the viewfinder doubt there are any keepers. Oh well, next 2 days to look forward to hopefully. Only light rain, not enough you would be that worried being outside in it.
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Jeff, it seems this supercell was a classic supercell based on the precipitation rear flank downdraft RFD
Report Storm Chase February 23 2009 - Warragamba Classic Supercell
When I noted that storms were already developing and venturing across towards the Southern Tablelands and the Sydney region, I knew there would be some decent chasing opportunities. When I checked out the initial activity, one cell had some reasonable updrafts but later on when I checked it had a weakish anvil.
Finally, after crossing the road for some quick photographs, I noted that the storm was organising somewhat. There was little time wasted in leaving with equipment aimed for the M7. The side sheared anvil was an awesome sight and the updrafts were crisp. I took photographs whenever I could get the opportunity.
The storm was most impressive when it exhibited a new separated updraft complete with classic supercell structure. I never got the opportunity to film or photograph the simultaneous updrafts splitting off. Rain then hid the second updraft from view.
Drifting down Elizabeth Drive, my aim was to position myself near Luddenham. The best views and contrast however were near Badgerys Creek. From here, timelapse and photographs were taken and it gave me a breather to enjoy the spectacle. Gradually the storms precipitation interferred with the updraft and the storm went into a decline.
After nagating suburbia, I met Nick Moir near Castlereagh. Initially, we took a look at his radar and decided it was worth tackling the Hornsby to Gosford vicinity. The prospect of traffic and also a change in storm behaviour and we decided on a quick dash chancing the Wisemans Ferry area. The storm was very lightning active here but we simply ran out of road. The storm finally died quickly near Mangrove Mountain.
After dinner, I got an SMS to join Rune at the local lookout and together with another enthusiast we just relaxed and enjoyed a little lightning show.
All pictures from the 23rd February 2009 here:
http://www.australiasevereweather.com.au/photography/photos/2009/jd20090223.html
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
Pictures to follow:
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Today's Penrith cell displayed some interesting inflow structure before becoming outflow dominant,
(http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w28/elenecon/Storm%20Season%2008-09/Penrithcell230209-1.jpg)
the outflow boundary initiating some nice convection which produced a cell to the west of Parramatta around 5pm
Cell at its peak with nice shelf punching out on the southern side,
(http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w28/elenecon/Storm%20Season%2008-09/Parramattacell230209-3.jpg)
Outflow prong well ahead of the main downdraft
(http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w28/elenecon/Storm%20Season%2008-09/Parramattacell230209-2.jpg)
Storm spat out only two cg's, this was the better one, and then it faded..
(http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w28/elenecon/Storm%20Season%2008-09/Parramattacell230209-1.jpg)
Cheers, Con.
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Con,
That's a nice lightning bolt and also classic supercell you captured!
Included below are some of the lightning pictures:
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I saw it blow up on radar then crawled through traffic until getting on m4 coming from city but it was falling apart by the time i got there , then met up with jimmy and headed towards wisemans ferry
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Some nice structure yesterday. Great to get verification of a supercell after watching the radar and sending alerts to people in the path. I thought the sounding looked pretty good in the morning but conditions also improved by afternoon.
---> Sydney radar loop 23rd Feb (http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2009/radar/20090223/sydney128.htm)
(http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2009/thumbs/2009022219sydney.png) (http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2009/soundings/2009022219sydney.png) Sydney 6am
(http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2009/thumbs/2009022304sydney.png) (http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2009/soundings/2009022304sydney.png) Sydney 3pm
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Today is looking very nice across for Sydney and surrounds! Just had a look at the sounding for this morning and still nice shear there and some unreal dryness above. Should be some beautiful crisp updrafts around with some serious large hail! Could it be two supercells in two days for Greater Sydney...... If I were a betting man I'd be putting some money down. Good luck to everyone out there, can't wait to see pictures later!
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Hi,
I'll try and post more photos later but here is what the later squall line looked like as it came off the Mountains.
(http://www.tempestlight.com/reports/2009/pano%203a_web.jpg)
Regards Jeff.
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Nice looking squall line Jeff.
Late-ish start today. looks like some early activity near Lithgow at 2pm. Conditions look similar to yesterday, except maybe a little hotter and dryer mid level.
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Hi All
Thought i would post a few Lightning pics of the storms that came over the ranges to the Illawarra region (Wollongong)
on Monday 23rd Feb 2009 to which Weatherzone posted a severe thunderstorm warning. This Storm hit Wollongong about 7pm and
moved very quickly to the northeast and lasted about an hour before moving offshore.
This storm produced heavy rain, wind, cg's galore and hail..some to 1cm. Sorry couldn't get pics during storms, got stuck
with observing within my car, not until rainshaft had moved off that i could get these last shots.
Regards
Darinka
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I captured some lightning from the night time storm of 23/2/2009. I took some short film clips as the storm approached Blacktown and have taken the photos from the clips taken. I was on Bungarribee Road near the corner of Panorama Parade Blacktown and facing west.
The lightning varied from sheet to cloud to ground strikes although as the storm passed overhead it weakened.
Only 1 mm of rain fell where I live and the rain was not heavy. It is the first storm I have captured in Sydney for a while because I have been away on holidays travelling and I was not in Sydney for the 21/2/2009 storm event.
Further, I saw the Warragamba Storm of 23/2/2009 from my work office window at Auburn but I had no camera with me. By the time the storm cell reached Auburn , it produced nothing more than a brief shower and a few rumbles of thunder.
Storms in the Sydney basin 23/2/2009 produced 1 mm to 8 mm across most of Western Sydney with Warragamba Dam receiving 16 mm and Katoomba receiving 10 mm. A separate storm dropped 53 mm at Sackville, 43 mm at Lower Portland and 37 mm at Wisemans Ferry north and north west of Sydney.
Harley Pearman
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Thanks for those pics Harley. From the office in Chatswood yesterday I had gone outside at one point and the sky was clear. Went back outside an hour later and the blow off from the top of the Warragamba storm anvil was covering the sky. That was when I checked the radar and realised home could be a target. Not knowing if I had disconnected all my radio gear from antennas (the mast here has been hit once if not twice) I decided to take an early mark to go home and check.
Unluckily by the time the storm got to Rydalmere (Parramatta area for those not in Sydney) it had died off pretty much. My total rainfall was also 1mm, mainly from the later storms.
Got one crawler photo from the attempts last night when the later squall front came through but it's hardly worth keeping, let alone posting. Again, that storm while lighting up the sky well further west over the horizon as it approached but died before it got here.
The Saturday 21/2 storm as it came through suddenly dropped a barrage of CGs around 12:30, generally in the direction I get the worst view (and not expecting them as there hadn't been signs as it approached - just a few rumbles in the sky - hadn't driven out to find a better viewing spot as no structure was visible in any case). Then the small hail, a few more CGs and everything quietened down again.
A bit of late season action, but it has in reality been pretty quiet for a while. Now if we had been living near Singleton, north coast or Brisbane it would have been a much better season. Oh well.
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I am sooo jealous ::) South Australia is in admist of a very long severe thunderstorm drought that doesnt show any signs of breaking anytime soon :-( which is driving me nuts as i wanna go on a storm chase
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Beautiful structures, lightning and colours from everyone! That person walking across the reserve with that big CG must have had them worried Con! A great read of all the posts - so many I had to grab a coffee! I'm enjoying it immensely!
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Glad you had the perspective of witnessing that supercell from close by Jimmy, some nice structure in your shots. The shot I took was around 3.30 , when the inflow bands were running out of fuel. The anvil umbrella put out a long lasting and slow moving mammatus display well beyond 4pm,
(http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w28/elenecon/Storm%20Season%2008-09/Penrithcellmamma23-02-09.jpg)
The nine o'clock lightshow had a fair bit of stagefright and barely made it to Parramatta,
(http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w28/elenecon/Storm%20Season%2008-09/Parramattacell23-02-09-4.jpg)
Richly coloured pano there Jeff, looking forward to some more,
Darinka, fabulous colour in your Illawarra lightning shots, and Mike, I reckon they "just keep on walkin', and will only take note
of what's going on when there is hail about, Cheers, Con.
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Con, I also spotted what I thought was probably mammatus from the afternoon effort but it wasn't as clear as yours in the photo I took. Good to have it confirmed though.
Yes as the evening squall line approached I thought I would be in for a reasonable show the way the sky was lighting up, but it all fizzled by the time it arrived to me at Rydalmere. Shame my job only involves being on high building rooftops during business hours and I can't get access after hours!
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The leftovers of the instability produced a number of coastal storms off the Northern Rivers on the 26th. There were also some weak cells on the ranges between Glen Innes and Deepwater and SE QLD with a few strikes on tracker. The cumulus depth decreased by late afternoon but still looked nice around sunset. An isolated fall of 68mm occurred at Barneys Point (near Tweed Heads) as some of the larger clouds clipped the land.
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On the 23rd February classic supercell chase, I was making my move for the storm to the north when I passed a chaser, I am wandering who it was? This person was on the road near the end of the road to Badgerys Creek which is where I was coming from. I am seriously curious as to what angle of the storm this chaser got - particularly of the earlier stucture? It would have been the perfect position.
Regarding this storm, the difference in lightning activity was significant when comparing it to the cell to the north of Windsor which was extremely lightning active. Also, Michael, it would be great to see the radar from this storm event posted on here since I have not seen it myself. There was a second cell/core or split that I observed just south of the main core through the rain though I could not photograph it at the time then lost sight of it.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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Hi Jimmy - the radar was posted with the soundings on the previous page of this thread.
---> Sydney radar loop 23rd Feb (http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2009/radar/20090223/sydney128.htm)
MB
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Sorry Michael, I missed that. Do I see a hook echo on the radar at two stages of its life cycle - the frames I refer to are 4:10UTC and 4:30UTC - there is definitely a v-notch earlier. Nice left turn on radar too! The angle of deviation is more consistent with a classic supercell.
(http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2009/radar/20090223/idr033-20090223041000.gif)
(http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2009/radar/20090223/idr033-20090223043000.gif)
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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Not quite on topic given the dates, but today's Sydney events don't rate a topic of their own. A cell went over that gradually developed as it moved towards Avalon, only to orange on the radar so not severe. I only mention it because I noticed some nice pileus on top of the cell. In the less than 90 seconds it took me to go to the car and grab the camera for a shot the pileus had intensified and covered the whole top of the anvil so isn't obvious in the photos I took.
When I first viewed it the Pileus was a nice little cap over the top, by the time I took the photo it had covered the whole top of the anvil. <sigh>
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Hi Jimmy - yes I believe so - re: hook echo. Will be much easier to determine these things when the new Doppler radar comes online. Amazing how long it is taking - same with the Gunnedah radar. sloooooooowwwwww