Storm Australian Severe Weather Forum
Severe Weather Discussion => Australian Severe Storms, Weather Events and Storm Chasing => Topic started by: Antonio (stormboy) on 03 October 2009, 08:14:11 AM
-
Well I’m here in Sydney this week and it looks like the radar at the moment is making it very clear that we are in for some thunderstorms this afternoon and evening. Its quiet cool at the moment tho. Here is a local lightning map.
storm boy
-
I guess that was the lightning map earlier - we have had some pretty good rain just on 9pm EST. Rainfall was very steady to almost heavy for about 10 minutes - the most impressive rain we have had for a few months.
Lightning was mostly intra-cloud activity though some loud thunder to shake the house a little.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
-
You can take SE QLD out of the title until next week! :(
-
Upper Western/North West N.S.W. Storm Report 2nd October 2009
Hi guys,
We had a real lucky break tonight! Three isolated cells that fired up nicely before hitting town. Some signs of anviling here and there around the updrafts. Wind was almost non-existant until some outflow hit as the rain core "punched" us. Several (quite large and close) CG hit from the middle cell of the three that came into town from the West-North West. Crawlers were frequent and overhead in the forward sections of the anvil. Rain was heavy but very brief as the cells quickly headed East in a matter of minutes. I think 0.5-1mm would be about it as there was still dust on the roads as we drove home after photographing the event.
I will post a few photos tomorrow morning as it's a little late now.
Take care if you get out amongst the storms! I heard some hail was present around Dubbo earlier.
Shauno.
-
Apparently marble size hail near Dubbo. Most storms went north of me but we had one that had lots of flashes directy above us. All in the clouds though and no bolts to look at. A bit of rain, which I guess the garden and dams need.
8mm so far here in Rydalmere in my guage, and looking at the radar that it is for the next few hours. Still the best rain we have had in ages.
-
Schofields recorded a total of 16.0mm of rain this morning obviously mostly from overnight's storm activity. Obviously storm after storm drifted through the Sydney region training over the area although the storms being so elevated were fast moving in the strong upper level wind shear. With slower movement, higher totals could have been achieved.
The outlook is looking rather promising particularly for the south coast region where some significant falls are likely over the coming week.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
-
You can take SE QLD out of the title until next week! :(
Unless you include Dust!
It's back, not as thick as last week but it rolled over us here in Warwick about an hour ago.
-
Upper Western/North West N.S.W. Storm Photos 2nd October 2009
Hi all,
I'll put up a couple shots from last nights little storms. The first two were taken pretty much in town on the Newtown opal fields (around 100mtrs West from my house) These are of the smallish cell that was in the middle of the three. The other two cells were fairly active also but you can only shoot one at a time lol? I figured getting some amount of sunlight behind the cell would show the microburst much better, which it did :)
The pinkish hue on these is amazing and something I have not seen in a while. I figured the Hydrogen content must have been fairly high. Unusual to see a bolt wrapping around the rain core also?
These are all at 10mm so they were very close to us. Some beautiful crawlers were shooting overhead across the partial anvil structure but I didn't have any luck other than the second photo where you can only see part of one.
We had one pretty close strike that hit to the left of Russ and I. I knew it was close as it filled my entire sight and seemed to have the small pockets of air burning bright yellow immediately after. It was pretty fast and didn't staccato. We blocked our ears straight away lol.
The third and last photo was taken to the NE of town down on the Pony Fence opal fields. It really shows the moisture haze well. This was the colder, dying stage of the cells that passed over us.
Hope you guys get something on the coast today!
Kindest regards,
Shauno.
-
Sydney rainfall 3/10/2009
The best storms passed to the north of Blacktown and only light rainfalls occurred in the Blacktown area overnight. Lightning was visible to the north but much of it hidden by low cloud.
Rainfall totals for the 24 hours 2/10/2009 to 9 am 3/10/2009 across the Bureau of Meteorology network reflects this for Sydney.
A total of 5 mm fell where I live but some of that fell this morning as drizzle and 6 mm fell at Penrith.
However, 15 mm fell at Box Hill (Towards Windsor outer NW Sydney) and Hornsby to the north, 17 mm fell at Bondi and Chatswood, 18 mm fell at Baulkham Hills Pool and 22 mm fell at North Rocks.
The area South of Nowra to Ulludulla on the New South Wales South Coast collected some healthy falls of between 50 and 60 mm for the same period with Fishermans Repeater receiving 68 mm for the same period being the highest total within New South Wales. It has been dry in that region of late and this would have broken that dry spell for that region.
Harley Pearman
-
That second shot is a ripper, Shaun! Right in front and yep, I would have not covered my ears! I like the title also - very apt! (am currently getting ready to go out chasing now....4pm Oct 3....CAP has yet to break and there's a convergence line to our east and south..)
-
You can take SE QLD out of the title until next week! :(
Dan, I think you take the sad face off soon, as you said not until next week, so running through the synoptics, GFS storm cast and capes, and it is looking not bad for Wednesday storms up here. Could be early afternoon too. BOM have issued possible storms/ showers as well for Wednesday.
Last night a few storms fired up out west QLD around Injune and Mitchell, but due to lack of moisture they were very, very short lived and just remained in that vicinity.
Just hot, windy and dusty up here in SEQ, 34.8C at the airport at 2.16pm.
-
Well the current rainfall here in Sydney is continuing this morning, though lighter than last night. So far here at Rydalmere the guage has registered about 60mm, 10mm on Friday night then the rest from yesterday afternoon. Fairly consistent with weather obs from Olympic Park and Parramatta. It is interesting that there is quite a variation in recorded rainfall readings across Sydney from this system, suburbs further inland receiving less rain but then also less on the north shore than we received here. For example Avalon has only recorded 18mm for the 24 hours to 9am and the airport 23mm.
It would seem the area I am in has benefited most from the rain patterns of all of Sydney, which I am sure is good for the garden (as well as washing the dust off everything!).
-
We received another 22.8mm here in Schofields which is really helpful. This is the best rain for literally months.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
-
Well our trip here in Sydney has resulted in nothing but rain! Cannot complain though as my grandmother living here said it’s the best rain they have had in a long time. Looks like when we head back for Ballina on Wednesday there are a few storms forecast. Have there been any storms and or rain in the northern rivers this week?
stormboy
-
I would not ride today off yet. With temperatures at -22C at 500hPa and deep moisture with a little heating there is the potential of some storms even some severe storms. There is a slot of clearer air just to the north of Sydney and winds up to 850hPa are from the northeast. This should pan the way for an interesting afternoon. The GFS models are suggesting CAPE values of about 1200J/kg which is quite healthy. There is already lightning to the west of the ranges as I type. Watch anywhere from near Sydney north to about Taree today.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
-
It is now thundering and the storm is just around the corner (Parramatta) it looks so black and on the terry hills radar it sure is red! Looks like jimmy was right.
stormboy
-
Western Sydney thunderstorm 5/10/2009
An intense thunderstorm has passed over Blacktown late afternoon of 5 October 2009 producing some significant cloud to ground lightning strikes. Given the amount of lightning I would not be surprised if power blackouts have occurred in some suburbs. The storm brought a burst of intense rain including a short period of strong wind which eased off rapidly once the main core of the thunderstorm had passed.
There are still some showers and storms passing across Sydney so rainfall totals will change but up until 5 pm 5/10/09 rainfall across Western Sydney from the event had varied from 1.8 mm to 22 mm with North Rocks receiving the highest total.
I took these lightning shots near Blacktown Hospital near where I live.
Harley Pearman
-
I was out towards the airport this afternoon and saw it looking nice and black to my west and southwest, with quite a few ground strikes happening as well. As I drove home the rain wasn't that heavy except for a brief period on the M4 near Homebush Bay with the traffic backing off to about 60. Some quite nice flashes and another line is heading this way through Camden at the moment, be interested to see if it keeps going long enough to get here.
On the Grafton radar this afternoon there was a particularly nasty looking cell inland from Wooli, and someone rang the ABC to say there had been large hail at Ulmarra a bit north of Grafton. His description included hail from basketball size down to cricket ball, but I think we will take that one with a grain of salt :-)
Also reports of heavy hail looking like snow down near Dapto as well.
EDIT: Camden cell has just developed a nice black core, current track would take it a bit west of me, Jimmy might be in a good spot. Hasn't been severe warned yet though.
-
Went for a little chase around the place - was unable to get much in the way of lightning video though did score tiny hailstones and very heavy rain near Schofields - Rouse Hill. Some pictures below:
(http://www.australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/1005jd07.jpg)
(http://www.australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/1005jd11.jpg)
(http://www.australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/1005jd12.jpg)
(http://www.australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2009/1005jd13.jpg)
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
-
Lightning barrage- Nowra area
We witnessed an extremely lightning active storm near Nowra today. Overall the structure was nothing to write home about, but we did have a nice dark base which remained rain free for a short while. When the RFB dropped its load, a barrage of CGs touched down ahead of the precip curtain. I was gobsmacked at the quality of these CGs, thick staccatos, sometimes 3-4 in a single discharge. Alot of these CGs touched down in the vicinity of my parents place. My dad reported atleast half a dozen flangs,some hitting within a few hundred metres with shotgun thunder.
Heres a short video clip showing many of these CGs. Well worth watching!!
lightning barrage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vONmYIDh4w4#ws-normal)
-
Dan, I think you take the sad face off soon, as you said not until next week, so running through the synoptics, GFS storm cast and capes, and it is looking not bad for Wednesday storms up here. Could be early afternoon too. BOM have issued possible storms/ showers as well for Wednesday.
Last night a few storms fired up out west QLD around Injune and Mitchell, but due to lack of moisture they were very, very short lived and just remained in that vicinity.
Just hot, windy and dusty up here in SEQ, 34.8C at the airport at 2.16pm.
Well I can bring back the sad face again this week I think, not looking so good for this Wednesday after all! Now I'm watching next Monday, whats the bet that will change as we get closer to the day...
I'm going on strike.
-
Pintang,
I watched it and really enjoyed it! Good positioning too - though I would have liked to see some more of that feature towards the right. The first lightning exchange is incredible!
Coincidently, I was video editing footage from 2005 and came across a lightning barrage of a similar nature (though I missed some of the footage due to the video camera on pause!) Still some nice stuff salvaged.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
-
Some very nice shots in that video, congratulations!
-
I just got a new car over the weekend and today seemed like a good day to give it a good drive going after some storms..Ah if only I went to Grafton like I was considering but opted for a shorter drive to Bellingen instead.
First I sat at a lookout in Coffs and watched the small cells pop up on the ranges, I coulnt see much of the cell moving up to Woolgoolga and so I thought I would check out the radar on the phone and if it looked nice I was gonna chase it but it wouldnt connect so I decided I would wait for later development to the south. Dang! if only it loaded the net I would of chased the two severe cells to the north!
Anyway I ended up chasing the cells which poped up behind bellingen, they were pretty weak and the lightning infrequent, not much structure either:
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/enak12/October%205%202009/IMG_7838copy.jpg)
On the way back I stopped to shoot this old farm house again this time with better lighting:
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/enak12/October%205%202009/IMG_7870copybig.jpg)
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/enak12/October%205%202009/IMG_7872copyhighcontrast800.jpg)
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/enak12/October%205%202009/IMG_7875copysmal800.jpg)
Later on I shot this nice rainbow back in Coffs:
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/enak12/October%205%202009/dsdsdssscopy.jpg)
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/enak12/October%205%202009/IMG_7899copysmall.jpg)
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/enak12/October%205%202009/IMG_7936copy.jpg)
I then went back to the same lookout I started the day in to watch these nice cells develop on dark. I saw 3 of these positive strikes, only got this one on camera:
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/enak12/October%205%202009/IMG_8001cropcopy.jpg)
-
nice barrage pingtang . was watching that cell on radar and it was doing well for a while there , had a northly move on it , seemed to be riding the ranges
-
Holy cow...what a brilliant display and I'm still grinning from ear to ear! Talk about positioning yourself in the prime spot, I'm very impressed and no doubt you were at the time thanks for sharing it, it's just awesome.
-
Ok ignore my last comment, looks better for us tomorrow than I 1st thought. Hopefully I'll be posting some pics here tomorrow night!
-
Hello Jimmy.
After going through yesterdays footage I'm quite convinced it was 7 bolts, not 6, all within 5frames of video.
Frame 1
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/pingtang100/SnapShot4.jpg)
Frame 2- The first bolt on the right continues. The second CG is a thick staccato
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/pingtang100/SnapShot5.jpg)
Frame 3- Bolts 3 and 4 now become evident
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/pingtang100/SnapShot6.jpg)
Frame 4- Bolt number 5, touches down very close to the 4th bolt but i'm conviced this is a separate CG.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/pingtang100/SnapShot7.jpg)
Frame 5- Bolts 6 and 7!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/pingtang100/SnapShot8.jpg)
P.S thanks for the comments everyone. Cheers.
-
Western Sydney thunderstorm 5/10/2009
The thunderstorms that struck Sydney 5/10/2009 brought up to 32 mm of rain at Northrocks as well as 16 to 18 mm of rain around Blacktown with much lighter falls closer to Sydney city.
Additionally, the GPATS lightning tracker indicated that Sydney was peppered with 1,538 lightning strikes and flashes with some 10,645 strikes and flashes across New South Wales for 5/10/09 between 2 am and 2 am 5/10/09 to 6/10/09. Around Sydney the greatest concentration of strikes and flashes occurred over North West Sydney including Blacktown, Baulkham Hills and Hornsby with another concentration around the Liverpool / Fairfield area. The event caused power blackouts to 40,000 homes across Hornsby as well as other outages around Western Sydney suburbs.
Further to my photos of lightning, I also provide two additional photos of the approaching thunderstorm cell looking west just prior to the event taken near Blacktown Hospital.
Harley Pearman
-
Very nice stuff there Mr. Keane!! A bit of lightning retina burnage for sure. Unfortunately my part of the NRs has missed out on any decent storms so far this year. Went out to Rods house last night in anticipation of grabbing some lightning shots from the cells marching up from down south. When I arrived there was some flashing evident (mostly CC) and one cracker of a stacatto. So Rod and I set up our gear and tried our hand, ridiculously as soon as we got set up all lightning activity ceased. Got some pics of the structure en route to Rods but unfortunately no lightning from later at his place. Will be watching tomorrow evening for some offshore activity.
Storm that earlier dropped 20c piece sized hail on Grafton
(http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff315/jaypat75/IMG_7542.jpg)
Interesting lenticular formations within the storm
(http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff315/jaypat75/IMG_7544.jpg)
Pic of storm approaching from the SW which unfortunately ceased lightning activity
(http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff315/jaypat75/IMG_7543.jpg)
Cheers Jason
-
Coming back from Tamworth yesterday the 5th Oct, we stopped at The Entrance to take a break and check out the line as it advanced on the Central Coast.
The following shots were taken as the storm approached Tuggerah lake just before 6pm.
(http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w28/elenecon/Storm%20Season%2009-10/Centralcoaststorm-5-10-09-2.jpg)
Leading edge shelf cloud out near Cessnock from Tuggerah lake with the backlit storm cell north of Newcastle near Bulladelah on the right of frame.
(http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w28/elenecon/Storm%20Season%2009-10/Centralcoaststorm-5-10-09-3.jpg)t
Out for a spot of fishing with with cg's still visible before being enveloped by the precip outflow.
(http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w28/elenecon/Storm%20Season%2009-10/Centralcoaststorm-5-10-09-4.jpg)
Pelicans and cg , Cheers, Con.
-
Hi Pintang,
With such low bases, you never know which bolts are coming from a separate channel or are exactly the same bolt:) But I know what you mean when you go frame by frame you see more than meets the eye. It was an awesome spectacle nevertheless!
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
-
Great photos guys and sensational lightning video Michael!
I hung out at home and drove up the road as soon as thunder became audible. The CG behaviour was similar to Michael's video, frequent with multiple exchanges of pulsing bolts, although nothing quite like what was in that video.
Couple of video grabs looking southwest from Revesby >>
(http://www.thunderbolttours.com/temp/photos_au0910/20091005_1_sm.jpg)
(http://www.thunderbolttours.com/temp/photos_au0910/20091005_2_sm.jpg)
(http://www.thunderbolttours.com/temp/photos_au0910/20091005_4_sm.jpg)
(http://www.thunderbolttours.com/temp/photos_au0910/20091005_3_sm.jpg)
-
Sunday 4th October. Location: Warwick SE Qld.
We had some activity here on Sunday afternoon, doesn't show much on the radar however by dark, things looked to be shaping up. Not enough moisture yet I guess to get them firing. We had isolated rain over the crops. Very early Saturday morning we did get good rain and it was enough to get the moisture going and convection towers were powering up till 10.30am on monday. Everything has dried up today, very few clouds.
Regards,
Chris.
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2482/3983450476_1724774bf6.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2432/3983451294_86083653e5.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2454/3983451030_2d553cb19d.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3427/3982687505_3fa2f3814d.jpg)