Author Topic: Sydney / Illawarra Storms: 29 March 2008  (Read 54230 times)

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Offline Richary

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Re: Sydney / Illawarra Storms: 29 March 2008
« Reply #30 on: 02 April 2008, 02:55:12 PM »
Assuming we are talking about the first storm that the main part went just SE of me at Rydalmere, yes there was hail before any rain. Slightly larger than pea sized but below marble. Very occasional though, as Dave mentioned you could almost count them as they fell around. I was sitting out in the back room under the tin roof when I first heard them. Just occasional bangs on the roof, went out and checked the driveway and just occasionally one would fall. We then got a burst of rain with some more similar size hail about 10 minutes later, though the rain wasn't that heavy. After that no more hail but we would get 5 minutes of heavy rain then a break, then a bit later another burst of heavy rain. Total here was 6mm which is pretty equivalent to what Olympic Park reported at 5.4 mm (from memory).

From here the cloud structures were nice, and certainly getting some altitude but nowhere near that of summer storms. I guess with the cooler weather they don't need to before they get into the zone where the rain freezes to hail. I didn't notice any convection but then was probably a bit too close to being under it, Jimmy's video definitely has a better perpective. However all the updrafts were getting blown off pretty quickly as they formed.

Now I need to work out the differences in a supercell, to a mini-supercell, LP storm and all that!

Offline vrondes

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Re: Sydney / Illawarra Storms: 29 March 2008
« Reply #31 on: 02 April 2008, 04:55:08 PM »
Sydney storm 29-03-08.
After hearing some late season thunder I bolted outside to be greeted by the following scene, very impressive billowing updraft with inflow striations. Very nice for 6pm in late March, so I headed off to the local park near home to see how it would pan out.I believe this is the updraft that David  photographed. Well it tracked very slowly north from my perspective before losing intensity around 6.30 but not before a very brief but intense shower signalled the end of this updraft and the appearance of the second one. Thunder could be heard every few minutes as it tracked nw.


Around 6.30pm this new updraft developed to the east of Parramatta. Atmospheric dust and "golden hour "sunlight  combined to produce  the most intensely colourful storm I have sever seen.  This display continued for a good 20 minutes and even as it faded vertically it still held its form with little and then no precipitation until just after 7pm..  My children collected hail up to 1.5 cms at home , but only a handful of stones. Wonderful timelapse there Jimmy, and wonderful stills from david c and .Yes, the rain free base, the everchanging structure and the colour were a sight to behold that's for sure, Cheers, Con.






Offline vrondes

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Re: Sydney / Illawarra Storms: 29 March 2008
« Reply #32 on: 02 April 2008, 05:09:00 PM »
The following images were of the decaying stages of the LP storm, it still displaying some nice form , just wonderful to watch.





The following two photos were taken from Parramatta looking at the 9.30 pm storm over the Illawarra,
low level cloud preventing the full strikes from being revealed.




Cheers again, Con.

Offline Harley Pearman

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Re: Sydney / Illawarra Storms: 29 March 2008
« Reply #33 on: 03 April 2008, 02:13:13 PM »
Hello

Storm event 29/3/2008

I observed the storm from birth and my photographs are almost the same as those as to what Jimmy took except that I was closer and almost underneath it at one stage.

I believe that it did have an LP type structure and very photogenic but not severe. I tracked it for a while and I did not see any severe warnings on it.

The storm initially developed SSW of Blacktown and went through an initial phase, then it seemed to weaken somewhat then intensified again over Parramatta before becoming more outflow and then it collapsed and died.

I did see a reasonable rain free base at one stage on its western side but I did not see any significant characteristics of a severe thunderstorm. I observed a few within cloud lightning flashes.

Still, the contrasts of it were spectacular and was a lovely spectacle in the sky late Saturday.

Interestingly, I noted around 1 pm Saturday afternoon returning from Rouse Hill, a large bank of cloud SW of Sydney with one cloud tower amongst it rising and collapsing. There must have been a strong temperature inversion at that time because on no less than three occasions, the same cloud mass rose higher but could not break through it then collapsed. Interesting to watch what was happening with this cloud mass before the storm event.

Harley Pearman

Offline Richary

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Re: Sydney / Illawarra Storms: 29 March 2008
« Reply #34 on: 03 April 2008, 04:18:04 PM »
I tracked it for a while and I did not see any severe warnings on it.

It went for a while before they issued a severe storm warning for it. Can't quite recall the time issued but it was cancelled only about 45 minutes later.

Offline Jimmy Deguara

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Re: Sydney / Illawarra Storms: 29 March 2008
« Reply #35 on: 04 April 2008, 01:23:19 AM »
Just for clarification sake, the severe warning to my knowledge was issued for the late night band of storms, not the earlier one which seems to be popular in this thread. It seem to be around the 10pm mark when the warning was in progress?

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Jimmy Deguara
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Offline Richary

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Re: Sydney / Illawarra Storms: 29 March 2008
« Reply #36 on: 04 April 2008, 02:40:09 PM »
Hi Jimmy

No there was definitely a severe storm warning issues sometime around 6pm for the first storm as well. The usual info about damaging hail etc.

Offline David C

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Re: Sydney / Illawarra Storms: 29 March 2008
« Reply #37 on: 04 April 2008, 04:16:51 PM »
Just for clarification sake, the severe warning to my knowledge was issued for the late night band of storms, not the earlier one which seems to be popular in this thread. It seem to be around the 10pm mark when the warning was in progress?

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Jimmy Deguara

Is that right. Must say I did not check at all and was going by what Paul told me by sms. Paul?
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Offline Jimmy Deguara

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Re: Sydney / Illawarra Storms: 29 March 2008
« Reply #38 on: 04 April 2008, 04:37:49 PM »
If there was a severe warning, I stand corrected - the storm certainly did not look severe. Hmmmm.... Can anyone else confirm?

Of course if it did reach severe criteria, then I would suspect large hailstones to be in there somewhere. Of course, the severe warning could have been induced by spotter reports.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara
« Last Edit: 02 September 2008, 11:03:57 AM by Jimmy Deguara »
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