Storm Chasing - Australian Severe Weather Blog

Hi Jimmy,

Fully understand regarding the chasing situation and making sure Imelda and Kimberley are settled. Quite a lot to organise and it will take some time for them to get used to Australia. Hopefully it will be very soon they can be with you !

David turned 11 yesterday (16th). He got a Nintendo DS that he’s been wanting for a while so he’s happy with that. Having a party Sunday though I might not be here for that given the weather situation. GFS still holds promise for Northern Tablelands snow tomorrow morning so if the later run today and the satpics look good we’ll head up.  The rest of today looks quite interesting too with a thunderstorm setup not normally seen in May !   We will see how that pans out. Storms developed early am today just offshore with quite a lightning show. Hopefully something will come through here this arvo before heading up to the tablelands.

For the first time this season, I followed for a little while some of the radar of the supercells hammering the states of Oklahoma and Arkansas. Unfortunately quite a few fatalities with one long tracked tornado at one stage a wedge hitting northeast Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas.

As to me chasing 2009, it depends a lot on my situation given I will have new responsibilities. I seriously doubt it at this stage but Imelda is keen for me to do my storm chasing regardless but that statement also relates to Australia. We’ll see how she and Kimberly settles in given Imelda will be attempting to get her licence. They really need to be getting around and be used to the system in Australia before I even consider going abroad. I would also like them to be with me as well but there is a cost to that madness.

Meanwhile, I continue to make good progress in my report writing having again resorted to a quick comment report writer. It has at least allowed me to produce 3 clases of reports in one day which I have never done. One of the dangers in this job is leaving things too late warranting an early morning finish. The immune system breaks down and many teachers end up getting ill. I am determined this time around not to let that happen once again haha.

Jimmy

Hi Jimmy - yeah - have to watch the US action remotely this year - as I do each season - hopefully I’ll get over there next year and you’ll be able to as well   

Bit of offshore thunderstorm action is back and may persist this week going by the LI maps. Probably end up a bit showery with some indications of a strong weather system at the end of the coming week. This may end up producing and east coast low and some non-alpine snow - we shall see.

Took the kids to the Lismore speedway last night (twice in two weeks now). They had the sprint cars on - the fastest of all cars that hit the dirt tracks. What an unreal show it was. Many of the Sydney drivers were up which was great to see . I had not seen sprintcars racing live since at Parramatta raceway when still living in Sydney.

Michael,

Nothing much happening here on the weather front - my first May for 8 years in this country and gosh is it rather boring! Not even the fogs are very impressive this year! Oh well, the intention now is to bring Imelda and Kimberly here and take them to a snow chase. They have never seen snow - surprise suprise! Kimberly is really looking forward to that and so is Imelda. No doubt they will find out how ‘hard’ snow can be haha!

 Anyway, despite the weather, it has been rather busy here with reports on their way and examinations galore. Less teaching time but more to do at home. Passes the time whilst I wait. Drum rolls all around now but who knows when the final verdict will occur!

Jimmy

Hi Jimmy - glad you had a great time with Imelda and family in the Philippines. Things are progressing well, certainly won’t be long before you are married !

Yesterday I presented to a group of 120 people at the North Coast Photography Convention at Lismore. Certainly my biggest audience for a presentation. The topic: storm chasing and lightning photography.  It was very well received and quite fun to talk on the subject.

There’s been a few days with coastal thunderstorms lately - I wonder if this off-season will continue the pattern. The latest ones formed just off Ballina on Saturday morning - but it was 4am so I didn’t set the camera up !

Got some other meetings coming up with EWN - most likely a quick trip to Melbourne later this week.

Michael,

Imelda and I send our regards - I guess on the eve of me leaving to head back to Australia. It has been an excellent time - Imelda and I are very close and never on any were we apart. We also went to Cebu to meet other relatives and also to meet another person in business.

Yes I saw that supercell storm and Glen Oreilly has added images to the pictures section before we had to remove the whole section. Hail up to golf ball sized have been confirmed apparently. Where Glen lives, drifts of hail were observed.

I hope all is well in your part of the world and I hope the EWN goes very well - trust you to be in Sydney whilst I am away! Oh well - we can always catch up another time.

 Jimmy

Hi Jimmy - trust you are enjoying your time in the Philippines with Imelda, and plans are progressing well for your marriage.

I had a quick trip to Sydney yesterday as part of the new job that is developing with EWN. Met with a main sponsor of the alerting system. A number of presentations were given by members of EWN including me illustrating my severe weather skills - risk assessment, target areas, monitoring and alerting procedures. They were most impressed so it’s all looking good. My media monitoring work will end mid June so certainly need the work.

Sunday (13th) and Monday (14th April) produced some interesting thunderstorm weather with a likely long lived HP supercell through the Hunter Sunday afternoon. A nicely timed system for the anniversary of the Sydney Hailstorm of 14th April 1999. Check the forum of course for details. The next several days looks fairly stable but with the onshore flow coastal areas will see plenty of showers.

Michael

Hi Jimmy,

Been nice to see a return to an unsettled weather pattern despite it being an onshore flow. Upper temps are quite low even up here with the Brisbane sounding showing 500hPa temps around -18. Combined with the moist lower atmosphere and dry uppers, some large cumulus and cumulonimus has formed over the past 24 hours - mainly along the coast.  Some very photogenic cells passed by here yesterday afternoon.

The structure was remarkably similar in structure to an event just over two years ago

 6 April 2008

 21 Feb 2006

No doubt the weather pattern was much the same.   It should remain unstable for the next 2 days before the upper trough weakens a bit.

Michael,

 Thanks for your kind thoughts on this change in lifestyle day haha. I have ordered a walking stick already! I guess one can only say so long as you are in decent health it should all be ok. Well we always strive for that and quality of life - chase storms whilst you have the chance.

The computer here should be up to date with updates from Microsoft but otherwise not sure why else things might happen. Anyway, it was no big deal one could not change I guess.

Yes, the storm itself definitely did generate interest and sparked some healthy debate and brought some interesting comparisons from the past! The storm I must admit did have interesting structure though I personally did not think anything more special about it specifically or its relationship to supercells.

Jimmy

Happy 40th Jimmy !   - hope you have a great celebration.

Been interesting to read the discussion about the type of storm that developed over parts of the Sydney area last Saturday afternoon. Always learn things when a storm is well documented like that one.  Storms were also a possibility up here but the air dried out too much - which is just as well because of other commitments that afternoon.

My PC did not get affected by the daylight savings bug - I guess any windows updates would have fixed the problem. It was suprising to see major telecommunications carriers stuff up though - the change in daylight savings is not something new - it became law about 6 months ago.   It will be good to have it start in early Oct instead of late Oct - the mornings are way too light here at that time of year.