Topic: Severe Storms 16/01/05

[Jeff Brislane]

Hi,

A bit of a belated post but I was reading the ABC website and came across this story.

Pair hurt in southern Highlands' 'mini-tornado'

A man and woman have suffered minor injuries after being caught in what has been described as a 'mini-tornado' in the New South Wales' southern highlands overnight.

Heavy rain and strong winds hit Goulburn and surrounding regional areas yesterday afternoon, causing creeks to break their banks and the main street to flood.

A number of shops were damaged.

The State Emergency Service's Ian Radford says a man and a woman were hurt when the storm front hit their home at Marulan.

"It was hit by a tornado or a mini-tornado, it was actually picked up ... slid downhill five to 10 metres, but unfortunately there was a man and woman inside the house at the time and they were tipped out the back door," he said.

Meanwhile, State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers in the central western city of Bathurst are on stand-by for minor to moderate flooding later today.

An average of 86 millimetres of rain fell in the Macquarie River catchment overnight and the Bureau of Meteorology expects the river to peak at 4.5 metres late this afternoon.

SES regional controller Craig Ronan says rain is still falling and rivers upstream are already rising ahead of the moderate peak.

"That'll see a few minor roads closed in the Bathurst area and obviously we'll be monitoring that and because of the new levies we anticipate there'll be no properties affected by floodwater," he said.

"We are actually starting to see a significant rise in the Macquarie River at Bathurst and that water is on its way down."

Today there was some nice structure when the change came through. There was a nice little round base just south of Penrith allthough I can't technically call it a storm as I never heard any thunder!

Regards Jeff.

[Brad Hannon]

Yes Jeff, I just saw Ch7 news and they showed the house in Marulan.  It was pretty messed up.  Unfortunately (and predictably) there was no real description of what occured other than the standard media description 'mini tornado'.

[Jimmy Deguara]

Jeff,

There was a couple of lightning strikes one about 500m from the car but these storm was average though at times tried to orgnise. I think there was a lack of convergence today - however moisture was not a problem. I followed the storm from Bowral to Warragamba area. It seemed the most intense near Oakdale/The Oaks but as I said not that spectacular.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[David C]

The radio report mentioned that people saw a tornado touch the ground just prior.

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi David,

The storm occurred at night so I suspect no tornado - just a very strong downburst with the heavy rain. Unless it was a landspout of sorts. What are your thoughts David?

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Matthew Piper]

The storm in question occurred during the early afternoon and was very intense on radar for a number of frames. It was by far the strongest storm cell anywhere in NSW yesterday and seemed to track along the Hume Highway before suddenly collapsing. I would say a wet microburst would be the most likely candidate for the damage from what I have seen on radar.

[Jeff Brislane]

Check out this story for a laugh!

Weather turns back storm chasers' plane

A plane bringing storm chasers to Darwin has had to turn back because storm activity prevented it from landing.

The plane was due to land in Darwin this afternoon but has headed back to Cairns.

Scientists from around the world are gathering in Darwin for the Tropical Warm Pool International Cloud Experiment.

They hope to learn more about clouds and improve the accuracy of climate forecasting.

But back to todays stuff and i'm almost embarresed to say I took 105 photos after your comment Jimmy! I'll post a couple in a sec. From my place I could see the storm at one point breifly develop a vault and it maintained some nice base structure for a while before becoming a shelf cloud. As you said Jimmy, if only there was stronger convergence.

Jeff.

[David C]

Hi David,

The storm occurred at night so I suspect no tornado - just a very strong downburst with the heavy rain. Unless it was a landspout of sorts. What are your thoughts David?

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

My guess is as good as yours Jimmy hehe. As Matt suggested the event in question did occur in the afteroon. There were some moderately intense echos but nothing that had me cursing myself for being at work. Can never rule out a mesoscale accident, but fractus associated with a wet microburst would also possible make for a "sherrifnado". Who's to know:)

Radar 
http://radar.strikeone.net.au/?fuseaction=loops.main&radar=032&numberofImages=15&dateStart=1137372000&dateFinish=1137394800

[Jeff Brislane]

Pics from today in order from nice base to crapping out and shelf cloud.

[Jeff Brislane]

more pics

[Jeff Brislane]

more pics

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi Jeff,

Very nice pictures Jeff. I am glad you got them from your perspective. The position you were in (from near home I guess?) shows the mature stage of the storm line before it collapses - more ideal from than being up close in this case. We were almost directly under the consoildated shelf. I could see what appeared to be a vault like appearance developing. In a way this surprised me because of the initial outflow dominant behaviour prior and follwing this stage. But just near The Oaks, I noted a southeast to easterly light wind! This provided perhaps enough backing for the structure to develop. Or was it the upper shortwave coming through providing enhanced uplift and vertical motion. The strongest part of the storm would have had to have lasted about half an hour or so.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara