Topic: NSW / QLD / VIC / TAS Rain, Storms & Snow (incl Moama tornado): 9-12 August 2010

[Kristy Norman]

Great photos Brad!
Where abouts were you guys chasing?
Some of those photos certainly look VERY close to home!
That storm looks like the same one that came barreling through here. The shelf cloud was just getting organised as it went over us at about 4:30-5pm.
My husband was caught up in the monster that went through Berrigan at 1:30 pm on his way home. Another storm N/NE of Corowa at 2:30pm was looking great as well.
I hope we have a nice stormy Spring here!!!

[Michael Bath]

Hi Brad - you can add a stack of images using the IMG tags to your hosted photos rather than trying to attach them.


Jason Paterson, Dave Sercombe and I chased the NTs. We got to Guyra about 11pm on Wednesday night to a snow shower that briefly accumulated. Unfortunately the rest of the time up there only managed sleet and drizzle or frozen drizzle. There was precip most of the time with temps mainly in the 1.5 to 3 range though it dropped to 0.9 at the lowest we observed.  I've never seen so many sleet showers for so long (almost all of Thursday during the day in the Black Mountain, Guyra, Ben Lomond, Maybole areas - also Glen Innes on the way home). Many of the showers were briefly classifiable as snow but bits of rain amongst it was the norm and meant everything melted on impact - so no accumulations.

Regardless, we had a great time in the cold (and "wet snow") and also met up for a catch up with Martha from the Guyra Argus later in the afternoon.

A couple of possible reasons for the lack of snow accumulations:

- 850 hPa temps at least 1 degree too warm
- windy conditions so a well mixed boundary layer which meant the higher elevation didn't make much difference to surface temps. eg driving between 1100m and 1350m didn't change the temp as much as can happen in other setups.
- inversion varying between about 800 hPa and 700 hPa which prevented deeper clouds

[Brad Hannon]

Great photos Brad!
Where abouts were you guys chasing?
Some of those photos certainly look VERY close to home!
That storm looks like the same one that came barreling through here. The shelf cloud was just getting organised as it went over us at about 4:30-5pm.
My husband was caught up in the monster that went through Berrigan at 1:30 pm on his way home. Another storm N/NE of Corowa at 2:30pm was looking great as well.
I hope we have a nice stormy Spring here!!!

You got it right Kristy - I was on that storm and drove through your area a few times!  Now you can see what the shelf ended up looking like 

The early photos (distant pano and close up with lowerings) was the early storm and possible supercell i'm informed with flanking line so I assume thats the monster your husband saw.

The 3rd storm you mention is also in my photos (in the background) that feature the smaller rapidly developing cells with organised lowerings and funnels.  As Michael has suggested, it may have been outflow boundaries from the big storm that was initiating these smaller cells in a potent environment.  Certainly looked that way.

Brad.

[Brad Hannon]

Hi Brad - you can add a stack of images using the IMG tags to your hosted photos rather than trying to attach them.

Ok thanks Michael

[Michael Bath]

Moama Twister

[Michael Thomas]

Nice video, so what is the conclusion regarding this tornado, mesocyclonic or non-mesocyclonic? I am in two minds. The radar presentation of this storm was not very spectacular. Having said that, the tornado does not look like your typical non-mesocyclonic tornado (landspout). The behaviour of the tornado and what appears to be a clear slot from an RFD would seem to suggest that it was mesocyclonic. On top of that, the conditions on the day were supportive of low-topped supercells.

Michael

[Hardy25]

Nice video, so what is the conclusion regarding this tornado, mesocyclonic or non-mesocyclonic? I am in two minds. The radar presentation of this storm was not very spectacular. Having said that, the tornado does not look like your typical non-mesocyclonic tornado (landspout). The behaviour of the tornado and what appears to be a clear slot from an RFD would seem to suggest that it was mesocyclonic. On top of that, the conditions on the day were supportive of low-topped supercells.

Michael

I Would Have To Agree, I Watched This On Radar When It Happened And Again On The Saved Loop And Combined With The Footage Floating Around In My Mind It Was Meso
But Its Not As Clear And Cut As With Some Other Events

Michael B thats some pretty good footage didnt see that on youtube when i looked

Funny that we spent all summer chasing different storms and setups and nothing like this happened, now its winter and the prize gems come out, thats mother nature for you

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi guys,

Awesome footage from all angles of this tornado. I love the comentary.

I suspect this tornado is from a low topped supercell and an occulsion has taken place. There was a nice clear slot in the second video posted from ninemsn website.

Regards,

jimmy Deguara

[Colin Maitland]

Hi guys,

Awesome footage from all angles of this tornadoes. I love the commentary.

When I went back and listened to the commentary, it opens up a can of worms for me.
Col.

[Harley Pearman]

Rainfall for week ending 13 August 2010

I have added below the rainfall plot for Eastern Australia and Murray Darling Basin Region for the week ending 13 August 2010, produced 14/8/10 from the BOM "Water and the Land" site.

It shows the spread of the rain event just concluded. Generally other than far western NSW, north west Victoria (Mallee) and coastal New South Wales from Sydney to Coffs Harbour, much of eastern Australia did well from the weather event.

An exceptional and unusual thunderstorm event occurred at Wagga Wagga Tuesday afternoon in which one intense storm passed over the region dropping some 30 mm of rain. This was a rare storm event for the city for August. As a result of Tuesdays storms in this region, the rainfall for Wagga Wagga for 2010 now stands at some 548.6 mm. This compares to 185 mm for the same period for 2009. This is 363 mm more than 1 year ago as at 14 August 2009. The storms at Wagga Wagga is a big contrast to 2009.


Harley Pearman

[Michael Bath]

It's also worth noting the rainfall in Tasmania, especially around Hobart as they've had an extremely dry year. The rain this week almost doubled the annual total for some places. Hobart recorded 75mm while Mt Wellington received 249mm.

Attached map is for the same period as the one Harley posted.

[Michael Bath]

Just realised I had not posted any photos from the Northern Tablelands snow chase on 12th August









The rest are here

MB

[Colin Maitland]

Would have been nice to be there Michael, I love that sort of weather. I was reading an earlier post in this thread of where you chased, but are most of those shots around the Ben Lomond area?  

Cheers

Colin

[Michael Bath]

Hi Colin,

The first two shown above were near Black Mountain and the third is Ben Lomond. It's a pity the temps were not a fraction cooler as there would have been a lot of snow cover otherwise.