Topic: NSW / QLD Storms 30 August 2011

[Michael Bath]

Turned out a very active afternoon and early evening across a large part of northern NSW and Queensland. Some reports of small hail with accumulations in SEQ.

Been a lightning show here at McLeans Ridges near Lismore since just before 6pm. STill going now at 830pm but much less frequent and random locations.









MB

[Dan Stewart]

timelapse of the shelf cloud rollin in also shooting with fellow photographer Enak_12 (Kane)

My Movie

[enak_12]

That turned out really awesome Dan got to love that wide angle!!!!

It's been a good last couple of nights. This afternoon/evening was a great storm for winter, we had to wait seemingly forever for rain to clear so we could shoot some close lightning with a bright pink sunset sky, unfortunately the rain wouldn't let up until that had faded.

August 29:




August 30:

[Colin Maitland]

It was a good way to finish winter with severe storm cells exploding in many areas of SE Qld and the Wide Bay area, from around 1:20pm.

Just a couple of shots of the lightning from last night, my daughter Kendal had a go at capturing some bolts so I will post her 2 first.

[James]

Nice lightning MB. I missed most of it as was travelling home at the time however nice to see there were some clean CG's this time rather than being rain covered. Dan/Kane/Coltan - some great photos too.

I happened to be out near Toowoomba for work yesterday so managed a to get a photo of the developing line up near Haden/Crows Nest. Storms developed on the outflow boundary of earlier storms to the south pushing northwards. Provided some pretty nice CG action for a good 20 minutes before the line headed NE.

   

After that I headed home however was treated to some nice structure and colours in the late afternoon sky. This was the second line that developed out near Stanthorpe pushing towards Warwick/Leyburn.

   

   

Encountered some pretty nice hail drifts(Mostly 1-2cm) covering the side of the road near Sherwood on the Summerland Way at around 1840. There was some serious fog accompanying the hail drifts today. Considering the storm passed through the area 1 hour before I drove through and with constant rain since then, I can't imagine what it must have looked like when it happened. Tree litter all over the road as you would expect. Wouldn't surprise me if there were a few 2.5-3cm stones scattered in there.

Loving the start to the season so far. Oh and lock in your chase dates for Sep 15-26 & Nov 8-22. If history is anything to go by, normally there is a Supercell outbreak or two when I'm away.

[Michael Thomas]

Great photos everyone. Dane and Enak, you guys take some really top photos.

I think the storms in Wide bay and Burnett are definity worth mentioning. Two of these storm appeared to be supercells, at least for part of their life-time. These two storms remained isolated for around 3 hours. The Gympie 256 km radar loop-

http://www.theweatherchaser.com/radar-loop/IDR082-gympie/2011-08-30-02/2011-08-31-02

Some observations worth mentioning-

Gayndah  1 pm 22.8/14.1 ENE 3 knots (just east of where the eastern storm formed)
Maryborough 4 pm 21.6/14.5 NNE    6 knots
Bundaberg 4 pm 21.01/15.5 N 14 knots

Forecast sounding from general area (0Z run)


So if we are to believe this model sounding, there was strong deep layer shear over Wide bay Burnett (0-6 km shear approaching 60 knots!). CAPE was probably in the 500-1000 J/kg range, maybe even marginally higher in some locations.

[Vortex]

Wow! There are some awesome images in this thread. Loving your lightshow at home MB, always a big fan of your work. Love the timelapse provided too. Well done.

I headed out briefly mid-afternoon and chased the severe cell from Archerfield to Beaudesert as I did have commitments yesterday. No hail was reported from any of my shooting locations however damaging gusts were evident around the Beaudesert area.

Here is what the storm looked like around 4:45pm-5:00pm from Jimboomba. There were frequent CG's but they were extremely quick and bright. I am very glad that everyone got to get out and take some storm images too which will be great for the season ahead.



Here is also a short vid of the happenings and developments around the same area.

Severe Thunderstorm (Greenbank & Jimboomba) - 30th August 2011

Cheers

Andy

[Michael Bath]

Hey Dan - with that ground to cloud lightning - is that facing completely out to sea or towards some land that's not visible? If out to sea it must have come off a ship or sonmething like that.

[Dan Stewart]

There is a small island out there called split solitary island which has a lighthouse ..nice spotting of the ground to cloud..certainly was

[enak_12]

Yeah theres a few islands out there in that direction Michael. It's interesting that me and Dan caught the same bolt but not all the channels are in both shots, did your shutter click off as it was happening Dan? or is that a video still even?  Either way nice shot, I wish I got the top of it.  

[Dan Stewart]

The shutter click off during the duration of the bolt .... I think it's one of my first ground to clouds I've seen ... Not a bad storm