Topic: NSW Severe Storms: 9 - 11 Feb 2009

[Michael Bath]

Some storm cells have developed over western parts of the Central Tablelands tracking east at present. Should see some severe cells around soon.

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi,

Chased storms near Lithgow today. Certainly some rapid crisp updrafts though the contaminated air with the source from the south was going to ensure the storms became elevated.

First storms were between Lithgow and Bathurst photographed from Cullen Bullen. Following this, I noted that cumulus to the north were struggling so I proceeded towards Bathurst but made it on the road to Tarana. Finally, I ended up near Capertee though the storms were not as spectacular though I still managed to be surprised by a few isolated pea sized hailstones here.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Jimmy Deguara]

The last storms near Capertee were not as impressive though still did produce some pulsing bolts. Here are a few pictures of these storms:

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Michael Bath]

Some nice structures yesterday Jimmy. What did you mean by contaminated air ?

There was a report of hail to 2cm at Blackheath yesterday, though most of it was small hail. Radar loops show quite a small cell passing over that area at 6.50pm.

[James]

Some nice updraft structure in your shots Jimmy and a nice looking pileus cap. It certainly beat sitting in Sydney all day under 8/8 strato cumulus! I did manage to hear one rumble of thunder from where we were staying in Mosman most likely an anvil crawler. Back home this afternoon and hoping for some storms out west this evening. Cricket or lightning, cricket or lightning .... might be time to get the coin out.

[Michael Bath]

Bit of action over the N and NW of the state at present with an STW just issued. Bit windy at Narrabri !



for LARGE HAILSTONES, FLASH FLOODING and DAMAGING WIND
For people in the NORTH WEST SLOPES and parts of the UPPER HUNTER, NORTHERN TABLELANDS, CENTRAL TABLELANDS and NORTH WEST PLAINS Forecast Districts.

Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce large hailstones, very heavy rainfall, flash flooding and damaging winds in the warning area over the next several hours. Locations which may be affected include Armidale, Mudgee, Tamworth, Gunnedah, Moree and Narrabri.

A wind gust of 102 km/hr has been recorded at Narrabri West.

[Shaun Galman]

Hi guys,
Sure is a nice line of storms out there MB! If there was no smoke haze (I think this is what Jimmy meant by contaminated air?) I would most likely have seen them? It's been overcast and smokey all day! Not sure where the nearest bush fires are but we only have a kilometer or so of visibility today. It's even hard to see the ridges around town!

Got darn hot here yesterday, reaching 42.3ºc by 4pm and hit 39ºc again today even with the high level cloud cover. Moisture is surely nil.

Hoping that trough will move slightly back inland tomorrow. I have my fingers crossed :D
Regards and take care!
Shauno

[Michael Bath]

Wow - didn 't realise the smoke had spread all the way up to your area Shauno. Have had none here.

Nasty cell has just passed through the southern suburbs of Newcastle - this image at 6.50pm local

[Jimmy Deguara]

Sorry, by contaminated air I meant the source was colder air rather than warmer moist unstable air. This means the storm was elevated. 2cm hail at Blackheath possibly came from one of the cells earlier in my photographs.

Report Storm Chase February 10 2009

At first I targetted Taree but it became clear and frustrating that storms were not going to occur in a hurry. By 4:30pm, I gave up and headed south. Michael Bath had kept me up to date but storms all the way near Murrurundi and Lithgow just did not take my interest. I thought sarcastically if the one near Cessnock got near my area I might give it a shot. I was just not interested in elevated activity.

Just passed the morriset exit on the F3 heading south for home, I receive a message from Michael that a severe cell was about to hit Lake Macquarie. It took several seconds to evaluate that position and then "Hey I am near Lake Macquarie", I thought. I just passed it. There were lightning flashes but nothing that made me take any notice. I contacted Michael, and iI could tell from the urgency and excitement that this cell was no ordinary cell - he was talking that f I turned around and headed to Dora Creek, I would go through hail. So I made an about turn on the Freeway and headed for Dora creek. Finally, there was what seemed to be structure. Amazing to think I passed through and the storm was covered by low clouds. This storm was now re-arranging its own environment as it passed over the area.

The final turn on the freeway north and large drops followed by hailstones. Lightning occasionally strobed randomly from the storm. The hail became a torrent and visibility was severely reduced. Hailstones became large enough to be of concern that the windscreen would be tested. I estimated at least 4cm diameter hailstones falling in the storm perhaps larger. Strong winds were hammering the hailstones against the body work.

Finally out the other side, I made an immediate attempt to turn around and head south as quick as possible. The hailstorm was gone! So quick! I verified the latest with Michael as well as provided feedback to him with regards to hail size. And then I got to work trying to collect some hailstones for measurement. I was totally soaked but I didn't care! Holding these round balls of ice was awesome! They were hard stones - some translucent with slightly more opaque cores. Some had spikes others flat and elongated (perhaps somewhat melted). Only one hailstone in this case was I able to get to 4cm in diameter with the callipers. The rest ranged between 3 to 3.5cm and almost spherical. the hail was melting rapidly so I was working franticly to see the largest hailstones I could measure but after about 30 to 40 minutes, I called it quits and headed home. After all, I was cold, wet and tired.

Photographs will appear hear when I can get the camera to work after photographing with the camera in the rain and it got wet!

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Michael Bath]

Hi Jimmy, glad you were able to get into the hail!

Looking at the radar it was quite a long lived cell that formed south of Mudgee about 3.30pm - in the only small gap in the other cloud covering most other areas.

---> Newcastle 128km scale radar loop

---> Newcastle 256km scale radar loop

This VIS at 3.30pm:

[Jimmy Deguara]

Michael,

Certainly looks like a supercell in the way it behaved and also controlled the immediate environment and cool boundary layer. There was upper level cooling occurring during the evening. This is the first time I have ever intercepted a storm in a post frontal environment elevated above the low cloud that produced hail of this size - it felt 'wrong' but very much appreciated - thanks again Michael for alerting me to it.

Lesson: never give up on a chase until the lightning is gone.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Shaun Galman]

Hi all,

Wow - didn 't realise the smoke had spread all the way up to your area Shauno. Have had none here.

Nasty cell has just passed through the southern suburbs of Newcastle - this image at 6.50pm local

It is surprising Michael! The smoke is even heavier today. It appears to be streaming up through, Wagga Wagga, Parkes, Dubbo and all the way up through us and on into QLD! That's pretty impressive considering the Victorian fire locations. I had a good look at the VIS sat last night before the light had disappeared and did notice it as a lower level band of haze, although it is faint. The smell is permeating everything, even inside the houses with the windows closed, so I can only imagine what actually being there must be like.

Those are some really impressive hail stones Jimmy! Did you manage any storm or structural photos from that great SC? What a nice radar signature it had!

We had a very brief shower last night. Coming off the back of that storm line, and dense cloud band just sitting to our East. Nothing in the way of measuring even lol? You could count the drops on the ground.

I haven't been doing much forecasting or observing the net weather info these last few days due to being glued to the telly watching the fire news. What a terrible week it has been for Australia.

Hoping things will be looking okay weather-wise in the coming days, so we'll see what happens :D
Take care,
Shauno.

[Antonio (stormboy)]

I have been watching the radar since 3pm today and a huge mass of storm cells have formed and joined near west Coffs harbor and south west grafton here is a picture of the 3:50 radar and lightning tracker.

[Dave Nelson]

Bit of action over the N and NW of the state at present with an STW just issued. Bit windy at Narrabri !

for LARGE HAILSTONES, FLASH FLOODING and DAMAGING WIND
For people in the NORTH WEST SLOPES and parts of the UPPER HUNTER, NORTHERN TABLELANDS, CENTRAL TABLELANDS and NORTH WEST PLAINS Forecast Districts.

Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce large hailstones, very heavy rainfall, flash flooding and damaging winds in the warning area over the next several hours. Locations which may be affected include Armidale, Mudgee, Tamworth, Gunnedah, Moree and Narrabri.

A wind gust of 102 km/hr has been recorded at Narrabri West.

Chase for 10 Feb 2009
Yeah,  it was pretty wild out that area!!!!!  thought my van was gonna get blown off the road at times.  The outflow from
some of these cells was strong and raising up a lot of dust.

Work took me to Tamworth WOW a storm chase well out of town that the boss paid for hahahaha  so cool!!
finished off my jobs by 1500EDT and could see cells forming to the west of Tamworth.  I didnt go all the way to Narrabri but
could see that cell on the radar,  instead I got onto several cells ~ 35k W of Tamworth.  They had copious amounts of rain
and hail in their cores.  All these cells were predominantly outflow dominant.  I paralleled these storm cells as they merged
back towards and just to the south of Tamworth.  They were VERY lightning active, in the early stages, I could see the
lightning bouncing around the underside of the anvil  almost more there than anywhere else.   a rough guestimate would
be 60% buried in the clouds / visible overhead to 40% CG's.
The storms died out not too far east of Tamworth .... I have to mention again just how strong the outflow winds were, tho
no serious damage observed.
The day in Tamworth was (before the storms) quite warm in the mid 30's and partly cloudy. temps dropped dramatically
after the storms and stayed that way all nite.

Today 11Feb ....   on my way back from Tamworth I ran into more storms between Murrurundi and Muswellbrook
The most intense lightning and rain in the region around Scone. It made driving "fun" at times

Cheers
Dave N

[Richary]

I have been watching the radar since 3pm today and a huge mass of storm cells have formed and joined near west Coffs harbor and south west grafton here is a picture of the 3:50 radar and lightning tracker.

I flew from Brisbane to Sydney this afternoon with takeoff around 5:30pm AEDT and had noticed these storms on the radar before I left Brisbane. Luckily sitting on the left hand side of the plane I had a reasonable view. Unluckily the Virgin in flight tracker was placing us about 100-150km west of our true location but these were taken around the Glen Innes-Armidale area looking east. It was quite obvious (less obvious in the photos - why do shots from planes rarely work that well?) of the height of these storms before it fell away to much lower level cloud further east. The photos have been slightly contrast enhanced to bring up the features.

Just a different view of the system! My altitude about 12.1km.