Topic: Storms: VIC / NSW / SE QLD: 3/9/2009 through 5/9/2009

[Antonio (stormboy)]

Hello everyone and how are you enjoying spring so far? I certainly am with these warm temperatures. Well it looks like Friday 4/9 has been forecast for patchy rain and thunderstorms in the afternoon, for the Northern NSW and Southeast QLD areas as well as the northern tablelands. Also Tuesday 8/9 is forecast for thunderstorms too. So let’s see how things go.

Storm boy – preparing the camera for the season ahead ;-)

[Colin Maitland]

I know Storm Boy you are working off the forecast but I keep running through the data, and tomorrow, Friday the 4/09/09, looks more like thundery rain with maybe!!!( it would be nice, but looking grim,) the odd isolated storm.   A few showers in the early part of Friday morning, and then some time  between 10 am- 1 pm west of Moree, NSW and west of Warrego, QLD, the thundery rain should start firing up and head East towards the coast.

Monday appears to be more capable of producing a possible storm than for Tuesday, although once again, probably more like thundery rain, then Tuesday should see the rain band clear out to sea, and I wouldn't expect anything great at this stage, but it is that time of year again and strange things do happen.

Cheers

Col

[Kristy Norman]

There is a severe thunderstorm warning currently out for widespread areas of Victoria.
Storms are now coming across from the west, CG's pumping down and flashing up to three of four times. Very strong gusty wind blowing from the north east.

[Colin Maitland]

 Warning from BOM for VIC
For people in the Northeast, North Central, Central and parts of the Northern Country, West and South Gippsland and Alpine Forecast Districts.

Issued at 3:14 pm Thursday, 3 September 2009.

Severe thunderstorms have the potential to produce damaging winds in the warning area over the next several hours. Locations which may be affected include Bendigo, Shepparton, Seymour, Melbourne, Wodonga and Wangaratta.

Radar and Doppler of the storms as at 3: 40PM

New storm warning for the alpine areas
 For people in the
Outer East and parts of the
Western Port Local Warning Areas.

Issued at 3:47 pm Thursday, 3 September 2009.

The Bureau of Meteorology warns that, at 3:45 pm, severe thunderstorms were detected on weather radar near Bass, KooWeeRup, Lang Lang, Pakenham, San Remo and the area south of Healesville. These thunderstorms are moving towards the southeast. They are forecast to affect Bunyip, Yarra Junction, the area east of Pakenham and the area northeast of Pakenham by 4:15 pm.

It also looks like storms in NSW and maybe around Sydney this afternoon.
Lightning tracker has been picking up some storm activity  southwest NSW

[Peter J]

Being that I am living in Melbourne's outer east, I was unimpressed by the recent storm (3.30pm) - It dumped a bit of rain, and some winds of about 40kph, but did little else around from Ringwood to the SE. But in saying that, Box Hill copped a nice downpour and some rumbles of thunder.

For most of the eastern side of Melbourne, the warning from EWN and the stw from BoM might have been a little premature... but better to get the warning than not if it had of been worse...

Big Pete
(disillusioned)...

[Kristy Norman]

All we got here was good lightning and strong wind, only 3mm rain.
The area form Yarrawonga to Benalla and aslo Wangaratta seem to be copping the worst of it on the radar.
Still pretty warm here and hoping for some more storms and rain tonight.

[Antonio (stormboy)]

Ok something just bothering me here. I’m just sitting on my notebook browsing the Radar and lightning tracker because for the past 20 to 30 minutes it has been thundering. Not loud but hear able. What is bothering me is that the radar shows nothing so why is it thundering for so long.

by the way this is reporting from Ballina Northern rivers.

[Antonio (stormboy)]

Looking at the radar just recently and it look like there is not going to be any thunderstorm activity today for the cloud band is making it really difficult. Light rain patches are around and coming from the north but I think it will only rain.

But just like Coltan stated earlier there is always a possibility because especially now how we are in spring we do get unusual and sometimes unpredictable weather.

Storm boy – preparing the camera for the season ahead ;-)

[David C]

Hi Guys,

I've just extended this thread topic to include storms that developed across Victoria and also NSW yesterday.

There was a severe storm warning issued yesterday afternoon for parts of Victoria as a squall line tracked across Melbourne metro and surrounds. Reports indicate that this line produced heavy rain and possibly small hail at some locations.

Another broken line of storms intensified yesterday, further north over the NSW south west slopes ~ sunset through early evening. Paul Graham chased these storms and reported some impressive anvil crawlers initially from ~ 20km south of Culcairn. He then said that the base structure became more interesting and as if someone 'flicked a switch' the lightning increased dramatically. As the storms moved through he experienced a dump of small hail mixed with heavy rain. As the storms tracked east there was 'incessant' intra-cloud lightning as one cell became quite highly electrified to the east of Albury.

Currently storms are ongoing over the north west slopes; with modest to decent moisture under this cooler upper air there should be some decent falls along with some flash-and-bang.

[Shaun Galman]

Hi guys,

Well we had a late (or rather very early?) storm arrival this morning at 3:15am EST with that rather nice trough that is proceeding towards the Eastern NSW parts now.

I had absolutely no luck this morning after racing out of bed at the first signs of thunder, getting organized in the dark due to minor power loss and racing down town to one of the old opal fields ready to photograph. The cell was passing us by to the South (possibly around 30k's away) but there seemed to be some structure illuminated from time to time. The lightning was very intense and seemed to light up the entire area overhead even though it was fairly distant. I had just got set-up and started taking photos when I realised there was an ominous looking rain core coming straight for me! I think I took three blank shots before it really poured (not to mention I was having a bout of hayfever with watering eyes and I couldn't stop sneezing lol). This was quite funny at the time and I was laughing to myself as I sprinted home in the pouring rain while being soaked through. I did see a very nice crawler shoot overhead but I think it was the last one at that stage?

Another active cell came through around 4:30am EST but even though the lightning was frequent it was already raining pretty steadily by the time it arrived so I just did the smart thing and stayed in bed

There was a cell (can't hear any thunder from it now) just sitting out to our NW as of 10:15am EST. We are still under an anvil by the looks, though this seems to be a pretty weak cell.

See how we go for the rest of the day. I'll be ready for anything that comes our way.

Kindest regards,
Shauno    
 

[Colin Maitland]

the thundery rains west of Moree seem to be firing up to some possible storms BOM have issued 1st warning:

For people in the
NORTH WEST PLAINS and parts of the
CENTRAL WEST SLOPES,
CENTRAL WEST PLAINS and
UPPER WESTERN Forecast Districts.

Issued at 12:01 pm Friday, 4 September 2009.

Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce large hailstones and damaging winds in the warning area over the next several hours. Locations which may be affected include Walgett, Coonabarabran and Coonamble.

[Colin Maitland]

Just reset the weather monitor for Dubbo and rechecked the soundings: they state

Sounding Summary:
. Severe storms are a possibility and might be quite severe given the shear present, supporting hail Pea Size to 1cm in size
The 500mb level is showing moderate instability, enough for storms to kick up if conditions are right and possibly severe if other conditions are right
The 500 temps are relatively cold
The sounding is showing very nice moisture in the lower levels and moisture depth is good
Cloud base is at 920.73mb (816m)
There is very little change in the directional shear up to 700mb
SWEAT index reports a moderate chance of storms becoming severe
There is a nice dry slot in the mid levels which will help evaporative cooling, lightning and hail formation
Lower level winds are good
Mid level winds are good
Upper level winds (Jetstream) are good


There is no cap, storms will fire off early if other conditions are right
The overall CAP has a value of -1.28 °C

[Peter J]

Certainly still windy here in Melbourne, and there is some convection firing up to my south... but it might only be short lived. Have heard a rumble or two in the last 5 mins or so, and the wind gusts are a bit squally. looks like a little bit of hail falling to the SE of Mt Dandenong - went for a short drive 15-20 mins ago, and nice cell forming to E of here (prob close to Warburton area).

Parts of SE Melbourne copped a battering from a quick squall-line of storms yesterday about 3.15-3.30pm. But outer eastern suburbs didn't get anything much more than rain. Ringwood thru Lilydale and Montrose got a measly 2mm in 10 mins. at least it was something - but Box Hill and Clayton areas had some good storm activity - a few CGs mixed in with torrential rain.

Big Pete

[Shaun Galman]

Upper Western/North West NSW Severe Storm Report. 4th September 2009

Hi guys,

Russ and I just went through a ridiculously severe and very large storm! This beast arrived around 5pm on that storm line approaching from the Bourke area and built about 40k's to our West. Lightning really began to pick up near on 5:30pm EST as the anvil started to spread out, it was very crisp too! There were some real nice inflow cloud bands on the lower levels before it really took off.

We ended up racing down town as multiple CG were firing down all around us! The rain was absolutely torrential and caused pretty bad localized flooding around town. Russ and I were stuck unable to move or get back to his car as the roads completely went under water! I will post some flooding photos and get a rainfall total asap. I didn't manage any lightning due to the rain fall being chaotic to say the least. I'd put in a rough guess of around 50-60mm of rain in 10mins.

There was also another cell sitting 40-50k's to our SW that looks amazing with a massive updraft. There is a great looking forward shearing anvil which is stretched out for quite a few K's and is backlit by the sunset. This had numerous CA's shooting out of the back of the anvil/updraft area! Just too distant to get a decent photo of unfortunately. Definitely a beautiful sight at this time of year!

These storms are definitely severe and I'm glad I got the warning on the EWN this morning.

I guess the Collarenerbri and Moree area's will be hit by this beast tonight.

Take care if chasing any of these up close or getting caught off guard as we just did!
Kindest regards,
Shauno  

EDIT: The rainfall total for the storm was 36mm in 10mins. (I guess I need to go off and re-calibrate my internal rain gauge) lol

[Mike]

...and there's no photos of all this action fella!  I was salivating on seeing some of your great work but sounds like you two were in the thick of things and sometimes it's nice just to watch the action unfold and not worry about taking photos - it's only disheartening when you see a really cool lightning strike and mutter...'Should have had the camera out for that one!'

Great post -