Topic: Darwin Storm events 2007/2008

[Jimmy Deguara]

Mike,

A couple of powerful tropical storms as well as an interesting storm that looks like it split - what is going on there? Obviously not supercells but definitely and interesting separation:

http://www.australiasevereweather.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=526.0;attach=2035;image

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Mike]

Certainly not an unusual occurance!  The cell the to left hand side was building above me when i took the photos. There was already an anvil from a previous storm overhead but the storm is out of view.  The storm to the right hand side was the one i was after.  It had a very strong updraught and pushed up at a great rate.  This one produced some big dome to ocean CGs and moved separately away from what looks like new convective cloud or inflow convection.  The cell on the right was the one that joined with the one out of view.  From what i saw it moved in the opposite direction to the one to the left.  There was a line of convection hugging the coast near Darwin at around 8pm and by nightfall they must have done something, i was working as i said and being dark, observation was nil for me - here's the radar animation from about 8pm to 2am Frid 15th Dec to Sat 0200am.

Darwin radar loop


 There's a lot around Darwin as it looks like one large mass - but from what i saw there were three storms to my s/west, one to the northwest and another to the North. The other line in the animation came though the outskirts of Darwin from the in the early hours but much less severe - although some regular bolts were viewed.  I was glad to view it at any rate.

Mike

Maybe these pics may help also...

[Adrian]

Hi Mike,

Mate it looks like it has been a massive week and half ! unfortunately I was over on the east coast for work so missed it all

Do you know of any photos from the storm that went through on the 14th ??

Cheers,
.adrian

[Mike]

Hi Adrian - none that I've seen - there may be some about but have not seen too many.  Ive only got the ones in the previous post minus all that lightning!

[Mike]

Some wonderful coverage in today's paper up here from the last two weeks re Geo Europe who I had the pleasure of taking the correspondent chasing .  She left for Sydney today and wished she could stay here longer!  I did mention the forum here as the main reason i decided to get into severe weather chasing but alas they edited this forum and my website....their reasoning was that I may get enough exposure from this anyway...I tried Jimmy!

You can see it's nice and cool here - not!  Stinking hot and 89% humidity and no breeze!

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2007/12/16/2867_ntnews.html

Mike

[Mike]

Bureau advises a weak trough forming in the Arafura Sea mid week which will spark increasing storms.  Good news for us that like to get some photos of lightning over the ocean for a change.  There is a disturbance off to the far west but I'm not counting on that doing anything of late.  There's a bit of instability trough wise in the Gulf of late with increasing storms to our north.  Monsoon perhaps not too far away for us.   Today's radar is one of where do you want to chase today given the amount of maturing cells about the place and the DARMET GIF shows a whopping convergence!.  For me it will be at work at dinner time!  (MB could not compress these images - would not let me! )

Mike

[Mike]

Hi all.

Pronounced monsoon trough developing nicely to our north and is expected to reach us by the weekend.  BoM also indicated that a cyclone as early as xmas could be possible given the amount of activity in the area.  Have not seen any indicators of this yet although there is a system well to the north but they seem to be forewarning everyone and this is the first time i've seen them actually forecast something happening this early.  There is a 1007 low on top of us by Sunday and this may attach itself to the trough - a waiting game.

Storms are expected to increase dramatically in the next days as the trough moves down to us.  This is the time to get all those photographs as once the monsoon arrives it will be overcast and rainy with the odd thunder heard.  There has certainly been an increased cumulous field over Darwin of late and even today all looks positive.  The most active storms have been down the track about 100km at Adelaide River and Pine Creek at night.  I won't be able to chase there for evening shots as they develop due to comittments but there's no troubles with storms around the coastal areas of Darwin City.  The storms move in all directions with the advent of the monsoon trough approaching.  Usually they're predicable, but not so this week.  They'll tend to move wherever they like across the place.

A couple of pics from yesterday as I was mulling around the city.  Even with the anvil wash there is still enough 'clean' air for storms to reform as can be seen in the photos.  All the other factors such as CAPE, heating etc just don't factor into it as they're a 'given' with all the instability around!  Included the GIF wind convergence map which shows some nice developments around the Darwin area as confirmed by the 850 winds (possibly associated with the low pressure area developing) and the latest radar which shows cells coming in nicely and will build up better as the day goes on.

Mike

[Mike]

A group of storms around today - went after one closest to home but did not seem to want to do much!  Only put out 2 Cgs that i saw and just looked gnarly but not angry!  Quite a heavy rain curtain under it and I was hoping for something - only managed a few structure shots and a couple in particular really highlighted the high dew points at the time - around 24 - was nice to see inflow so close and low this time around.  Another photo shows the second group of storms off to the southeast heading away from me.

Was a bit disappointed not to get some lightning out of it - storms to front of this were pushing out some inside another rainshaft but you'd miss them if you weren't looking at that spot.  It had the look of piling up on itself once it moved past the city outskirts - structure wise it was nice looking but lacked a great deal of 'angry'.

Mike

[Mike]

Storms just about widespread around the traps today.  The monsoon trough is having an affect on many cells popping up.  Went out to the rural area and found this lovely storm rolling through at 1:40pm our time and following it into the 'burbs near where I live it produced some strong gusts with a microburst.  Sparodic CG stuff and missed a few between shots  

 METGIF wind flow chart for the technical minded...

Here's some pics of this arvo's storm...

Mike

[Mike]

after work chase Saturday 22 Dec 2007

Nice gulf line moved across toward the NE side of Darwin in the early hours of this morning.  I finished work around 12:30am and headed out a few K's as the road permitted for me to get some shots of some regular lightning bolts.  Mosquitos finally convinced me to pack up after half an hour.  Got a few nice piccies albeit with what looks like a security barbed wire fence in the foreground which I could not detect due to it being pitch black and overcast!  'Ya can't photograph anything if there's nothing in town'  (eh Nick?!!!)

* BoM tipping a cyclone for NT for New Years eve.  Looking at the maps there is a monsoon with two embedded lows, one to the NNE and NW with another disturbance to the N.  The models show the one to the NE to be the dominant issue and by month's end it shows being 1000-995 and sitting off the WA coast at about lat 120E.  The increasing thunderstorms in that area of late are encouraging LLC (low level circulation).  Nothing expected in the next three days, but one to watch.  Monsoon should be with us by the middle of next week/weekend.  We're expecting a wet xmas.  If we do get a cyclone forming near us in the first week of the new year it will work out well for me as I have 5 days off to chase!!!

Mike

here's some photos - the storm is about 36-40km to the east of Darwin - i don't normally use my 300mm lens due to distance and clarity but could not resist the temptation to at least get something considering every other chaser was asleep in Darwin!  Roads permitting it would have made for some wonderful CGs, they were regular, two every 4 minutes!  Probably could have driven down the Gunn Point road to Gunn Point but the road is dirt and attrociously rough - and at that time of morning I was not risking breaking something on the chase mobile.  The line of storms were active for over three hours and the did not dissipate until another two hours after i decided to go to bed.  Not a bad effort and whilst it looked weakening at around 1:30am it fired up three separate cells on the leading edge at around 2:10am.  Its motion must have slowed considerably as radar images had it almost stationary once it made landfall near Cape Hotham.

[Michael Bath]

Hi Mike - are you sure about how far away it was - looks a fair bit more than 30-40ks given you were using a telephoto lens ?   

[Mike]

Yep, Cape Hotham is appox 60km to the east of where i was.  I was originally using the standard 75mm just to get several bolts in one frame, but just switched to the 300 to get some closer shots as the only view I had was between two sets of tree lines. 

 I was about 15km from my home to the northeast in the storm's direction, so roughly about 41-45km from the storms.  I checked the radar when i got back and used their distance pointer from my place of chase to Cape Hotham.  It was no further than that,  I could make out the bolts quite easily, it's just that the observation points were limited.  They certainly lit up the clouds as they hit. 


Mike

[Mike]

Xmas Eve chase 24 dec 2007

Finishing work at around 11:30 last night (which is a miracle in itself) and had to drop a fellow worker off home which was annoying considering some storm activity was moving into town.  Reviewed the radar quickly at around midnight and there was some storms moving parallel to Darwin City on the ocean side.  I headed out as soon as I saw some flashes in the night sky.  Having a full moon really helped get a handle on what cloud structure was about and there were two large towers over the city viewed from my home.  Listening to the AM channel to hear the interference was such an eduation - might sound nerdy - but i can tell you that close strikes have a metallic scream on the radio whereby others have that low resonance buzz - was like music to my ears!

Initially going to the wrong vantage point I chastised myself and afterburned into town to my favorite coastal vantage point that overlooked the exact area the storm was firing up.  The cloud base was extremely low, so low that i could see the base hanging illumunated by the moonlight. I did not decide to stand outside the car this time as there were several large 'exiting' branches from above me which indicated things were just beginning.  I simply stuck the camera out the window and waited until a saw a CG.  Not long after one huge flang erupted behind me which convinced me to stick the camera on the dash and start shooting.  I moved the car three times to get the best view and there was this annoying street light which was lightning up the cloud bases around me.  As fate would have it after my cursing another CG hit close by and knocked out the street lights in the city!  Bonus!

Now in darkness with the moonlight hinting through the clouds I could locate the main cell and point!  It was a fabulous display of lightning.  Many close bolts and i think I must have been just to the right of the leading edge as the rainshaft was a fair way behind the main strikes i could see.  The close bolts were positive strikes as they had come from exactly the same location in the cloud as the first 'exiting' branch which did not make ground.

Here's a few photos.  The second pic is the exiting branching bolt which sparked the storm to get it's act together CG wise.  I got the settings right on the camera this time as usually my F stops are too low (5.6-6.3), this time I upped them to 8 and 9 so the CG's flash would not overexpose the strikes - finally I'm happy to get some nighttime bolts. ))
Mike

[Adrian]

24 Dec 2007

Great shots Mike......  I didn't manage to get one good shot as it blew through the city last night. 

However I did see the CG that hit the high voltage line on Tiger B. Drive that knocked out the power in town, it went straight down with a direct hit.  Could see the sparks from where I was which was about 700m away.  It tripped two of my house circuit breakers in the process.  Unfortunately had my camera pointed at the city so missed the opportunity to record it for every one else.  Had a few drinks last night so couldn't get out and chase...... so will use that as my poor excuse for not getting into town

Anyway thanks for the images.

Merry Xmas to yourself and everyone else on the forum.

Cheers,
.adrian

[Mike]

Ditto, Adrian.  For others...the BoM had some stats in the paper today re this storm.  Interesting lightning stats. The bureau recorded 457 lightning strikes in one hour but they said that only one in seven actually hit the ground - mmm I saw a lot more than one in seven hit the ground in the half hour I was photographing! Even though they suggested that you can have more than one strike per second I suspect they were talking about pulsing CGs or many strikes grounding at the same time?

 The monsoon is expected by this coming Thursday.  Had a look at the models for new years day and there will be a tropical low off the WA coast at around 120-125E, a 1004 low just of Gove to the East of Darwin and another 1004 low off the QLD coast with the trough lying right across the top of WA, NT and QLD connecting these together. 

Radar images for today Dec 26th show a large flow of showers heading to Darwin this morning from the NE.  Storms will probably be imbedded in this muck and really makes things terrible for anything spectacular - even with lightning - the monsoon is welcome but grey skies and constant rain is a bit of a photography nightmare for choosing a subject to shoot! Included latest satpic showing what's hugging the coast today- messy but a few overshooting tops visible with the storms within...and is in fact an area of weak circulation mentioned in the cyclone thread and by the JTWC.  This is in all likelihood the low that will form in the area NE of Gove on new years day.

Mike