Topic: Darwin Storm events 2007/2008

[Michael Bath]

What time was that storm?. The Vis satpic reveals light windshear in the upper levels with the circular anvil and the ripples indicating a number of updraft pulses. Certainly the last pulse has overshot compared to the earlier height of the storm. The morning Darwin sounding had some decent E to ESE winds between 850 and 600 hPa, and a good moisture profile, which would help with a storm becoming severe, though a supercell does not appear too likely unless some other factors came into play later in the day.

[Mike]

I think it was around 4:15pm - can confirm but I'm sure I saw that cell around that time on the radar loops.

Nabbed this shot of a pulsing Cg (in fact 6 separate strikes in a matter of 40 seconds) check out the guys outside in the open watching the lightning....fools!

[Mike]

Michael, satpic image was 08:30UTC.  To be honest I had not been looking too much at any of the obs (except sounding) wind profiles, GFS or anything yesterday so I can't give too much detail.  I shall ask greg at the BoM here to see if he has any details...

[Shaun Galman]

G'day Mike,
Great to see you getting some decent CG action up there and giving you a good chance to put that new camera to use! Once you have those manual settings under control you wont turn back!

It's always frustrating to see ordinary people standing out in a highly active storm, particularly the relatively storm-inexperienced? I guess I have been that "person standing out in the severe storm" now and again but when things heat up or get too close for comfort I know when to jump in the car or just vacate the area! These people put their lives at risk and ours also! Knowing CPR is a must, just in case these people get hit (worse case scenario) but then you could greatly put your own life at risk (while the storm is still active) if you have to help them in any way! I have told people to move on a couple times now, due to the lightning danger. (one middle aged couple stopped beside me last year, threw a blanket down and sat there watching very close CG on an exposed high ridge with no trees!) It does get my blood boiling now and again but I think if you explain the immediate danger to them (and putting you at risk also) they will listen and oblige you most of the time

Nice to see great cell structure from up north!
Take care and keep up the great work!
Shauno 

[Mike]

Indeed the storms in the last couple of days have been strong.  It's not often they reach Darwin coming from inland so often as the sea breeze just knocks them for six.  This particular storm with the locals in it produced a huge number of hits - just went off.  I missed some spectacular triple strikes at that very point while getting ready to shoot and they were closer than this one i captured - only got it due to it pulsing three or four times.

Yeah and I find my fingers are quicker than my brain when i see them pulse - rattle the shots off and you're bound to capture them - will try the F18-22 area in Tv later this arvo...

Sounding shows lots of shear in the lower sections and nice numbers again.

Mike

[Mike]

Saturday 17 Nov.

  Wide set of storms passing my home at the moment (3:15pm) - some CGs but nothing of note.  What I did like was watching the gust front and surrounding cloud form - it's nice just to sit and watch how it all unfolds on occasions rather than trying to capture some elusive lightning.

Here's some photos.  The storm actually attempted to shelf somewhat in the latter photos, the condensation cloud was being drawn up and in front of the leading edge and seemed to stall once it reached that point - almost roll cloud in appearance.  Quite a wide outflow on this storm as it would not fit all in the range of my lens!  Included the lastest radar image for your pleasure...

The most promising thing is that these storms made it to the city which indicates the dreaded seabreeze is not interfereing with their movement.

Close flang as I'm editing this....nice to hear the windows rattle!

Mike

[Mike]

17 November 2007
I must confess that this storm has moved very slowly over my area and is creating a lot of lightning - mostly intracloud as I've been standing in the driveway watching for over an hour and watching the flashes and crawlers - this is the best medication for stress in the world!  Just constant rumbles and booms every two seconds and really in reality it's just so relaxing to listen to!

I may be mad but it's stuff like this that makes you realise why you do all the work and storm chase, you don't have to be in the thick of it to appreciate it - just to listen really does have a calming affect!

The only time i heard so much thunder was way back in 2002 when Darwin was hit with a big storm on new years eve and on the phone to my mum she constently commented on what all the noise was - i said it was thunder 22km away non stop for over an hour!!!

Ahh you gotta love what we do when you just sit back and listen...

Mike

[Mike]

Hi guys,  I have posted this photo compressed - I hope it works.  MB has been hounding me to finally do something about it!  I've found a free JPEG compression link which i have used.  If the photo is what you expected MB can you let me know?

Here goes....it worked a treat.  File size was around 287kb originally - after compression it was 49.6kb.  (I'm off the hook by looks of it Michael.?)

Extensive storm activity here at the moment, radar is just covered and it's flogging down at the moment.  My daughter and i went chasing but the storm with us now overcome us as we left too late - could be an interesting day once this mess clears up.

Mike

[Carlos E]

Heh, this topic makes me want to move to Darwin.

Those are some incredible pictures!

[Mike]

Hi Carlos, yes certainly makes the wait after 5 months of dry weather!  Storms are great during the day as it cools things off.  The only problem we have with multiple storms in the area is that there's so much 'storm wash' with it which hampers things.  Isolated showers in most parts makes it difficult with so much cloud cover and chasing the right ones even gets you trapped in encircling storms.

It's a shame that most of these storms don't come during the night as they'd make for spectacular lightning shots as the one i posted.  The storms don't always reach Darwin believe it or not during the afternoons, onshore seabreezes really do hinder their movement.  Todays storms have had enough push with the wind to help them propograte on the coast once they've moved from inland also. 

The best storms are when they form just outside the 25km region and move in a NW/NE for the S or SE and have plenty of 'clean' air between them and the city.  Once they get past this area they fire up and are usually lightning active.  Today has almost been monsoonal in character, imbedded storms within lots of mush!  It's almost impossible to catch CGs unless they pulse and staccato lightning is common - which makes it harder during the day!

Cheers.

[Michael Bath]

Yay !! - glad you have got the JPG compression under control Mike !!!!   and what a beautiful lightning photo to display as a test.    Look forward to seeing more pics like that over coming months.

MB

[Mike]

Indeed, indeed.  Now that I'll have some spare nights for the next three weeks or so I duly hope there's some active close storms around at night before my venture back to permanent arvo shifts.

[Adrian]

17th November 2007

Hi All,

Thought that I would add this photo to the list - from Sat arvo @ 15:59 on the 17th Nov.

Cheers,
adrian

[Mike]

Ah Adrian, make yourself known if you're a fellow Territorian and welcome to the forum with your first post and photo!!!  What better way to get involved than to post a CG near Darwin!

We all look forward to more posts from you and regular photos perhaps  - nice capture of the smooth CG also.

Mike

[Adrian]

Hi Mike - yep fellow Territorian moved back about 2 years ago.  Haven't done much Storm photography as that shot of the CG (posted) would be my second only ever.

Have done a fair bit of other photography and hope to become a regular contributor on the photo side.... unfortunately don't know a lot about severe weather so will leave that for others at this stage.

Thanks for the warm welcome !!! I have enjoyed reading your posts and looking at your photos.

Cheers,
Adrian