Topic: Dust Storms, Severe Thunderstorms, Wind, Rain & Snow over Southeast Australia: 19 - 27 Sep 2009

[Colin Maitland]

Looks like a bit more storm activity for the central parts of NSW with a storm warning issued.
BOM

for DAMAGING WIND and LARGE HAILSTONES

For people in the ILLAWARRA and parts of the SOUTH COAST, CENTRAL TABLELANDS, SOUTHERN TABLELANDS, CENTRAL WEST SLOPES, CENTRAL WEST PLAINS, SOUTH WEST SLOPES, RIVERINA and LOWER WESTERN Forecast Districts.

Issued at 2:04 pm Tuesday, 22 September 2009.

Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce damaging winds and large hailstones in the warning area over the next several hours. Locations which may be affected include Nowra, Bowral, Orange, Goulburn, Yass, Parkes, Young and Wyalong.

[Ursula]

according the the radar, the front with a purple cell is currently just north of Yass, Tarago is next towards Ulladalla/Nowra depending on the wind there. I had some lightening and small hail early this morning about 1-1.30 am. I took a pics, several actually but didn't turn out bar one, the sky is dirty/hazy, plenty of topsoil in the air which is hard to breath in and a bit muggy.

[Colin Maitland]

As at 3.27pm Tuesday 22/09/09 I counted 39 weather warnings for Australia. It is quite an eventful day. I have posted an WZ map to try and give an idea of what is happening.

There is storms, dust storms, strong winds, cold fronts, fire especially in QLD and the list goes on.

Col

[Ursula]

one cell is moving slightly north of Braidwood towards Nerriga and the coast

[David C]

one cell is moving slightly north of Braidwood towards Nerriga and the coast

yes that cell looks significant at this point. Anomalous propagation from a fairly wicked flow through the mid levels.

[Richary]

Interviewing an SES person at the moment on the ABC, and they were saying lots of calls from the Crookwell area where cricket ball size hail was reported.

Here the first band has mainly gone a bit south but some quite heavy rain so far, though the next cell currently near Lithgow seems to be lining me up a better. All lightning so far rain wrapped to the south or in the clouds, plus rain blowing in from the south so not setting the camera up looking that way!

Haven't seen a windfinding look like this before, even when I had it local to me in Adelaide. From the first main cell that tracked Warragamba towards Sutherland.

[Peter J]

Just a little note from Mooroolbark - my rain gauge had 19mm in 4 hours. No lightning here, nor storms (or my dog would have gone mad), but plenty of solid rain, and some nice wind gusts overnight too. I noticed suburbs to the SE of me, did cop a battering from hailstorms - sheets of ice spread through Narre-Warren and Berwick areas. And looked like plenty of thunder activity more than 100kms to my north. A great rain event, and one that is much needed here.

Hope the catchments are getting their share too...

I also heard reports of a tornado in Nthn SA? Is that right??

Big Pete

[Colin Maitland]

One report stated Big Pete,    http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26109630-421,00.html
 and another site   http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1096557/Hail,-storms,-fire-and-tornado-hit-Australia

The bureau said a tornado was recorded by a severe storm monitor in the midnorth of South Australia, with the strong winds experienced over that state now extending across western NSW and into the ACT, bringing thick dust.

But I have not found an official report from BOM yet, still early but it is very possible


Col

[Ursula]

looks like the storms are gone now, been going on all afternoon and night with only the occasional small hail, some wind gusts and plenty of lightening and rain, will have a look in the morning to see how much.

[Richary]

11mm here at my place in Sydney from the first band, though a friend at Mortdale commented it was hammering down and almost hail. The one that was lining up here earlier fell apart and didn't arrive :-( Another band coming through on radar but doesn't look like much. Not as windy yet as forecast, in fact almost calm. See what it is like in the morning when I have to drive to Newcastle for a 2 day job (on tiled rooftops, hmmmm. Hope it dries out).

[Richary]

Well the severe storms missed us, but instead everything is red this morning. Am I back in Adelaide? Going to be a fun drive to Newcastle through this, all Sydney Ferries cancelled due to poor visibility with the dust storm.

[Kristy Norman]

7mm of rain here on Monday night with storms that came with plenty of strong wind.
17mm of rain last night. The first storm came through around 10.30pm, not much rain in that one but it did come with a barrage of impressive CG's and crawlers.  
Second storm hit 1am, small hail, gusty wind and plenty of lightning and booming thunder again.
Overall fantastic news for the crops which have been doing it really tough in this region for the last few months and are now just hanging in there.

[TroyVR]

Well we got a bit of the storm last night here in Caringbah, but the bulk of the lighting was to the south over the National Park, did get some heavy rain though, cant say how much cause the rain gauge is mainly full of mud...

[Colin Maitland]

 To add a little more to what has been an somewhat of epic event over the last 2 days, Melbourne was hit with 2 small earthquakes yesterday evening, there was no reported damage but the MSN report states : 

Two small earthquakes have hit Melbourne's south, but there are no reports of damage.

The earthquakes were about 14 seconds apart and hit the Mornington Peninsula region at about 6.20pm (AEST) on Tuesday, Geoscience Australia seismologist David Jepson said.

They recorded magnitudes of 3.0 and 2.6, with the epicentre about 25km south of Frankston.

"These are too small to cause any damage, we would expect," Mr Jepson told AAP.


Trying to follow up further with Big Pete question regarding a tornado in South Australia

I also heard reports of a tornado in Nthn SA? Is that right??

Big Pete

All reports seem to have vanished at this stage except the two I posted yesterday. I don't know if the Storm spotter (or as BOM called it, recorded by a severe storm monitor) was correct in his call, or if it is been analysed and awaiting official status, but all reports have gone cold.

Col

[wthrman]

For anyone interested, I am updating live images of the current duststorm over Sydney..see here.