Hi all,
To say that I am generally tired is an understatement! To say that I have adrenalin - you are correct. It was meant to be a leisurely chase with Michael Bath in the Northern Rivers and we met up near Casino. The storm that was heading towards Casino showed supercell characteristics. It was a nice structure and continued to maintain this structure for quite a while. I was impressed with the low level inflow and shear dynamics but the cold outflow won out.
We got hailed on about 10 km ESE of Casino and then somehow lost each other though Michael had to go back and do some more work. The storm produced hailstones to about golf ball sized but not measured but I trust our judgement and the noise from hits on the roof. The hail at one stage was falling profusely.
I hung around Lismore and waited for the storm to come through. Then I noticed, and it was confirmed by Michael another updraft region (Michael tells me at this point there was a blackout and he could not do work at the time).
I continued along to this region chasing virtually blind because I knew little of the road network and the scale of the map did not show this region at all. Then I saw a sign to Nimbin which was more like the general direction I wanted to be in. Basically I was on a head on collision with the northern part of the new cell. It did not notice anything peculiar and I thought if anything hail would most likely have been less intense if anything. I turned this corner at Dunoon and this feature resembling a funnel caught my eye. Even on the video, I comment about the funnel. Then I saw the intense and strong debris cloud and condensation rapidly changing form. This was a tornado and I got out of the vehicle. But then I thought the tornado is coming my way. Suddenly the concept of chasing in Australia turned quickly to tactical chasing of a tornado - US style!
Changing position to the intersection turned out to be a wise move as the tornado was clearly visible for quite some time. From outside the vehicle this strong tornado became larger and debris filled. One piece of this debris landed in the electricity substation and to my astonishment it exploded! I could not believe what I had witnessed. This tornado eventually shows multi-vortex behaviour although I was so taken away by the event I had not noticed. I wanted to contact the Bureau or Michael but simply could not pick the phone without interfering with footage. Then during my repositioning I was able to finally get a call through.
The tornado was over a built up region of the village and the road ahead was blocked. The large tornado had done damage on the southern outskirts of Dunoon. The tornado was still very dynamic but thankfully had moved out of town into a field to the northeast or east. All this time, I was basically in the hook of the circulation with intermittent bursts of rain - no hail.
Repositioning again was the last chance to observe from a different perspective given the road was blocked. I caught the final seconds of the tornado through from the south but when I settled into a better location, I could no longer see it. The tornado's fury was over. The tornado in all must have lasted about 15 minutes.
I made a move to get into better mobile coverage and head back to Lismore but I turned around to survey the damage. It seems the tornado damage may have reached EF-1 in my estimation. The local church eastern and southern walls (later we noticed the northern wall) were caved into the church so luckily nobody was inside. A few other buildings sustained minor damage such as a roof completely removed and also the power lines were downed. Some of the residents were in shock.
At this point I headed back to Lismore where contact was made to TV stations. Even as I type, it is still sinking in how one afternoon can change dramatically. The what-ifs have been flowing through. The rest is history.
Check this spectacular clip out (13mb):
Dunoon Tornado Substation Explosion
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
