Topic: NSW Storms 1-2nd December 2007

[Shaun Galman]

1st December 2007 Upper Western Storm Report & Photos

Hi guys,
(thought I'd leave this thread open as today (2nd Dec.) may prove worthy in this region. We have one large cell heading west of us at the moment)

Yesterday afternoon was very interesting, had alot of congestus around most of the day with this very- almost tropical type system. The first storms formed to our east at 5pm these looked amazing, looming very dark and intense with nice inflow features. I raced out to a decent viewing area as the low shelf came over the top of me, luckily this first storm only grazed the ridges and I was able to catch it's relative entirety until it weakened.

Under the low shelf cloud. This is an east to west panorama. The dust furiously ripping of the plains was interesting to watch (right side of photo).

It was a sea of rain out there to say the least! There were a few good CG but too sporadic to catch with the old camera? This shot is facing south.


An interesting structure quickly formed to my east (over town) with some back-building as the first HP storm weakened. It seemed to tear out of the rear of the first storm, pictured in the top photo.

As the storm weakened the rain core approached me through the trees, time to leave!

This is what met me as I arrived back at the entrance to town. I thought we were in for it with this monster cell approaching from the east, but typical of the storms in this system this would soon weaken and "grey out" to nothing except an annoying light shower of rain with the odd flash of lightning. Maybe if this approached from the west (as a right mover) it could well have been a different outcome!

It's a shame to see these great looking storms weaken off to nothing after such a great start to their formation? Still early in the season though. This seems more of a normal early summer weather pattern, with similar patterns to the late 70's early 80's according to the locals, maybe a little more rain in these storms though?

Cheers and take care,
Shauno

[Michael Bath]

Hi Shauno - it all comes down to the lack of wind shear at present. This past month has reminded me (yet again) how vital shear is in the thunderstorm equation. Plenty of low level moisture and instability will give you the very photogenic early development then it just becomes cluttered as nothing can really organise.

Things will certainly improve in this department from Monday onwards !

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi guys,

Chaser report 1st and 2nd December 2007

Not much in the way of action with weak wind shear but a pretty scenery picture today.

1st December 2007 - Lookout looking east towards the Wollemi National Park


2nd December 2007 - Drought scene - Warren NSW


Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Shaun Galman]

Hi guys

Hi Shauno - it all comes down to the lack of wind shear at present. This past month has reminded me (yet again) how vital shear is in the thunderstorm equation. Plenty of low level moisture and instability will give you the very photogenic early development then it just becomes cluttered as nothing can really organise.

Things will certainly improve in this department from Monday onwards !

I certainly look forward to something more substantial Michael! There's definitely something amiss here as you say, Mike suggested the shear/winds setup were not right in this region also? So I hope to see some correction with this coming trough.

We had one cell sitting out to our west yesterday (Sun. 2nd Dec.) showing a couple strikes on the LT, there were some nice towering structures behind the cell that made for nice viewing from my back yard, not really worth driving out to photograph as the main cell was fairly weak, as has been the norm.

Jimmy: Nice shots. Once again,- great storms with nice build, weakening off too early?

I could show you a few similar drought shots from here also. We have a bit of a unique situation out here that may seem quite the opposite to most rural Aussie towns, whereas; heavy rain = no mining = no income. We export more in opal value than most of the farmers do with their crops combined around this area (estimates are up around $80million per year, as much as $160million per year in the 80's early 90's) so the drought doesn't seem to affect us in the same way or as severely as other areas. We are very fortunate in those respects indeed. I should add here- our town is on artesian bore water which also feeds most of the dams in this area aswell so the animals will always have access to water out here, I think that is vital.
 
I'm currently not mining at the moment so the weather enthusiast in me is saying- "bring on the severe storms and rain!"
Kindest regards,
Shauno