Topic: Hailstorm : NSW Storms (incl Sydney hailstorm): 7 to 9th December 2007

[Ben]

8cm hail wow!!! It was an amazing storm.. the structure was probably the most insane I've seen on a storm in Australia and the rotation was incredible. Thankfully the storm lost its hail size a bit as it came over here despite returning strong echoes right overhead.. but we still managed golf ball size hail! No damage though. heres some structure shots

   

   

   

   

[James]

Great photos everyone!

OK part two of my post ... First of all a few pictures from today .....

Amazing structure with knuckles under the anvil! 

Wall Cloud underneath the base. Have a look at the video (link on the front page of Sydneystormchasers.com) to see the rotation


7cm Hail


A not so fortunate car - windscreen smashed completely.



Lastly I have now put the video up of the hail falling in Dural. You can view it via this link -   www.sydneystormchasers.com  . Awesome watching the hail bouncing up to a metre in the air after hitting the grass. I was amazed my windscreen didn't crack near the start.

[Richary]

Very interesting video from an area I have driven up the last 4 days for work or to visit a friend yesterday! The strange thing that I thought as I came down Pennant Hills Road towards home is that the storm didnt have any structure. There was no obvious anvil or base when I saw it. And as it came over home it was just a darker mass of cloud than what was already with us.

There was cloud around, but nothing hit here obvious with any structure you could see. No base to look at, no big anvils. It just hit. I guess by the time it got to Rydalmere it has spread out somewhat into a wider area or something. Lightning was around, with lots more rumbling than bolts that I saw. In fact I only saw 1 CG off to the north.

Nothing big enough to cause damage here, could have left the muddy 4WD out for a wash in the end!

[Gambit]

Great Video of the storm James...

I only have one question; How do you still have a windscreen in your car ??????????   lol.

Pretty quiet up here on the north coast, There were 2 cells this afternoon that came toward Lismore, one tracked west out toward Casino, ( I was going to go out and get a few pics by myself and the other half said "see you in an hour" So I said well come with, so we packed up the family and the four of us went on our first chase!!!) 


The cell that tracked west out past Casino looked to be promising at first but after half an hour it died in the proverbial, just seemed to lose oomph.



The second cell that was more eastbound stopped just south of Lismore (and a little to the east) and sat there doing nothing that I could see, only in the last 25 Mins it has now started to flash a few cloud cloud's, and a faint rumble. It hope it develops into more but I think it's unlikely*.


(will attach pics soon, upload folder is full atm)



Cheers

Mathew.

* I reserve the right to change this opinion (as the storm nears)

[Paul Graham]

Nice photos guys.  It will be interesting to find out what kind of wind damage occurred through western Sydney.  There were scenes of trees down and reports of concrete slabs being lifted.  Any more reports on the type of wind damage?

[Richary]

Interesting if there was wind damage. There was no wind here at Rydalmere except light breezes. For the Sydney region BoM shows Badgery's Creek peaked at 57 km/h at 3:09 (ignoring Newcastle Nobbys with 89 kmh at 6:52). Shouldn't have been enough wind to cause damage unless something was very localised.

Being newish to all this, I was wondering if someone can confirm my theory about the rain direction posted earlier in this thread when it came over.

[Jeff Brislane]

December 9th Sydney Supercell

I'm going to post some more photos from todays chase of interesting aspects. Firstly how it look from near Penrith early in it's life. Notice the fine funnel in the second image.









The hail showed very interesting charicteristics. I photographed some stones that were completely opaque and others that were see through like glass as well as many stones where you could see the original pea size stone in the middle. Some of the hail showed signs of rapid increase in size going from pea to 6cm in as little as 3 cycles!











The leaf litter on the M4 was worthy of the hail size!



Lastly don't block traffic and be carefull parking under overpasses as this serious accident occured as a result of just that!

[Mike]

I was just about to ask about their shapes and look - you've answered it before I even posted!  I hope you put those monsters in a container and put them in the freezer for those storm chase discussions over dinner with friends - show them those and they'll go nuts.

Nick Moir rang me and said he was stranded in Brissy due to the delay of aircraft leaving due to the storms.  He wasn't a happy camper after hearing about the 8cm hail and that everytime he leaves NSW they get supercells...

I noticed the cell was still massive as it moved out to sea also - not a bad supercell to stop the lull of storms of late!

Mike

[flipwx]

9th December Western Sydney

Very nice supercell over western Sydney today. Shane and I chased around the same region as where the biggest hail struck but aimed to avoid getting stuck in the hail. We had sporadic stones to the size of golfballs being projected out of the storm whilst driving, which I have footage of but I am still to go through it.

Here is a brief timelapse of the wallcloud:
  http://www.ecstormchasing.com/video/09_12_2007_SCwallcloud.wmv 

 

We headed north towards central coast up to warnervale aerodrome and was greeted with this nice guster to cap off the day:

 

[Ben]

Couple more... great pics everyone!! Thats just unlucky David!

     

     

Flood in yard

[Jeff Brislane]

My decision to stay at Bella Vista paid off nicely and it is the first time, I have managed to capture a hail storm this size in Sydney in its entirety.

Well done Harley. I'd love to see your photos, especially of your car!

Dave we've all been were you were yesterday. Mate I was in the same position in Oct 04 when matt and I turned around and missed the Singleton Hailstorm so I can feel your pain and loss.

Does anybody know where the place was in Kemps Creek that got damaged by severe winds in yesterdays storm? They would've had to have been on the southern edge of the storm which makes me wonder if maybe they copped the RFD? When I was shooting the supercell at Penrith I could see faintly another updraft further south with a nice cone shaped base. It is evident on radar so it might have been responsible or RFD?
Jeff.

[Jeff Brislane]

December 9th Sydney Supercell

Here is the image I was talking about in regards to the other updraft south of the main updraft. It's like it was developing as a storm split.



This is the same image with enhanced contrast.



Jeff.

[Michael Bath]

This was what was posted by David C last night that went missing from the thread


Wow, that is really great timelapse sequence there James, and Phil,  and also photos too everyone

9th December 2007 will always hit a raw nerve with me, in fact I felt like detouring to Watson's Bay at around 6:00pm. Headed out on the M5 around 2:00pm to take a look at the early cells that were firing and was in contact with Jimmy. They were visibly struggling so I thought what the heck and pulled off the M5, rather than getting on the M7, as I had some final Christmas shopping that I needed to take care of -- Liverpool Westfield it was! Well at the checkout, around 3:30, I receive an sms from Paul saying that the storm that initiated near Warragamba had rapidly intensified. By the time I got out I had no chance to get on the northern side, given where I was, although the updrafts looked very powerful - not at all surprised by the hail sizes.



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MB: Having some forum issues atm - if anyone notices any problems please email me: [email protected]

[Michael Bath]

Wow - great images of the Sydney supercell! Heard about it late yesterday arvo while on chase but could only imagine the structure until now

Radar 9th December 2007:
 
Sydney hailstorm radar loop

MB

[David C]

Interesting funnel Jeff. The pre-storm sounding (below) showed that there was extreme instability in place (~ -11Li) and the storm exploded rapidly around the time you took the photos. All that energy coupled with motion (around 40 left) and NE infeed there would have been some impressive SREH in the inflow layer.