Topic: NSW/SE Qld Storms (incl possible Manilla tornado): 10-11 December 2007

[Paul Graham]

Instability not as great as yesterday...but some interesting storms around this afternoon...probable 'right-mover' west of Muswellbrook right now, heading SSE.  It'll probably hit bad-air soon...but it'll be interesting to see how long it lasts.  It's appears to have a BWER on at least 2 scans of the Newcastle radar...so that's a sign of a fairly persistent meso cyclone....

[David C]

Instability not as great as yesterday...but some interesting storms around this afternoon...probable 'right-mover' west of Muswellbrook right now, heading SSE.  It'll probably hit bad-air soon...

Looks like it is doing just that now Paul! Very interesting storm though, mesocyclone or meso-anticyclone? Just watching the last few frames, it is moving in a vastly different direction, around 90 degrees,  to the other cells that it is about to 'collide' with. They look like opposing armies in battle!

[Paul Graham]

Haha!  It would be nice to have the BoM's doppler wind field images, wouldn't it? 

[Richary]

Looking at the radar this afternoon spotted another pair near Guyra that were about to collide as well.

Quiet in Sydney though apart from a little bit of rain and a couple of rumbles about 4pm (Chatswood).

[Michael Bath]

Not surprised to see a severe thunderstorm advice for the Moree region already. The sounding was quite nice. A little more low level shear would have been ideal.



SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

for FLASH FLOODING and DAMAGING WIND

  For people in parts of the
  NORTHERN TABLELANDS,
  NORTH WEST SLOPES and
  NORTH WEST PLAINS Forecast Districts.

  Issued at 1:12 pm Tuesday, 11 December 2007.

  Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce very heavy rainfall, flash flooding and damaging winds in the warning area over
  the next several hours. Locations which may be affected include Armidale, Tenterfield, Glen Innes, Inverell, Moree and
  Mungindi.

[Jeff Brislane]

Has anyone else noticed the right moving severe looking cell west of Boonah is SE Qld? It's a very interesting cell going by the radar scan and is almost certainly dropping hail by it's echo intensity. There were many other cells that looked interesting on the Brisbane radar but none that deviated in motion like this cell!

Jeff.

[Michael Bath]

Yes - been keeping an eye on that one for a while. Was quite interesting on the doppler scan earlier as well. Hopefully someone will be taking some photos of the structure.

[David Brodrick]

Narrabri, North West Slopes & Plains, NSW, Tues 11th Dec

After no storms in town since the 4th (but plenty nearby) we had some cells pop up this afternoon with up to 16mm recorded. Not much structure to be had, but a few small lowerings on some of the clouds and some nice rain shaft silouettes. Moderate lightning activity.

I had actually jumped in the car to drive to Bellata where it looked like there was a right mover after a cell near Moree split, but I only made it a few km out of town and stopped to take photos locally. The storm I was under went from no rain, to moderate winds as the downdraft started up, to heavy rain in about 5 minutes.

[Richary]

Currently got the Grafton loop running. My girlfriend up there tells me that if a storm goes out to sea and then comes back it can be quite severe.

There is a storm moving SW towards Woolgoolga off the coast, and about to bump into what looks like a rain band moving NE. So either the storm will intensify with the added moisture or get blown back out and break up. Interesting to see what happens.

[Richary]

Interesting. The storms heading in from NE dissipated and the rain band fell apart as it came over the ranges. But another line of storms suddenly appeared from the SE in a long straight line heading away from Woolgoolga but moving towards the place. They are also breaking up as they approach the coast but for the last hour or so it has been an interesting pattern.

Anyone who wants to check look at the Grafton 128km radar from about 9pm tonight.

[Michael Bath]

Hi David - that split did appear interesting on radar and was wondering if you pursued it or not. When there's not much happening here there's plenty of time to radar chase !   

There was a decent storm in the area just west of Casino to Kyogle early evening but it was one of those occasions I could not chase due to family commitments. The cell appeared to become severe for about 30 minutes. Lots of rainfall reported from it on the radio this morning but no mention of hail.

[Jason(pato)]

Went for a short chase out to McKees Hill to view the storm Michael mentioned above. Cell was quite lightning active however not many CG's were seen. It appeared as if I had turned up probably 15mins too late as the cell had progressed further north than I had expected, it was headed towards Kyogle. I then decided to venture back into Lismore, and the lightning,which had increased significantly, was highlighting the sky constantly. Stopped at another vantage point near Sth Lismore industrial estate, I noted some crawlers but the storm was getting out of my range so I decided to call it a night. On my return home I checked out the lightning tracker and it was going off right over Kyogle. Earlier I had debated whether or not to go to near Casino or Kyogle, unfortunately I picked wrong. A bit of inexperience on my behalf but I'm learning all the time so maybe I'll nab the next one that comes along. Still waiting for a decent storm to really test my new 400D on!!

Cheers Jason

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi,

Nick and I headed up the Mid North Coast nad basically intercepted the last part of a cell - with better action on the Tablelands and us having to head back, we called it quits after this cell collapsed.



Even at the point of this image, the cell was in collapse - it looked better from when we were passing through the jungle!

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Michael Bath]

These two photos were taken approx 6.40pm, Tues 11th December 2007, from the Manilla-Lake Keepit Rd (approx 6kms west of Manilla) looking south towards Somerton, by Godfrey and Suzi of Manilla Paragliding Australia.





"We could see the rapid rotation of the outer wispy condense/debris matter. Shame we didn't have a video camera! It lasted less than 2 minutes."

"There was a fast moving intense cell on the radar noted before we left home which was travelling NW to SE via Lake Keepit.".

"We estimate the actual touch down was a few km north of Somerton township. We were approx 10-12kms from it based on the background landscape and the fact that the spout was behind it. There were no reports of property damage. The area is very wide open grazing/cropping and has only a few houses and sheds."

-----

What do others think has been observed? There appears to be hail falling in the foreground of the photos. Radar shows the isolated right mover formed just southeast of Narrabri after 3pm tracking southeast towards Tamworth.
---> Moree 256km radar loop


MB

[Shaun Galman]

Hi guys,

They are a couple of interesting shots indeed! I may be wrong here, but could this possibly have been a small multi vortex touching down (taking into account the whisps skirting the main lowering). Maybe this could have been a possible quick F1, if so they were extremely lucky to catch these shots, particularly as they say it had less than a 2minute timespan!

I wonder if this cell showed any major supercell characteristics, the wall cloud definitely looks pretty mean! What a good case of being in the right chase place at the right time! Shame the DV camera wasn't handy as they said, but oh well I'd be darn happy to have taken those shots!

Cheers,
Shauno