Topic: VIC/SA/NSW/QLD Severe Thunderstorms 31 Dec 2009 - 4 Jan 2010

[Kristy Norman]

The line of storms that came through Southern NSW/Northern VIC Friday night was real light show. For about three hours the entire western horizon was constantly lit up with lightning, although no thunder could be heard until it was almost on top of us.
It hit here at 1:30am and lasted until 3am. 
The anvils on these storms were massive and the crawlers were amazing, also the amount of CG's pumping down became a little unnerving the closer it got!
There was some local flash flooding with this, mainly just water over roads.

[Jimmy Deguara]

Kristy,

Good to storms and importantly rain in the region. There were widespread storms as you suggest across the region particularly Victoria for two days.

Richary, the storms in Sydney and Wollongong suffered from upper level warming so they really struggled to produce a decent anvil. There were some explosive updraft development with the western most cell albeit very brief - perhaps 5 ot so minutes. The change and lack of anvil production meant organisation was not really possible.

Earlier stuff around Wollongong


Cell in Wollemi


Western most cell SW of Sydney near Liverpool before it collapsed.


Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[habs]

I decided to stay in sydney and play moisture over shear for once, as the stuff from down south moves up along the coast decided to try and head to the coast before it hit, hoping for a big shelfy, seems the big shelfy happened about 40ks or so further south!!!some amazing pix down there!!!  this is what was left as it weakened but developed better  a few km out to sea.
Those warm uppers really played havoc, if they were cooler we would have seen some very big organized storms, as well as some lightning

[Mathew Townsend]

Interesting setup today. Weak southerly change came through and it has not killed off any chances. Alot of storm cells firing up on the Tablelands to Taree line to Moree northeastwards. Dryline is approaching aswell so watch out for large hailstones!

[Colin Maitland]

We awoke to a very oppressive morning in SEQ. At 10.18 am the first warning was raised by BOM for severe storms which I received on the phone courtesy of EWN.

The warning was been reissued at 11.37 by BOM

For people in the BRISBANE CITY, LOCKYER VALLEY, LOGAN CITY, MORETON BAY, IPSWICH CITY, SUNSHINE COAST, SOMERSET, REDLAND and parts of the GOLD COAST CITY, GYMPIE, SOUTHERN DOWNS, SCENIC RIM, SOUTH BURNETT and TOOWOOMBA Council Areas.

Issued at 11:37 am Sunday, 3 January 2010.

Severe thunderstorms are likely to develop and produce damaging winds, very heavy rainfall, flash flooding and large hailstones in the warning area over the next several hours.

Locations which may be affected include Brisbane CBD, Ipswich, Maroochydore, Warwick, Boonah, Beenleigh, Logan City, Laidley, Gatton, Toowoomba, Cleveland, Strathpine, Esk, Redcliffe, Caboolture, Kilcoy, Caloundra and Noosa Heads.

[canoncloud]

Yesterday I was at bald hill and I saw that cell come in. I was just wondering, what would constitute a supercell? What I saw yesterday seemed to have all the characteristics of a supercell (pictures I have seen). Could you let me know?

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=148953&id=684966439&l=3317947795

[Mathew Townsend]

That cell southwest of Grafton rather looking interesting at the moment! Waiting to check a supercell signature to see if this would be a truth according to the radar appearing large-ish area of red core! Getting interesting for us this afternoon.

Brisbane and Gold Coast has been getting storms for past 5 hours and bringing good rains.

[enak_12]

__Chis__ did the whirl attach to the cloud base at any point? It was probably a landspout tornado ..that shelf is insane down near Sydney!!

[Michael Thompson]

Yesterday I was at bald hill and I saw that cell come in. I was just wondering, what would constitute a supercell? What I saw yesterday seemed to have all the characteristics of a supercell (pictures I have seen). Could you let me know?

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=148953&id=684966439&l=3317947795

High humidity = great storm structure at times. Every little outflow condenses into cloud giving the awesome structure seen in your photos.

There was some brief rotation of cloud at the lead edge of the cloud, but it was wind shear, not a persistent updraft.

Attached is a video of the same storm at Port Kembla - the best stuff is after 30 seconds or so.

Storm with interesting structure - Illawarra, 2 Jan 2010

Even that vaulted structure is not supercell on my opinion.

[_Chris_]

__Chis__ did the whirl attach to the cloud base at any point? It was probably a landspout tornado

There was a small funnel we could see distending from the cloud directly over the swirl when we where about 2km away, but I think the air was far to dry for any condensation funnel to develop beyond this. I guess it's hard to tell whether it was connected to the funnel or just coincidence.
The best perspective we got was when it moved to our east and we could see dust and debris extending to the cloud above, as we took this video, video 2

[Harley Pearman]

Photos of developing storms NW Sydney 2/1/2010

I took a sequence of photos of a shelf cloud passing overhead late afternoon across NW Sydney as well as developing cumulo congestus and cumulonimbus clouds. The following two are my favourites for the day. The photos are taken around Bella Vista in North West Sydney 2/1/2010.

The photos are taken after 5 pm and not 4 pm as I have been unable to reset the clock in my camera.

Earlier a heavy shower passed over the area but no thunder was audible. It was a warm humid day punctuated by afternoon showers where I was in North West Sydney.

Harley Pearman

[Jimmy Deguara]

This is a shelf cloud taken from near Wollongong yesterday - quite spectacular - courtesy Al.

[Darinka]

Great capture Canoncloud! Insane shelf structure! Seen this develop as I was heading towards Wollongong coming back
from Hols up North, by the time I got home and grabbed the camera gear and headed your way....yep got caught in Holiday traffic..Dang!
Haven't seen anything like this come through Wollongong in a long time.  Thanks Michael and Habs, great pics and video capture!
Its great to see what happened with that storm as it progressed through to Sydney. 


Jimmy - Seems like that cell is what I had seen coming through on the M7, just before the Picton Rd turn off..Awesome!

Thanks guys for Sharing, Awesome pics by all.

Regards, Darinka

[Michael Bath]

A clip here of a possible tornado at Mt Ousley near Wollongong on 2nd Jan:

Twister on Mt Ousley

[Shaun Galman]

Hi guys,

MB: That's some seriously nice footage! That wrapping and structure of what appears to be the wall cloud is amazing!

Would have been great to see some nice clear stills of this twister!

Regards,
Shauno