Topic: NSW and QLD Storms: 6 - 7 February 2008

[Michael Bath]

Quite widespread thunderstorm activity over parts of NSW and QLD at present - a continuation of activity that has been going most of of the AM hours. BoM warnings are current in both states.

The activity has now spread to the ranges and will soon be moving into the coastal regions - especially NE NSW and SE QLD.

[Shaun Galman]

Hi Michael,
This storm front arrived here (and subsequently woke me) at 6:30am. I grabbed the camera and raced down for a better look as we were already under a large, mammatus covered anvil shield by then, gloriously lit by the orange rising sun no doubt I took a few shots towards the East of the orange mammatus and turned around to see an orange-gold shelf cloud on approach in the distance (thats a first for me!) crawler lightning was abundant and grounding with the odd CG now and again but torrential rain soon ensued around 7am and I headed back home. We ended up receiving a further 20mm after Monday's 40mm downpour and as the ground is still saturated it didn't take much to turn the roads into rivers once again.

We were under the Upper Western area severe storm warning but that seems to have moved along now so it's not looking too great as far as storms for this evening but we take everything we can get here!

Currently- Pressure 984.21mb. 34º. Wind 7.1kph from the SW. 64% Humidity.

Cheers,
Shauno

[wol]

Snapped this from Penrith Station facing south with my phone around 6pm. Amazing just to watch it build
and evolve as it approached. Large heavy rain drops initially with around 15mm falling in 15mins. Pretty much a due east track and starting to ease off now.

Was going to chase but left my kit in the office thinking I wouldn't need it tonight...!

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi,

We have had continuous rain to heavy rain for about an hour - not torrential at any point but consistent and heavy enough to ensure that creeks will once again go over tonight. We have consistent thunder and lightning at the moment as well.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi,

Rain areas eased off by 7:30pm.

This is my shortest storm chase - both in time and distance. I grabbed the car, drove out the drive way, turned left and parked 100m from my house. I took 6 pictures and headed home. Ok - it was raining at the time - I normally walk to the view point:)

Here is a picture of the approaching gust front.



Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[David Brodrick]

Storm Report, Narrabri/Wee Waa, North West Plains

A Davis weather station just west of Wee Waa recorded a 109km/h gust at 10:30am as the storm line came through and recorded 36mm of rain. An identical station 7km away recorded an 84km/h gust at about the same time and finished up with 20mm.

A short time later a weather station near Culgoora, SE of Wee Waa recorded 61km/h gust and 18mm of rain. Another storm this afternoon brought the total there to 37mm.

The rain had eased off as the system approached Narrabri where only about 9mm was recorded, however the Narrabri Airport AWS still recorded a 61km/h gust. Another station a few km further east recorded 57km/h.

Today was certainly the most exciting day for us this week since, although there has been plenty of high precipitation storms active in the general area, few of them have been near the automatic weather stations and none of the previous days had recorded winds of these velocities.

Best wishes,
  Dave

[Peter J]

Hi all,

I did get a glimpse at one storm to the west of my workplace at Nunawading (Ö-E Melb), and the tower was breaking through the top atmosphere layer (above the normal anvil region) - don't know if it produced a heavy downpour - but it did look spectacular - unfortunately no pics as I was driving at the time (can't drive and take pics from a camera-phone at the same time without being booked these days!)

Big Pete

[enak_12]

Had a severe storm in Coffs today which caused some flash flooding on top of already swollen creeks and saturated ground. Took these photos while in town with my camera phone and some others at home. Last pic shows a micro burst which soon became a total white out.

[Jeff Brislane]

I chased locally today and wasn't dissapointed. In fact the cell that developed on the mountains SW of Penrith was one of the best looking i've seen all year and not only that but I saw rapid scud upmotion at one point as well as two seperate areas of pretty good rotation. This cell exibited very interesting and absolutely photogenic structure before dumping a phenominal amount of rain just south of Penrith which caused very impressive flash flooding.

Jeff.

[James]

Enak ... that's a nice looking cell you've captured there. Did it form towards the Dorrigo escarpment and more north? Nice strong updrafts.

Some of the cells out towards the western suburbs took on some pretty nice structure at certain points. I was quite impressed at the shelfy that moved across the Hills region before unloading a short burst of heavy rain. Around 20mm recorded in the rain gauge.

Excuse the noisy photo below, light was poor so I had the ISO a little higher.

[enak_12]

Hi james the first cell was looking south towards Bellingen/Nambucca area I think it might have tracked SE from around Dorrigo though. The second storm with the shelf cloud formed just NW of Dorrigo like you said.

[Richary]

I worked in town today (Sydney CBD) and while driving home about 4 there was some nice cumuloninbus building up to the west. Nothing really obvious though and when I got home checked and not much about. The Sydney area severe storm warning came in a bit later, nothing spectacular tracked over here though from about 6:45 to 7:30 we had some quite heavy rain at Rydalmere, about 30mm all up. Most of the lightning was in the sky but a couple of close CGs (of course always the direction I wasn't looking).

enak-12 - My parents live 20km north of Coffs Harbour at Woolgoolga. I had seen that one go through on the Grafton radar and mum said in an email tonight the rain fell out of the sky like a solid wall. Seemed to be a quite intense band and moving very quickly.

[Jeff Brislane]

Here's a couple of pictures from the cell SW of Penrith today between 445pm and 520pm. Badgerys Creek scored 75mm all up which was on the south side of the heaviest rain. I haven't seen Glenmore Parks yet nor St Clair and I believe they will have similar if not higher readings. You could see a breif area of highest intensity echo on the Kurnell Radar at one point.

Jeff.

[Jimmy Deguara]

Jeff,

You know, I could have sworn I saw a split earlier and then this cell also intensified and showed a V-shape on radar. However it was short lived. You pictures are interesting showing signs of orgnisation if at least briefly.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Dave Nelson]

Hi Gang

    was out in Richmond- Windsor area for my last job for the day and was able to find a good clear spot on
the nth side of the river at Windsor to watch a decent cell move down off the Blue Mtns.  1530 - 1730EDT.
Quite a bit of rain, no hail at my location.  Was lightning active but not intense.  A lot of lightning buried in
the clouds, with occassional nice CG's.    Coming back towards home, down old Windsor Rd, I could see and photo the the cell that Jeff described and photo'ed above.   It finally overtook me and by the time I got home
(West Ryde) the rain was heavy and again a reasonable amount of lightning overhead. Still no hail.

finally died out around 1930EDT

Cheers
Dave N