Topic: Intense Sydney Thunderstorm: 7 March, 2008

[TroyVR]

Currently have a thunderstorm passing over Sydney, Quite a lot of electrics going on.
Unfortunately i can't be bothered dragging myself out of bed at this time and its also pouring rain now.

Radar Image as Of 9pm


And got this quick Snapshot

[Jimmy Deguara]

Yes there has been some decent rain from this storm complex and definitely some anvil crawler activity and cloud to cloud lightning. I was wandering why the day was sultry.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[ntweather90]

Yep, an extraordinary, intense thunderstorm! There were two cells - one ripped through the western/north-western burbs of Sydney, the other one ripped through the Upper North Shore of Sydney, with the core focusing on the line from Blacktown to Hornsby/Asquith.

---> Sydney radar loop

46mm at both Blacktown at Hornsby. Here (North Turramurra), at my official Bureau of Meteorology rainfall station, I've recorded 40.4mm from the event, with 30mm of that falling in just 25 minutes - that's the most intense rainfall here since February 26, 2006, when the general Sydney region was lashed by widespread storms. Before that main t-storm ripped through here, we also had a rather brief shower producing 3.6mm.

There seems to be more to come through the next 30 mins, albeit nowhere near as heavy - hearing some massive claps of thunder in very close proximity. On that note, there's been mostly (~95%) sheet lightning tonight, most probably covered by a low deck of cloud. The sheer frequency of the lightning was awesome. One could say it resembled a real tropical thunderstorm, with extremely heavy rain, moderate winds and ample lightning, with most thunder coming before the actual t-storm. :D

[Jimmy Deguara]

Well,

The passage of the system and also the behaviour of the storm activity leads me to believe the storms were elevated above the cooler boundary layer and it was associated with the passage of a short wave. The cloud to cloud lightning frequency was quite rapid at one point indicating also that the storms were intensifiying as the storm approached the nothern suburbs. This is evident on radar as well.

In all, Schofields received a hefty 37.4mm of rainfall. During the February March period in any given year, Schofields seems to get at least one nocturnal event that puts it up there with the higher totals during that specific event. This seems to be one of those.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Richary]

22mm here at Rydalmere. Saw the flashes to the south a long time before it got to us, and as it was quite rapid moving on the radar I suspect it may have been quite high.

Quite heavy rain over about a 30 minute period with persistent showers following. Only saw one crawler here, everything else was up in the clouds. The weather report tonight said Newcastle got 70mm from it.

[Harley Pearman]

Thunderstorm report 7 March 2008

Hello

Blacktown was hit again and while I was tracking the storm at home, I lost internet connection, electricity supply and mobile telephone coverage. The storm caused some havoc where I live.

At 5 pm Friday, I pulled up the Sydney and Canberra radars and noted a narrow squall line in the Braidwood region moving rapidly NE and two free standing thunderstorm cells moving in the same direction just ahead of it.

The storms were severe warned for large hail, damaging winds and very heavy rain. It appeared that the northern edge of the storms would clear the coast near Kiama so I did not worry a great deal.

At around 7.30 - 8 pm, it started raining lightly. Not long after 8.30 pm the rain slowly intensified and I began to see within cloud lightning flashes to the south. Watching it on the BOM site, a cell SW of where I live and moving NE intensified and on radar, it went into the yellow then dark orange colour range.

Blacktown and Seven Hills was then hit by a downpour and constant lightning (Mainly within cloud). Then gales. I observed no less than 2 distant electricity transformers explode with the typical green flashes.

I then lost my mobile telephone coverage. Shortly after, it appears that either trees were brought down across powerlines or an electricity sub station close to where I live was damaged because parts of Blacktown including where I live lost electricity supply. I then lost my internet connection and I could no longer see what was going on. It was close to midnight before electricity and other services were restored.

Following the thunderstorm, emergency services, fire trucks and SES vehicles were in attendance to local damage and damaged electricity infrastructure.

Looking at rainfall totals this morning (10/3/2008), it appears that Blacktown was hardest hit in western Sydney. Rainfalls of 51 mm at Blacktown Dog Pound, 44 mm where I live, 46 mm at Prospect (By far the highest anywhere in western Sydney) occurred.

It appears the storm weakened slightly over Castle Hill and intensified again in the Hornsby region with 51 mm falling at Hornsby, and 48 mm falling in nearby areas.

I thought the storm and its intensity was most unusual considering it hit some 13 or 14 hours after a southerly change had passed. Just before I lost electricity supply, I noted that there was no severe thunderstorm warning on it despite the chaos that it was causing in the Blacktown locality.

Harley Pearman

[TroyVR]

There had been a severe thunderstorm warning for the region the the B.O.M canceled it at about 6pm.