Topic: NSW / VIC Storms: 24 March 2008 to 25 March 2008

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi,

I awoke this morning trest to a pretty cumulonimbus building off the coast this morning. I decided to take a sequence of pictures as the sunrise took effect - nothing spectular but the first photo taken in a month for me.





Breaks the ice in one of the most uneventful autumns in years.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[TroyVR]

Very nice Jimmy, Yes it has been quite uneventful so far but i hope the weather machine decides to have some fun.

[TroyVR]

There is currently a front moving across from the west of Sydney stretching about 350km up the coast, The Bureau have not yet issued a warning related to the storm but according to the current Sydney 256km Radar There are quite a few areas of high precipitation.

I will post updates as the storm moves closer to my location.

[Michael Bath]

Been quite a few severe thunderstorm warnings issued for the storms in Western VIC today, all mentioning large hail.

The current (0630z) VIS satpic is nice showing the extent of thunderstorm activity across SE Australia - including the storms heading for Sydney.

[Peter J]

Hi all,

According to weatherzone, a trough and associated front will bring water relief to western Vic tonight, and the rest of Vic tomorrow.
Storms have fired up in the NW, W, and NE districts of Vic.

One storm dumped large hail (3cm) in Portland shortly before 5pm.

This system signals the seasonal shift from summer to winter conditions, and so the 30c+ temps here have also gone - today was 25c in Mooroolbark with 0.4mm in a shower last night. The storms are too far west for good observance here, but expected late tonight or early tomorrow to converge here - hopefully some good CC or CG activity is abounding and some healthy falls of rain are imminent.

And on a side note - worth watching the tropical low forming off NW WA coast - could be next cyclone in 6-24hrs.

Big Pete

[Jimmy Deguara]

Some storms rolled in towards Sydney this evening - a little lightning observed with a little struture - nothing out of the ordinary - just a peaceful observation time across the road aiming for lightning.

The lightning from perspective was a little distant. These were short exposures and one flash of lightning in all cases:









Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[TroyVR]

Very Nice Jimmy, Where abouts were the pictures taken from? It seems most of the storm dissipated before it reached the coast, all i got was a few minutes of rain.

[Jimmy Deguara]

Sorry folks,

The storm was located to my south given I live at Schofields. It was the usual start the car, and park 10 metres down the road for the view. I have all the equipment with me rather than carting it all by walk.

We also got just some rain for about 10 minutes. These were definitely the last of the lightning bolts I saw of this storm.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Peter J]

To all,

First time this year - severe thunderstorms are sweeping through Melbourne, including my area. Plenty of CG lightning and heavy thunderclaps - including one that sounded over my house - scarey!!

The good news is the 13mm rain in 15 mins here. It was a heavy downpour during that time.

The storms are now slowly weakening as they head further SE. (as of 11.18pm Melb time).

It has been good to get the much needed rain, and here we avoid the record of lowest rainfall for March for a number of years.

Wish my camera-video-phone was working - would have been a good video for those in NSW who are experiencing the same thing.

One drawback with these thunderstorms, if any of you have pets - keep them inside if possible during these events. My dog is hyperventilating like crazy!

Big Pete.
(getting off the computer til the storms die down)
 

[Dave Nelson]

  Cindy and I chased out west along the M4 and then south down the M7/M5 as far as Ingleburn.
the view of the storm front whilst westbound was awesome, black threatening cloud
with a golden glow below.  We paralleled the front of the stormline as we travelled down the
M7/M5 seeing some good CG's.
   The storm didnt really get much past the N-S line of the M7 and it just totally died out.
it was quite sudden and complete and showed that well on the lightning tracker.

  Tho brief, it was still a fun chase, with good pic's of the stormfront and lightning

cheers
Dave and Cindy N

[Jeff Brislane]

Hi all,

I watched the storm from local vantage points around Penrith and though it wasn't the greratest, it did produce some powerfull lightning strikes and some nice structure and contrast with the sun shining through the back. We had quite heavy rain around Orchard Hills and further south and again it apears that the heaviest rain missed major guages. After the storm passed I photographed some decent flash flooding of local market gardens. Of note also was some interesting funnel shaped cloud that persisited for a short period north of the heaviest rain before being consumed by the outflow.

Jeff.

[Shaun Galman]

Hi guys,

It's great to be reading threads associated with actual storms once again!
Some of those cells down the western edge of the state look amazing and I'd give anything to be out photographing one or two! We did have a few distant active cells come by over the last few days/nights but just too distant to give any reports on unfortunately? The closest cells must have been at least 30-40k's to the SW of us here at the Ridge (no roads head that way from here?) which was a bit of a let down considering there were reports of large HP storms coming in from Broken Hill and Cobar that caused significant flooding.

I cant wait to see all the pictures once posted up here, should be a few great shots hopefully!
I pray that winter doesn't onset too quickly and that the current storm producing trough can hold on for a few more days! Here's hoping
Cheers and take care all.
Shauno 

[Harley Pearman]

Hello

A low dark and fairly uniform cloud bank passed overhead of Blacktown just after sunset 24/3/2008. The cloud bank was detaching itself from the storm cell and then broke apart and dissipated. I only saw three anvil crawler lightning flashes spaced several minutes apart to my south. The storm cell had weakened and had largely dissipated by the time it reached Blacktown. Around 1.5 mm of rain fell from a light shower.

I did not take any photos. Great photos of lightning but I did not see any cloud to ground lightning flashes.

Earlier in the day, I was aware of that early morning cumulonimbus cloud tower. I took some photos of it but have not processed them yet. That cloud tower was rather small but delivered a reasonable shower of rain over Sydney city and areas around Bondi with around 17 mm of rain falling. It was very localised to that part of Sydney.

It developed just after sun rise, dropped its rain and appeared to decay thereafter although a bank of low cloud later obscured it from view.

Harley Pearman

[Richary]

This news story shows a very nice cloud structure and dumping rain over Broken Hill last Sunday.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23431146-2682,00.html

[Peter J]

I was out and about a bit late this arvo, and managed from my vantage point in Bayswater (E-Vic) to see 3 large thunder cells way down S (maybe heading thru Bass Strait) that had some anvil style to them - must have been the lingerers after last night's beasts went thru). Also a few cells to the NE as well had nice anvil shapes to them - and some towers formed on those very quickly.

It is the most fascinating part of SS to me - the anvil shape and the towers when they form - looks like the first part of a nuclear explosion.

Big Pete
(still no camera-phone until thur arvo - LCD screen buggered).