Topic: NSW & S Qld Severe Storms: 19-23 September 2008

[Jimmy Deguara]

Anthony's is certainly supercellular from what I can gather with striated structure. Bloody great! Looks LP in structure with hail likely closer to the photographer extreme left of the photograph.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[David C]

Very nice hail dump Michael and rainfoot. 

That storm Anthony photographed is exceptionally nice, visually -- definitely a NSW looking storm!
The first picture looks as though the storm had just encountered the boundary and is spectacular form - like a spinning top! Quite interesting that there is some dry air entrainment and no visible precipitation in the first picture, yet the base looks quite low too.

The second picture reveals that the downdraft is winning out but still nice nonetheless.

The 2008/2009 storm season has arrived!

[Michael Thomas]

Agreed, those are amazing photos. One day I would like to frame a photo of Australian supercell, I think the first one would be a a good candidate.

Well I don't have much to add. Again I think the dp's forecast by GFS west of the ranges are unrealistically high. This, is beginning to be a real problem. My real interest today is therefore in SE Qld. There should some SE change of sorts sitting around the border. With a sea breeze front we could end up with a triple point which may be the focus point for some strong convection. 500 mbar winds are around 25 to 30 knots which is a tad stronger than yesterday. Although you could hardly fly a kite around 700 mbar with winds only around 5 knot. Anyway, with strong NE or E surface winds (like yesterday) shear should be just enough for serious storms. 500 mbar temps are forecast to be a couple of degrees cooler than yesterday so assuming we get similar surface conditions as yesterday we should see surface based LIs and CAPEs of around -8 and 2500, respectively. With the overnight convection it appears the lower levels have really taken a beating. There's is a few too many 14 C dp's in SE Qld for my liking. Hopefully, deeper, quality moisture is sitting just off shore and during the day we can get some additional moistening of the low levels from evaporation. Would really like to be seeing a few 18C dp's by midday. If so, we'll be set for another big day I would say.

Michael

[nzstorm]

Impressive photos there.   I was amazed by the pic by Anthony Cornelius given the wind profile didn't look great for supercells.  But an upper level jet and a surface boundary is enough I guess.   

[Anthony Cornelius]

Thanks for the comments guys.

One must always becareful when just looking at the images and then making an analysis (especially just 2 images!)  What the photos don't show is the massive rain and hail curtain just to the left of the storm.  In fact, on the first image we were receiving 1-2cm hail at the time (albeit hail falling from the overhang of the updraft).  The separation between the updraft and downdraft of the storm was incredible - something I've not personally seen before in Australia.  If you see radar, you can see the main downdraft, and then the very large notch/hook of which the meso is sitting in.  Towards the end it lots its shape, and then a larger black call develops just south of Marburg which I suspect was the storm letting go (and tending more HP).

This particular supercell was most likely a classic, going to a HP towards the end and dying.

Shear was certainly strong enough for supercells (25-30 knot SW @ 500mb, and a 20-25 knot NE at the surface thanks to the seabreeze), but I do agree I didn't think that the structure would be quite like that!

The inflow was particularly impressive, even when the main rain/hail core was just 1-2km away, the inflow was solid.  At times, inflow gusted close to 30knots with small twigs and branches being broken off trees.  For a short time, a small part of the meso was rapidly rotating but it didn't do anything further - I noticed Doppler had a small 70-80km/h in and outbound at the time side by side when this occured.

AC

[Jimmy Deguara]

Anthony,

By definition, if there is little or no rain falling from the updraft, the storm is more on the LP scale of the supercell spectrum. Perhaps it was tending towards classic and HP as the rain would have dumped through. How long did this structure last? Do you have some timelapse you can upload? Now you suggested there was a separation of the rain from the structure which I pointed out in my post earlier.

But anyway, perhaps you can supply a few more images and video as suggested.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Anthony Cornelius]

Hi Jimmy,

As you know - storms first, and other stuff later - I have all week to upload photos!  Just trying to get work done so I can hopefully chase this afternoon - you know how it is   I also have to buy another mobile as mine died.  I suspect it got wet because it was sitting in the side door of my car, and when it started hailing some hail got in there and melted and made a small puddle of water.  Oh well!

Unfortunately I don't have enough time (or webspace) to upload video - but will definately be showing the timelapse at the next ASWA meeting in Brisbane on October 25 for those interested.

AC

[Michael Bath]

There was also a funnel on the first storm yesterday. It only lasted a minute or so. The photos below show where it was in relation to the rest of the storm. The view is from halfway between Kyogle and Casino looking towards the south between 3.27 and 3.28pm,











More of the Brisbane supercell pics can be seen here.

MB

[Shaun Galman]

Hi all,
WOW! What an amazing chase report and stunning photos to top off a great day of spring weather in the eastern parts!

Those supercell shots of AC's are just ridiculous! That SC looks like something straight off the great plains in the US (only in reverse) Looking forward to seeing a little more on that supercell!

MB: That 4-5cm hail is certainly impressive. Did it add any scarring or damage to the cars paint job when you core punched?

Kindest regards,
Shauno

*I wonder whether we'll get another repeat setup of yesterday?

[Michael Bath]

Hey Shauno - I can't see any more dents but the car still has all the dents from the Lismore hailstorm last Oct 9, so no way to tell

Storms have started up near Moree already.

[Steven]

And the Moree radar appears to be down...

We did get a bit of lightning and thunder activity last night, but it all fizzled.

What are the chances of activity firing north of Brissie today?

[enak_12]

Dam impressive storms and photos fellas. I was out n about last night as well. We had an intesnse squall line come over late like 12:30am I took a lot of photos that I'll add soon probably, tonight. Keeping an eye on things today too.

[Steven]

Some more action in the Northern Rivers this afternoon (as per usual) I'm guessing Michael is out chasing, he's got two options. Either chase the cell SW of Mallanganee, or chase the cell south of the border. Both look pretty severe on radar.

Lightning tracker is buzzing with white dots. :D

[dann weatherhead]

Again congrats on capturing such a mighty storm - certainly a very photogenic beast.
AC commented on the dramatic inflow of the storm - a few NSW chasers were watching this storm together in Sydney via doppler pointing out the large inflow that was being picked up from this storm. Great being able to verify this sort of stuff - field obs & this sort of data.

All sorts of goodness happening again today.

[Carlos E]

Amazing pictures. Absolutely amazing.

Again today, as stated, there are some nasty storms on the Grafton and Brisbane (256k) radars!