Topic: NSW, VIC and SE QLD Storms (incl Brisbane severe storm): 12-16 Nov 2008

[Mike]

Nice pics John but from what I see they're simply out of focus?  Did you use manual focus?  More-so a topic for the photography Q&A thread...but that's my bit.

[Michael Bath]

Supercell David ?  there has not been any warnings this arvo - though that is surprising given some of the radar returns.

[Richary]

The line of storms is now coming across Sydney though with most activity to the south of my location. A bit surprising it is managing so well with the strength of the seabreeze here today which normally holds them back.

Quite a few intracloud flashes and a few CGs in the distance. A shame really as it was forecast to hit after dark when I could have tried for the photos. Oh well.

Some of the storms further south seemed to develop better as they went through on the radar. The ones near me seem to have lost structure according to the radar once they left the mountains. Only a few spots of rain here so far but starting to get a little more and the radar is indicating the slightly heavier stuff isn't far away.

[TroyVR]

just a shot taken from my place, would of gone to westfields roof as a vantage point but id had a few and couldnt drive.

[Richary]

Hey Troy

Same problem here, had been at a reunion with peoplr I hadn't seen for 20 years in some cases since midday, so wasn't driving to look for a better vantage point! We had a few close strikes while it was still quite light, but as the storm drifted north there were a few flashes. Only one keeper but the first photo worth saving from the new camera. Just aimed and held the shutter open until I got something. This one could have done with a bit more exposure but will see what I can do with the RAW image later. A bit of a hard storm to photo as most activity was in the clouds, and the first flash I sort of caught was overexposed, then this crawler came along and was underexposed. Oh well. It's hopefully the start of lots more.

[Brad Hannon]

Here are some pics from late last night north of Tulla airport looking west towards Sunbury.

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi,

Some very electrically active cells around Sydney and the Central Coast this evening. One cell passed near and over Schofields producing some punishing bolts and thunder. Unfortunately the anvil rain became a nuisance from a photography perspective so for me not many good bolts at all. But fun all the same!

---> all photos for 14 November 2008

[James]

I managed to get to the lookout at Kurrajong and get a few pics as the storm unleashed (Right over Galston again ... I swear it has to be one of the best places in Sydney for storms).

   

 

[Ben]

Great shots all!!! I chased the CT's.. got a nice rfb! Saw the Sydney lightning from the backend, very impressive.. too fast to catch though!

[Richary]

Hi James - awesome shots. What exposure settings are you using for those, obviously local streetlight influence is less a problem at Kurrajong looking down. But would still like to know to set myself up.

Also that one with the 2 strikes next to each other - was that one hit or two in the same frame on a time exposure? Great pic.

[pingtang]

I've gotta go out shortly so i'll make this very brief.

I got onto a nice storm south of Nowra yesterday afternoon at appox 2:30pm. This storm spilt near Nerriga with the right mover passing through Ulladulla and the left mover through Huskission. I was 10kms north of the left mover and took some timelapse. (see below) Quality is quite ordinary unfortunately. I think it had a wall cloud at one stage,though it eventually became  shelf cloud.Very lightning active at times as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv4ZrJAtugo



Once this storm died,I headed north to Shellharbour and intercepted a line of storms. This was very lightning active with numerous close strikes.I also have video of this which i'll post later.

[Jeff Brislane]

Interesting structure on the storms seen by Jimmy in his first photo and pingtang as well. That storm near huskisson looked a bit moisture startved until it started interacting with the outflow. Jimmy the front end of last nights cell had interesting structure.

I was at a friends place with Kim and could not chase but I had a feeling cells would intesify when they hit the higher dewpoints of the sydney basin and we watched a cell build as it came off the ranges just north of Penrith. It exhibited inflow charicteristics for a brief period with some inflow features before rain completely obscured them.

Regards Jeff.

[Jason(pato)]

Nice pics and reports guys. Well after my initial forecast earlier in the week GFS continued to back off our chances for today, making me look like a bit of a goose. However the 12z and 18z runs ( I know 18z isn't as accurate as others) have come back on board quite substantially with the 18z run showing up some quality CAPE in our general region. The forecast sounding has gone for temps of around 27/19 which yields around 1000 CAPE, but I'm fairly confident the temp will be higher than that and I replotted for 32/19 and came up with more respectable 2000 CAPE. My only concern is that the shear isn't overly spectacular in the mid levels. Still there is some decent potential there and I will be watching the radar with some interest later. MB and I are going to be probably chasing this arvo so hopefully we'll have some quality pics to add to the impressive ones on here already.

Cheers Jason

[James]

Hi James - awesome shots. What exposure settings are you using for those, obviously local streetlight influence is less a problem at Kurrajong looking down. But would still like to know to set myself up.

Also that one with the 2 strikes next to each other - was that one hit or two in the same frame on a time exposure? Great pic.

Richary - The settings for that photo were ISO 100, Shutter - Bulb, Aperture 7.1. I had taken a few using 6.3 aperture however they came out too bright. In regards to the lights I tried a 30 second exposure earlier however it was all washed out thanks to the lights below so I tried to keep to 15 second exposures. The two strike shot was one hit. One of them seemed to pulse longer than the other.

I stupidly left the connector for the camera to sit in the tripod at home. I ended up just sitting the camera on the tripod without any connection and the strap around my neck should it try to fall off. Not ideal but it worked.

Ben, Phil, Troy and JD - nice images and video. The scud/guster feature in your video Pingtang forms perfectly as a rainfoot kicks out to the right forcing some rapid uplift above. Looks good when you play the video in fast motion!

Some ok looking cu forming over the ranges to the west of Sydney at the moment. May get a rumble or two later again.

James

[Jeff Brislane]

Well, that nice left moving cell that the BoM  have warned looks like it has probably dropped some hail on the nrothern end of the F3. I wish I was there right now!