I woke up around 1:00pm
and looked out my window and to my surprise I saw the top of a large storm (no
anvil) "pulsating" up and down. By that I mean a tower would shoot up on the right
(east side because I was looking from the north about 10 - 20 km away) move across
to the left, stall and collapse. A tower lasted no more than 5 minutes from beginning
to end. At any one time there was 3 stages of towers over the width of the storm
(start on right, maturity in centre, collapse on left). I watched this continue
for about 1.5 hours and during this the storm appeared to be stationary but I
was soon to be proven wrong. Whilst I was watching the storm develop I regularly
check 'the weather zone' lightning tracker and satelite pics, and also the BoM
warnings page. Lightning tracker showed a few lightning strikes close to the ACT
but none where I thought they should be (in the storm). BoM had no warnings till
the storm started "doing its stuff" and sat pics showed a cloud mass but no pronounced
anvil and a smaller storm WSW of the ACT, which except to WSW was exactly what
I was seeing outside. An hour (3:30-4:00) before the storm unleashed its fury
I saw what looked like the remains of an anvil come up from the west south west
(which was where radar and lightning tracker had pinpointed lightning and heavy
rain in the few hours I had been awake). The very high cloud of the dissipated
"anvil" Moved over the storm around 4:30 - 4:45pm and the storm started really
moving. From my first vantagepoint I saw some lightning pulsate a some small rain
bands pushing from east to west. The storm had hardly moved since 1:00pm but now
it was about 5km away. Around 5:00pm I moved down the road and watched very, very
heavy rain and heard the muffled sounds of very strong lightning, which I could
not see because of the rain. I was starting to get wind blowing from the south
which I believe was outflow because the storm was directly south. Then to my shock
I saw a small lowering to the NW (around 2km away from me) of the main centre
of the storm heading SE it reached about 1/5 of the way and their was no rotation
visible. It lasted a very long time until I couldn't see it anymore because of
the rain. 10 minutes after the first lowering formed I notice some rotation where
it had formed and another lowering, this time a funnel shape came down but only
reached 1/5 of the way down again. It lasted 5 or so minutes but the first lowering
was still down and moving toward the centre. I saw some impressive rain features
and heard some strange lightning but all I got from the storm was moderate wind.
I had to leave at 5:30pm because I had to go to dinner at the local club. While
there I still heard lightning for 20 or so minutes and when I left the club around
7:00pm the sky was bright blue all around.
Damage from the
storm was mainly fallen trees in Stomlo Forest and heavy rain damage to central
Canberra. My mate had bought a Honda Prelude 1992 model and it was caught up in
the storm and got some rear bumper damage from a car pileup and delayed delivery
of the car for 2 weeks.
Well that's my
account of the storm, I hope my description puts images in your head like it has
while I'm writing it..
