Storm News
[Index][Aussie-Wx]
Australian Weather Mailing List Archives: 1st February 1999

    From                                           Subject
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
001 Ira [jra at upnaway.com]                          ASWA first meeting in WA gets 8 people along!
002 "James Chambers" [jamestorm at ozemail.com.au]    SE Qld Storm Chase
003 Ben Quinn [Bodie19 at eisa.net.au]                QLD rainfall
004 "McDonald" [mcdonald at one.net.au]               Kevins Report
005 Michael_Bath at amp.com.au                        NW Slopes Chase 30/1/99
006 Anthony Cornelius [cyclone at stealth.com.au]     Flood Warning for Residential Areas:
007 Michael_Bath at amp.com.au                        NSW rainfall figures
008 Anthony Cornelius [cyclone at stealth.com.au]     Severe T'Storm Warning Concern for SE QLD T'Storms
009 Michael Scollay [michael.scollay at telstra.com.  Explosive Lightning
010 Blair Trewin [blair at met.Unimelb.EDU.AU]        January 1999 likely to be hottest on record for Australia
011 Anthony Cornelius [cyclone at stealth.com.au]     Jan 25 supercell pictures
012 "Jane ONeill" [cadence at rubix.net.au]           Jan 25 supercell pictures
013 Anthony Cornelius [cyclone at stealth.com.au]     NW Slopes Chase 30/1/99
014 "McDonald" [mcdonald at one.net.au]               Jan 25 supercell pictures
015 Greg Spencer [hawk at aisnet.net.au]              Predicted Cyclone off WA coast
016 Anthony Cornelius [cyclone at stealth.com.au]     Rain event in SE QLD
017 David Croan [bustchase at yahoo.com]              Jan 25 supercell pictures and NSW NW slopes chase
018 Michael Scollay [michael.scollay at telstra.com.  Records.
019 "dpn" [dpn at bigpond.com]                        Melbourne Report
020 "dpn" [dpn at bigpond.com]                        Severe TS Advice
021 "Jane ONeill" [cadence at rubix.net.au]           Victorian Severe Warning
022 "Michael Thompson" [michaelt at ozemail.com.au]   NW Slopes Chase 30/1/99
023 "Michael Thompson" [michaelt at ozemail.com.au]   Very heavy shower - Illawarra 6.15pm
024 Don White [donwhite at ozemail.com.au]            Very heavy shower - Illawarra 6.15pm
025 "McDonald" [mcdonald at one.net.au]               Thunderday # 6.
026 "Michael Thompson" [michaelt at ozemail.com.au]   Very heavy shower - Illawarra 6.15pm
027 Anthony Cornelius [cyclone at stealth.com.au]     Severe T'Storm in Dalby...
028 "Michael Thompson" [michaelt at ozemail.com.au]   SE Qld Storm Chase
029 "Michael Thompson" [michaelt at ozemail.com.au]   Jan 25 supercell pictures
030 "Jane ONeill" [cadence at rubix.net.au]           Melbourne storms
031 Keith Barnett [weather at ozemail.com.au]         January 1999 likely to be hottest on record for
032 Michael Bath [mbath at ozemail.com.au]       Re:NW Slopes splitting supercell
033 Michael Bath [mbath at ozemail.com.au]       Fwd: Severe thunderstorm Evans Head/Bundjalung.
034 "Michael Thompson" [michaelt at ozemail.com.au]   Re:NW Slopes splitting supercell
035 Jimmy Deguara [jimmyd at ozemail.com.au]          Re:NW Slopes splitting supercell
036 Anthony Cornelius [cyclone at stealth.com.au]     QLD ASWA Meeting
037 "John  Graham" [gorzzz at one.net.au]             Re: Some Q's about radio for spotters....
038 "Chris Gribben" [chrisgribben at hotmail.com]     North of Melb chase report (big bust)
039 "Chris Gribben" [chrisgribben at hotmail.com]     A couple of additions
040 Matt Smith [disarm at braenet.com.au]             Re:NW Slopes splitting supercell
041 "Michael Thompson" [michaelt at ozemail.com.au]   Re:NW Slopes splitting supercell
042 David Croan [bustchase at yahoo.com]              Re:NW Slopes splitting supercell
043 Jimmy Deguara [jimmyd at ozemail.com.au]          Re:NW Slopes splitting supercell
044 Jimmy Deguara [jimmyd at ozemail.com.au]          Report on the feasibility of future chasing...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
001

Date: Sun, 31 Jan 1999 22:10:21 +0800
From: Ira [jra at upnaway.com]
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (Win95; I)
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
Subject: aussie-weather: ASWA first meeting in WA gets 8 people along!
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

MINUTES

Australian Severe Weather Assoc. Western Australia Sub Branch

Held at Ira Fehlberg's House in South Perth, Perth

30th January 1999   8.00 P.M.

1. Present: Ira Fehlberg, Mike Fewings, Jacob Aufdemkampe, Debby, Greg
Spencer, Jason, Keith

2. Apologies: Radek Doleki, Anne  ?, John Roenfeldt, Nathan  ?

3. Minutes of Previous Meeting
    Accepted                                                Seconded

    Business Arising From   N/A

4. Reports
     

5. General Business
Everyone started arriving around 7:15 and prior to the meeting we spent
time getting to know one another and exchanging photographs and stories
about chases. Ira Fehlberg opened the meeting outlining the objectives
to be discussed at the meeting which include:

	-The outlining of a set of Rules and Regulations for Chasers 
	-Increasing public awareness of storms within Western Australia
	-Interaction with the Media regarding accuracy of reporting storms
	-Discussion of a few topics mentioned in ASWA QLD meeting minutes

Mike Fewings suggested that a set of Rules and Regulations be put in
place to protect the Association in the event of a major accident while
chasing. All members at the meeting agreed on this as if an accident did
occur and some one was injured and found out the driver was a member of
ASWA they could sue the association for the damages meaning the end for
ASWA. Greg Spencer suggested including a copy of the rules and
regulations with membership forms to be signed by the applicant saying
he/she understands them and to protect the association from any such
incident

Ira Fehlberg suggested several means of increasing public awareness of
the severity of storms in Western Australia. The public has become very
complacent regarding storms, as they don't regard them as being severe
enough. Agreed by all after seeing a map of documented tornadoes within
Perth and Western Australia that we have to find a way of alerting the
public about severe storms and making them understand that they exist
without causing panic within the community. As was agreed by all if the
bureau decided to put out a Tornado Warning it would create panic with
the public as Australians in general cannot comprehend the idea of a
tornado in their area.

Greg Spencer relayed an idea suggested to him in IRC about a regular
section in community newspapers from Susan (Squall in IRC). She
suggested that we have something like a regular column to report to the
public about severe weather occurrences and also suggested that there be
a means of contact mentioned in the column for people to report storm
phenomena to better document the locations and structures of severe
storms.

Ira suggested that we start to correct the media in mistakes that they
make regarding severe weather and what is associated with the weather.
Agreed by all that there has been far too many incidents where the media
refers to swirling winds as a "Mini Tornado". Ira himself on one
particular occasion actually spoke to the reporter prior to her going on
the air and told here it was something other than a tornado and then she
went on the air and still called it a Mini Tornado after just being told
otherwise.

Ira also discussed the disassociation with the BoM when reporting to the
media about a severe storm. We decided that if we are approached by the
media that we are a separate organization and in no way associated with
the Bureau of Meteorology. We make all our comments to the media about
what we know and not what we got from the Bureau.

The topic about alerting the public about severe storms was brought up
again during the meeting. We had to find a way of informing the public
about these storms without going straight to the point and creating
panic within the public. We have to find a way to inform the public
without going overboard with the description about what is coming. In
the discussions we found no solution to this problem during the meeting.
We all decided to think about this topic before the next meeting and
make a decision then as we could find no easy solution.

Greg Spencer discussed a few topics mentioned in the ASWA QLD minutes
that we thought would be of importance. The first brought up was the
implement of Doppler Radar. We all agreed that the use of Doppler would
be far too expensive to implement. We talked about more readily
available access to the current system of radar to all ASWA members and
would investigate this matter further.

The next topic discussed was the use of UHF or Ham radio. Greg Spencer
has a bit of background knowledge on this subject and suggested that the
use of Ham radio would be inappropriate as Mobile units are hard to get
a hold of and the system is VERY expensive. A base unit costs around
$7000-$8000 and then you have to get a license to operate on these
frequencies. The use of UHF is better than HAM although it does also
have its setbacks. UHF costs about $400-$500 per unit either mobile or
base and doesn't have a range much greater than 15km. The best choice of
Radio is a AM CB which with a Gain Booster circuit has a range in excess
of 50km. Greg Spencer will investigate the costs of implementing these
units within Western Australia

Meeting closed at 22:30

Further discussion of people's chases and previous experiences continued
until Greg Spencer and Mike Fewings were the last to leave at 2:00 am
Sunday morning.

Next meeting time and location TBA

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
002

From: "James Chambers" [jamestorm at ozemail.com.au]
To: "Aussie Weather" [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: aussie-weather: SE Qld Storm Chase
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 00:10:38 +1000
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3110.1
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Hi all

Just a brief email to tell everyone to say that Ross, Anthony and I chased a
'cranking' storm north of Kingaroy on Sunday a'noon.  We set off around
10.30am from my place and we didn't see anything even close to a storm for
several hours and hundreds of km's.  But, when we found it, we were all
delighted!  Many fantastic features.  Chase report in next coupla days.
When we got home after 9pm we noticed the satellite photos had high top
t'storms all over the Downs where we had came from.  Lightning tracker is
absolutely going off - would expect very high rainfall figures at 9am
Monday.

Chase report soon
Regards
------------------------------------------------------
James Chambers
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~jamestorm/bristorm.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
003

Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 08:14:28 +1100
From: Ben Quinn [Bodie19 at eisa.net.au]
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; I)
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
Subject: Re: aussie-weather: QLD rainfall
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Hey Ben from Brisbane here ..

Wow, what a night in some SE QLD suburbs.  It
started of being windy and rainy in Redcliffe
from around 9pm onwards, quite heavy at times
... to wet to check the gauge but i estimate 15
- 20 mm over 2 hours or so.  Then i was
surprised when we received a thunderstorm from
Midnight - 12:45ish (Probably 10 rumbles of
thunder, and some nice Cg's).  Finally got to
sleep, only to be woken by TORRENTIAL rain
around 2:30am, i reckon we got at least 50mm in
half an hour .. it was great .. woke up this
morning to a very full looking rain gauge with
92mm in it ..

Other rainfall reports are sketchy, but so far
i've heard Nambour (on the sunshine coast
hinterland, north of Brisbane) with 160mm in the
4 hours to 4am this morning! and get this, 350mm
at mapeltone!!!! Some residents are being warned
to move to higher ground to avoid flooding.
Apparently the rain was from the reminants of a
storm that passed through Goondoowindi earlier
in the evening? I heard this on ABC radio from a
BOM spokesperson a short time ago .. There are
flood warnings out for Sunshine coast streams,
and the Maroochy River.  Considering the Car
park at college goes under 1-2m of water at
least once or twice a year in January-Febuary ,
i'll be finding somewhere else to park today :)

I think Mapletone is in the catchment area for
the mighty Mary River (responsible for the
Gympie floods of 92, 21.4m the river reached) ..
so there could be some flooding downstream over
the next few days.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
004

From: "McDonald" [mcdonald at one.net.au]
To: [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: aussie-weather: Kevins Report
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 09:21:12 +1100
X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet Mail 4.70.1161
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Hi All,

Firstly, storms forcast for melbourne today (this arvo - isolated though). 


Secondly - great photo's of the raised dust kevin - i've seen photo's from
the states which have less raised dust than that and they claim them to be
tornadic so who knows.  Great page all together.

Thirdly - everyone around this stormy country of ours seems to be getting
into chasing and we are now starting to cover and report on a large number
of storms - keep up the good work everyone but KEEP IT SAFE TOO!!!!!!!

Andrew McDonald

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
005

From: Michael_Bath at amp.com.au
X-Lotus-Fromdomain: AMP at NET
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 09:14:33 +1000
Subject: aussie-weather: NW Slopes Chase 30/1/99
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com




Hi All,

Just a quick note to say thanks to all that phoned in reports while we were
in the field on Saturday - Michael Thompson, Paul Mossman, Jane O'Neil,
David Croan, Matthew Piper, John Graham.

A full chase report will be written by Jimmy Deguara and Matt Smith when
time allows. It was a very successful chase and my best (and by far the
longest) ever.

A few highlights before the main reports are written:

- most activity started at 2.30pm SW of Tamworth
- probable splitting supercell encountered Gunnedah through to Boggbri
(from 3pm) - dissipating tornado or gustnado on video just west of Gunnedah
and extreme lowerings 30km to NW
- major damage swathe from this lowering just NW of Boggabri - winds over
70knots estimated
- supercells viewed to N on road between Narrabri and Moree
- fantastic lightning show around Moree ( with a few amusing moments)
- visit to Moree BoM radar office at the airport from 10.30 to 11.45pm -
watched a sounding launch and checked out the radar images of the
supercells
- 8 hours drive home yesterday
- over 1300km covered.

Details to come....

regards, Michael

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
006

Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 09:17:44 +1000
From: Anthony Cornelius [cyclone at stealth.com.au]
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win98; I)
X-Accept-Language: en
To: Australian Weather Mailing List [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: aussie-weather: Flood Warning for Residential Areas:
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY
Queensland Region
Flood Warning Centre

Media: The Standard Emergency Warning Signal should NOT be used with
this
warning.

 
INITIAL FLOOD WARNING FOR THE MAROOCHY RIVER AND ADJACENT SUNSHINE COAST
STREAMS
Issued at 5:59am on Monday the 1st of February 1999
by the Bureau of Meteorology, Brisbane.

Very heavy rain has been recorded since midnight on the Sunshine Coast
and
adjacent hinterland. Fast stream rises are occurring in the Maroochy
River and
smaller creeks in the area including Paynter Creek, Petrie Creek and
Yandina
Creek, and also in the smaller Noosa creeks. These rises will continue
for at
least the next few hours and cause moderate to major flooding. Residents
should
monitor rising water levels closely, particularly during the morning
high tides,
and be prepared to move property to higher ground. Motorists are warned
not to
enter flooded road crossings.

Fast stream rises and flooding are also expected in the Mary River
tributary
creeks including Obi Obi Creek and Six Mile Creek.

Falls of 150 to 250 millimetres have been recorded since midnight in the
Mapleton, Nambour and Yandina areas. Heavy rain is continuing in these
areas.
 

Weather Forecast :
Cloudy with some rain at times. Fresh SE winds. 
             

Latest River Heights in metres include : [* denotes automatic station]
N Maroochy R at Eumundi *            4.80m rising         at  532am Mon
01/02/99
S Maroochy R at Kiamba *             3.78m rising         at  436am Mon
01/02/99
S Maroochy R at Yandina *            3.43m rising         at  522am Mon
01/02/99
Maroochy R at Dunethin Rock *        1.25m rising         at  527am Mon
01/02/99
Yandina Ck at Yandina Ck *           4.71m rising         at  528am Mon
01/02/99
Doonan Ck at Doonan Creek *          4.03m rising         at  508am Mon
01/02/99
Petrie Ck at Warana Br *             5.94m rising         at  521am Mon
01/02/99
Paynter Ck at Nelsons *              2.51m rising         at  528am Mon
01/02/99
Eudlo Ck at Eudlo *                  5.22m steady         at  406am Mon
01/02/99
Eudlo Ck at Kiels Mountain *         0.64m rising         at  530am Mon
01/02/99
Maroochy R at Picnic Point *         0.31m rising         at  525am Mon
01/02/99
Mountain Ck at Mountain Ck *         1.93m rising         at  530am Mon
01/02/99


The next warning will be issued at about 10am Monday.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
007

From: Michael_Bath at amp.com.au
X-Lotus-Fromdomain: AMP at NET
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 09:18:46 +1000
Subject: aussie-weather: NSW rainfall figures
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com



Hi,

If anyone has 24 hour rainfall figures to 9am Saturday 30th January, could
you please send them to me at
mbath at ozemail.com.au

regards,

Michael Bath

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
008

Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 09:28:27 +1000
From: Anthony Cornelius [cyclone at stealth.com.au]
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win98; I)
X-Accept-Language: en
To: Australian Weather Mailing List [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: aussie-weather: Severe T'Storm Warning Concern for SE QLD T'Storms
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Hi all,

After yesterdays t'storm chase, I have to voice my concern of what
appears to be a severe lack of warnings on SE QLD T'storms.  I have now
experienced 3 t'storms with no warnings, that only looked normal on sat
pics, and most probably on radar.

On Dec 30 last year, at my dad's farm; we experienced a strong t'storm
with winds near 70km/h - strong enough to break some branches on trees. 
However, upon inspection later on, there were trees and very large
branches down, indicative of winds of 90-100km/h.

In the middle of Jan my dad rang me to say that he had another t'storm,
with winds stronger then the Dec 30 one, with much larger branches down.
He estimated about 90km/h winds in comparison with Dec 30.

On Jan 25 when I was storm chasing, we experienced what was most
definately a supercell.  At times rain shafts were blown at 45 degree
angles! (most probably from microbursts) not to mention it was very
close to spawning a tornado - if not, it already had but when the rain
curtain was blocking it.

Then yesterday, the guster was blowing the rain well infront of the
shelf cloud, it had fairly strong inflow/outflow winds.  We experienced
pea size hail on the edge of the t'storm, it's most likely that marble
size hail - and possibly even 2cm isolated occurred in the core.  No
doubt, some where in the t'storms path, there would have been something
classified as 'severe.'  It also had very heavy rainfall, that could
have caused flash flooding in some areas if we had stayed in the area
longer (it could have contributed to some of the flooding in the area
now with further heavy rainfall overnight.)

These events happened in the time frame of a month, it's certainly far
too many to be a coindidence, and I'm sure that there are many more that
go unreported just like these t'storms.  It's certainly a cause for much
concern, I know that the t'storms at the farm were most likely pulse
storms, but even if they're only severe for 20 minutes, it doesn't
matter - the fact is that they ARE severe.

I just thought I should alert everyone to this...as it is a concern with
this happening far to frequently (and it's no longer the height of the
t'storm season!)

Anthony from Brisbane

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
009

Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 10:43:12 +1100
From: Michael Scollay [michael.scollay at telstra.com.au]
Organization: Telstra Strategy & Research
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (X11; I; SunOS 5.5.1 sun4m)
X-Accept-Language: en
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
Subject: Re: aussie-weather: Explosive Lightning
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

> > >I was wondering why does lightning stike buildings people ect and 
> > >sometimes do little damage and at other times its hits like a bomb.
> > >Any ideas anyone? Dane

A very interesting discussion to which I'm surprised that someone with
a degree or something in the science of meteorology hasn't commented
on yet...I recently asked a serious question about the "speed of
lightening". Despite my background in Electrical Engineering, I find
the subject of natural lightening fascinating but subject to much
misrepresentation.

Some truths of the matter include that someone unlucky enough to get
struck by the main bolt is very unlikely to survive with organs or
their 	life intact. The current from the main bolt making Earth
through an unlucky tree is responsible for the almost instant
vapourisation of water inside its trunk and bark which explodes with
considerable force. A classic example of this is a radiata pine tree
on Echo Pt. road in Katoomba which lightening struck a over a year
ago. The bark of this tree was blasted off high up because that's
where most of the water was. As the conduction path got closer to
ground, the bark was drier and the current path went deeper into the
tree, causing more damage.

People who survive lightening strikes with burns etc. are most likely
victims of the secondary and tertiary "bolts" that radiate out from
the main bolt more often closer to the ground. A well known effect
before a lightening strike is the standing up of dry hair, a singing
and or sparking with corona effect of metalic objects etc. As the bolt
conducts from the cloud toward ground, it takes the path of least
resistance. That will often be more direct high up, provided another
cloud isn't more attractive than the ground, but as it gets closer to
the ground, the "plane" of attractive potentential is broader which
often causes fragmentation of the bolt into secondary and tertiary
bolts.

There is also a conduction path radiating from the main bolt strike
point. This is the most frequent cause of the "collapsing team effect"
recently demonstrated on TV where a bolt struck the football field,
but players collapsed some distance away. This is also the most common
"strike" injury on golf courses.

More fascinating are "balls of lightening" and "fireballs". Reports of
these abound, but scientific explanations and wanting. I hope this
subject generates some more discussion.

Michael Scollay       mailto:michael.scollay at telstra.com.au

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
010

From: Blair Trewin [blair at met.Unimelb.EDU.AU]
Subject: aussie-weather: January 1999 likely to be hottest on record for Australia
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com (Aussie Weather)
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 11:06:30 +1100 (EST)
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23]
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

The mean Australian temperature anomaly for January 1999 looks like 
being the highest on record - it's not quite final yet (yesterday's
max temps from WA and NT aren't in yet, and there could be some
small changes at stations which report in whole degrees in real-time and
tenths in fieldbooks).

Maximum temperature anomalies topped 5 C locally in western Victoria
and were widely above 4 C in northern Victoria and south-western NSW.
Minimum anomalies peaked around 4 C in southern NSW.

Blair Trewin

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
011

Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 10:53:33 +1000
From: Anthony Cornelius [cyclone at stealth.com.au]
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win98; I)
X-Accept-Language: en
To: Australian Weather Mailing List [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: aussie-weather: Jan 25 supercell pictures
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Hi all, I've finally got some web space (and more importantly worked out
how to use it!) and I've uploaded some pics there - with a very brief
description.  There are about 11 pics on the page at 40k each, so it'll
take a minute to load up.  Unfortunately, pics just didn't do justice to
this storm!

http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Cove/1068/jan25supercell.html

(weird URL I know...but I just wanted to get web space and not answer
100 Q's!)

Anthony from Brisbane

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
012

From: "Jane ONeill" [cadence at rubix.net.au]
To: [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: Re: aussie-weather: Jan 25 supercell pictures
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 12:12:00 +1100
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.2106.4
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

All I can say about these pics is WOW!!  Absolutely mind blowing .....

My videoing definitely has to improve!

Jane
Bayswater

>Hi all, I've finally got some web space (and more importantly worked out
>how to use it!) and I've uploaded some pics there - with a very brief
>description.  There are about 11 pics on the page at 40k each, so it'll
>take a minute to load up.  Unfortunately, pics just didn't do justice to
>this storm!
>
>http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Cove/1068/jan25supercell.html
>
>(weird URL I know...but I just wanted to get web space and not answer
>100 Q's!)
>
>Anthony from Brisbane

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
013

Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 12:33:27 +1000
From: Anthony Cornelius [cyclone at stealth.com.au]
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win98; I)
X-Accept-Language: en
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
Subject: Re: aussie-weather: NW Slopes Chase 30/1/99
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Great to hear Michael!  I'm certainly looking forward to pics + the
report.

Anthony

Michael_Bath at amp.com.au wrote:
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> Just a quick note to say thanks to all that phoned in reports while we were
> in the field on Saturday - Michael Thompson, Paul Mossman, Jane O'Neil,
> David Croan, Matthew Piper, John Graham.
> 
> A full chase report will be written by Jimmy Deguara and Matt Smith when
> time allows. It was a very successful chase and my best (and by far the
> longest) ever.
> 
> A few highlights before the main reports are written:
> 
> - most activity started at 2.30pm SW of Tamworth
> - probable splitting supercell encountered Gunnedah through to Boggbri
> (from 3pm) - dissipating tornado or gustnado on video just west of Gunnedah
> and extreme lowerings 30km to NW
> - major damage swathe from this lowering just NW of Boggabri - winds over
> 70knots estimated
> - supercells viewed to N on road between Narrabri and Moree
> - fantastic lightning show around Moree ( with a few amusing moments)
> - visit to Moree BoM radar office at the airport from 10.30 to 11.45pm -
> watched a sounding launch and checked out the radar images of the
> supercells
> - 8 hours drive home yesterday
> - over 1300km covered.
> 
> Details to come....
> 
> regards, Michael

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
014

From: "McDonald" [mcdonald at one.net.au]
To: [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: Re: aussie-weather: Jan 25 supercell pictures
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 13:55:16 +1100
X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet Mail 4.70.1161
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Hi All,

Are you serious - don't do it justice.  That is awesome.  The third picture
looks like a beaver tail.  I'm lost for words.  WOW!!!!!!!!!!

Keep up the good work.  

Andrew McDonald.

----------
> From: Anthony Cornelius 
> To: Australian Weather Mailing List 
> Subject: aussie-weather: Jan 25 supercell pictures
> Date: Monday, 1 February 1999 11:53
> 
> Hi all, I've finally got some web space (and more importantly worked out
> how to use it!) and I've uploaded some pics there - with a very brief
> description.  There are about 11 pics on the page at 40k each, so it'll
> take a minute to load up.  Unfortunately, pics just didn't do justice to
> this storm!
> 
> http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Cove/1068/jan25supercell.html
> 
> (weird URL I know...but I just wanted to get web space and not answer
> 100 Q's!)
> 
> Anthony from Brisbane

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
015

Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 11:05:12 +0800
From: Greg Spencer [hawk at aisnet.net.au]
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win98; I)
X-Accept-Language: en
To: Aussie Weather Mailing List [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: aussie-weather: Predicted Cyclone off WA coast
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Hi all

For those who havent been looking at NGP models lately, they are
predicting a beauty off the WA coast in the next 5-6 days. They already
have the central pressure marked as 976 and still decreasing so this
could be a good storm to keep an eye on

http://www.fnmoc.navy.mil/wxmap/web/ngp/archive/1999013112/ngp.alltau.prp.ausnz.htm

Regards

Greg Spencer

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
016

Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 13:44:18 +1000
From: Anthony Cornelius [cyclone at stealth.com.au]
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win98; I)
X-Accept-Language: en
To: Australian Weather Mailing List [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: aussie-weather: Rain event in SE QLD
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Hi all,

I noticed that a few people were talking about some heavy falls in NE
NSW/SE QLD for this week...I've noticed that both NGP/MRF are forming a
very broad low of the QLD coast, with strong SE'ers and some very strong
upper level activity.  Although the precip. charts in NGP/MRF aren't
showing much on land, I rarely take notice of the precip charts as
they're often incorrect...in fact I don't know if I've ever seen it
where it could be classifed as 'accurate.'  With 90%+ humidity in the
850 level, there'll be no shortage of moisture to condense with the
upper level trough.

ECWMF also forecasts a broadish low, but not quite as much as MRF/NGP
does.  Unfortunately AVN only goes to 72hrs, so you can't get a solid
opinion from it yet.

With some heavy rainfalls alrady, and with most of the ground already
pretty damp, any further rain will simply run off.  In previous rain
events, it's generally been dry before-hand.  If the models have
forecasted the intensity and timing correctly, we could be seeing some
major flooding!

What are other people's thoughts on this?

Anthony from Brisbane

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
017

Date: Sun, 31 Jan 1999 19:45:13 -0800 (PST)
From: David Croan [bustchase at yahoo.com]
Subject: aussie-weather: Jan 25 supercell pictures and NSW NW slopes chase
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Hi everyone,

Being in Sydney this year, it is easy to start getting depressed about
storm chasing in Australia - these two recent January chases really
show just what is out there waiting to be chased here - really great
stuff.

Im no expert, but those pics of Anthony's really do look like those of
a 'classic' supercell (bit more HPish towards later pics) - very nice
structure and updraft base. You can clearly see nice curvature on the
inflow bands and the mesocyclone is also apparent. I didn't think the
jet stream had enough in it on that day (from memory) but I guess
there was enough backing at the lower levels to help get sustained
rotation going.
--
>From the onset, Saturday (30/1/99) in NSW NW slopes also had
supercells written all over it - i just wish I had been able to go
along. The satpics show two large V-notch cells right over the
Gunnedah area at about 15:30est - coinciding with the time Michael,
Jimmy and Matt were chasing the area.

Anyway this, along with the recent stuff in Melbourne, should provide
some great stuff to include at upcoming ASWA meetings around different
parts of the country.

David

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
018

Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 15:54:08 +1100
From: Michael Scollay [michael.scollay at telstra.com.au]
Organization: Telstra Strategy & Research
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (X11; I; SunOS 5.5.1 sun4m)
X-Accept-Language: en
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
Subject: Re: aussie-weather: Records.
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

On Wed, 4 Nov 1998 17:14:37 +1100 (EST) Kevin Phyland wrote:
> 
> Hi'
> 
> A lot of these I've seen before... but a 1.02 kg. hailstone???
> Are you sure that place wasn't under a 747 flight path? :))
> 

I am just trolling through my email doing a massive delete session
when I came across this one that "begged a reply"...

>From "Weird Weather - Paul Simons"

1) 25 March 1974 17:10 - Pinner, Middlesex, UK. 46cm ice mass dents
car bonnet. More ice smashes roof tiles nearby. Compensation was
awarded by the responsible airline.
2) 4 June 1953 - Long Beach CA, USA. About 50 ice lumps fall from
clear sky up to 75kg in weight. Aggregate weight about 1 tonne.
3) 13 August 1849 - Ord, Rosshire, UK estate of Mr Moffat of
Balvullich. "Monsterous Block" some 20 feet (6m) across, and "The
Times" reported that it had a beautiful crystalline, almost
transparent appearance, formed of diamond-shaped ice coalesced
together: "Immediately after one of the loudest peals of thunder heard
there...".
4) May 1894 - Boving, Mississippi, USA. Reported in the "US Monthly
Weather Review" that a gopher turtle measuring 6 by 3 inches fell
entirely encased in ice.
5) December, 1973 - Stuttgart, Arkansas, USA. The "Daily Express"
reported that "frozen ducks tumbled out of the sky". It was thought
that these unfortunate birds had been sucked up by a tornado and
become iced over.

Now that's really "Weird Weather":-)

Michael Scollay

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
019

From: "dpn" [dpn at bigpond.com]
To: [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: aussie-weather: Melbourne Report
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 16:16:27 +1100
X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet Mail 4.70.1157
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

4.10pm. After 5 thunderdays last month February has started very well
plenty of Tcu around at the moment Distant Cb to the NE and also the very
far SW. Plenty of static on am radio at the moment. Anyone with radar?
Doesnt look like we will get a storm in Melbourne today should mostly stay
to the east of here. Wednesday and Thursday could be good though. If anyone
wants my Victorian weather sumary for January let me know and i will send
it to you. Dane. Ps it looks like there were storms somewhere in Victoria
on 17 days last month  so it was a pretty good month

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
020

From: "dpn" [dpn at bigpond.com]
To: [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: aussie-weather: Severe TS Advice
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 16:27:06 +1100
X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet Mail 4.70.1157
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY
VICTORIAN REGIONAL OFFICE


NEWS FLASH - FOR IMMEDIATE BROADCAST

Severe Thunderstorm Advice

Issued at 1515 on Monday the 1st of February 1999 for North East, Alpine
Districts and far east of the North Central District.

Thunderstorms have been identified on radar and hail large enough to strip
leaves from trees has been reported from Jamieson. 

People in the North East, Alpine and far east of the North Central
districts are
warned that these thunderstorms could produce heavy rain and large hail. 

This advice should not be used after 9pm Monday 1st January.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
021

From: "Jane ONeill" [cadence at rubix.net.au]
To: "Aussie Weather" [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: aussie-weather: Victorian Severe Warning
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 16:30:12 +1100
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.2106.4
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Here we go again.......


BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY
VICTORIAN REGIONAL OFFICE
NEWS FLASH - FOR IMMEDIATE BROADCAST
Severe Thunderstorm Advice
Issued at 1515 on Monday the 1st of February 1999 for North East, Alpine
Districts and far east of the North Central District.
Thunderstorms have been identified on radar and hail large enough to
stripleaves
from trees has been reported from Jamieson. People in the North East, Alpine
and
far east of the North Central districts arewarned that these thunderstorms
could
produce heavy rain and large hail. This advice should not be used after 9pm
Monday 1st January.


Jane
Bayswater

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
022

From: "Michael Thompson" [michaelt at ozemail.com.au]
To: [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: Re: aussie-weather: NW Slopes Chase 30/1/99
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 18:17:54 +1100
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3110.1
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Great news about your chase guys. I am certain that us Australian chasers
have to put in the big miles if we want action. Like how many serious USA
chasers chase only within 25 miles of Oaklohoma City, if they did their
sucess rate would be next to zero. Your trip proves my long held belief that
we have the storms in Australia, we just don't put in the miles.

Unfortunately our road network is medievil compared to the USA, and our
resourses on the road none.

One the bright side it looks like I may have to buy another car shortly as
my place of work may be moving, this means I will be hoping next season to
do a few longer chases.

Michael


>
>Just a quick note to say thanks to all that phoned in reports while we were
>in the field on Saturday - Michael Thompson, Paul Mossman, Jane O'Neil,
>David Croan, Matthew Piper, John Graham.
>
>A full chase report will be written by Jimmy Deguara and Matt Smith when
>time allows. It was a very successful chase and my best (and by far the
>longest) ever.
>
>A few highlights before the main reports are written:
>
>- most activity started at 2.30pm SW of Tamworth
>- probable splitting supercell encountered Gunnedah through to Boggbri
>(from 3pm) - dissipating tornado or gustnado on video just west of Gunnedah
>and extreme lowerings 30km to NW
>- major damage swathe from this lowering just NW of Boggabri - winds over
>70knots estimated
>- supercells viewed to N on road between Narrabri and Moree
>- fantastic lightning show around Moree ( with a few amusing moments)
>- visit to Moree BoM radar office at the airport from 10.30 to 11.45pm -
>watched a sounding launch and checked out the radar images of the
>supercells
>- 8 hours drive home yesterday
>- over 1300km covered.
>
>Details to come....
>
>regards, Michael

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
023

From: "Michael Thompson" [michaelt at ozemail.com.au]
To: [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: aussie-weather: Very heavy shower - Illawarra 6.15pm
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 18:22:03 +1100
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3110.1
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Very strange, after a day of Sc heaven and occasional drizzle we have had
some large congestus pop up. One has just drifted across the northern shore
of Lake Illawarra, so heavy is the rain that the wind has swung right around
to the NW to blow out of the rain core. It has been SE/E all day and I
expect once the shower passes it will swing back.

I do not know why this happening but the Illawarra is at present right on
the edge of the cloud area, to the south and SE there are large areas of
clear sky.


Michael Thompson
http://thunder.simplenet.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
024

Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 18:36:54 +1100
From: Don White [donwhite at ozemail.com.au]
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win98; I)
X-Accept-Language: en
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
Subject: Re: aussie-weather: Very heavy shower - Illawarra 6.15pm
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Michael...
Thnaks for that report - it places the edge of this mess nicely. some
heavy showers in Sydney as well. Canterbury AWS had 15 mm in 20 mins mid
afternoon.
don White 

Michael Thompson wrote:
> 
> Very strange, after a day of Sc heaven and occasional drizzle we have had
> some large congestus pop up. One has just drifted across the northern shore
> of Lake Illawarra, so heavy is the rain that the wind has swung right around
> to the NW to blow out of the rain core. It has been SE/E all day and I
> expect once the shower passes it will swing back.
> 
> I do not know why this happening but the Illawarra is at present right on
> the edge of the cloud area, to the south and SE there are large areas of
> clear sky.
> 
> Michael Thompson
> http://thunder.simplenet.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
025

From: "McDonald" [mcdonald at one.net.au]
To: [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: aussie-weather: Thunderday # 6.
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 19:37:47 +1100
X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet Mail 4.70.1161
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Hi All,

Don't want to rub it in or anything but i think i just had my 6th
thunderday this year.  A TCu developed apparently on top of my house (maybe
cause i hosed down the driveway for half an hour causing mositure to rise).
 This then developed into a full thunderstorm with CC's and CG's and i
think a possible hail shaft.  It all passed about 5km to my north.  Other
storms to my N had decent shelf cloud and hail shaft too.  

Andrew McDonald.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
026

From: "Michael Thompson" [michaelt at ozemail.com.au]
To: [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: Re: aussie-weather: Very heavy shower - Illawarra 6.15pm
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 20:01:40 +1100
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3110.1
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

You would hardly believe but there now is couple of cells to the E/NE now
that look even heavier ( still offshore ), one of the congestus even put out
a little shield that had mammatus lit be the setting sun. I would not be at
all surprised if overnight somewhere on the Sydney or Northern Illawarra
coast gets an isolated heavy fall, very localised flash flooding is not an
entire impossibility.


Regards
Michael

>Michael...
>Thnaks for that report - it places the edge of this mess nicely. some
>heavy showers in Sydney as well. Canterbury AWS had 15 mm in 20 mins mid
>afternoon.
>don White

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
027

Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 19:04:14 +1000
From: Anthony Cornelius [cyclone at stealth.com.au]
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win98; I)
X-Accept-Language: en
To: Australian Weather Mailing List [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: aussie-weather: Severe T'Storm in Dalby...
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Hi all,

Just watching the news, apparently Dalby received a 'wild electrical
storm' near 11pm that brought down powerlines and trees.  Also, over the
week end, there have been widespread reports of crop and structual
damage to buildings throughout SE QLD.  Only one area was warned for on
one occassion though (wide bay burnett on Saturday)

It's a pity Dalby got hit so late, on yesterday's chase we were actually
out at Dalby with a small shower that only gave very infrequent static
on radio...as we could have reported it and a warning would have been
issued.

Again...no warnings....

Frustrated Anthony from Brisbane

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
028

From: "Michael Thompson" [michaelt at ozemail.com.au]
To: [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: Re: aussie-weather: SE Qld Storm Chase
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 20:04:34 +1100
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3110.1
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

C'mon guys, I'm still waiting to see the pics from the last chase you had
out NW of Toowoomba!!!

Get to it !

It's been that bad here in the Illawarra I have to look at severe storm pics
to remind myself what they look like.

Michael

>Hi all
>
>Just a brief email to tell everyone to say that Ross, Anthony and I chased
a
>'cranking' storm north of Kingaroy on Sunday a'noon.  We set off around
>10.30am from my place and we didn't see anything even close to a storm for
>several hours and hundreds of km's.  But, when we found it, we were all
>delighted!  Many fantastic features.  Chase report in next coupla days.
>When we got home after 9pm we noticed the satellite photos had high top
>t'storms all over the Downs where we had came from.  Lightning tracker is
>absolutely going off - would expect very high rainfall figures at 9am
>Monday.
>
>Chase report soon
>Regards

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
029

From: "Michael Thompson" [michaelt at ozemail.com.au]
To: [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: Re: aussie-weather: Jan 25 supercell pictures
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 20:18:30 +1100
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3110.1
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

They look good to me !!

You are just being humble, they are serious storm pics that really do show a
inflow dominated storm.

Michael

>take a minute to load up.  Unfortunately, pics just didn't do justice to
>this storm!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
030

From: "Jane ONeill" [cadence at rubix.net.au]
To: "Aussie Weather" [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: aussie-weather: Melbourne storms
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 20:21:12 +1100
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook 8.5, Build 4.71.2173.0
Importance: Normal
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

We've just had an interesting couple of hours which has seen cells popping
up all over the place, pulsing, thundering in the northern suburbs - and
generally moving SE---> NW.

Until I got involved with the list and ASWA and learnt more than I knew
then, I had never noticed storms moving from anywhere in Melbourne except
the NW.  The thing that really amazed me was that the whole area of activity
this afternoon was moving from E----> W and appeared on the 1024km loop
looking like a front moving in the wrong direction.

I don't think I'll ever make an assumption about weather again (because I
haven't been observant enough in the past) - and can someone please tell me
why this happened.  Did we have a seabreeze front pushing things up coming
in from the SE or were there other forces at play?

Jane
Bayswater

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
031

Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 20:22:39 +1100
From: Keith Barnett [weather at ozemail.com.au]
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win95; I)
X-Accept-Language: en
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
Subject: Re: aussie-weather: January 1999 likely to be hottest on record for 
 Australia
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

I wonder how many greenhouse scientists use rounded up data to justify their
theories...!

Blair Trewin wrote:

> The mean Australian temperature anomaly for January 1999 looks like
> being the highest on record - it's not quite final yet (yesterday's
> max temps from WA and NT aren't in yet, and there could be some
> small changes at stations which report in whole degrees in real-time and
> tenths in fieldbooks).
>
> Maximum temperature anomalies topped 5 C locally in western Victoria
> and were widely above 4 C in northern Victoria and south-western NSW.
> Minimum anomalies peaked around 4 C in southern NSW.
>
> Blair Trewin

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
032

X-Sender: mbath at ozemail.com.au
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.1
Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 20:38:31 +1100
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
From: Michael Bath [mbath at ozemail.com.au]
Subject: aussie-weather: Re:NW Slopes splitting supercell
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

At 01:10 1/02/99 -0800, you wrote:
>
>Hi Michael,
>
>I noticed your report of a splitting supercell near Gunnedah around
>3:00pm - just curious was that your observation of the storm in the
>field or was that passed onto you by someone looking at RADAR or
>satpics.
>There is pretty strong evidence for a split pair on the radar imagery
>between 2:30 and 3:30, which you may already be aware of. At 2:30
>there is a large cell over the Gunnedah area. At 3:30 there are two
>dominant cells in that area (I think I mentioned this to you in an
>earlier email) - the one to the north is larger and has higher tops
>which, as you know, is typical of the left movers. The right mover is
>considerably weaker.


Hi David and everyone else,

Just scanning my first set up prints (which cover the period up to about
6pm). I will put a few online very soon.

It is from the radar that we saw at Moree BoM (and hindsight) that leads me
to suspect a split. From our observation point (luckily for Jimmys new car
in the middle of the two), the north cell dominated and gave the severe
tree damage we saw and the incredible lowering - which looks like a wall
cloud and tornado, while the southern cell did not have extreme winds, just
heavy rain and some gusts. The northern cell continued towards the NE and
we noted more tree damage on the way home near Barraba, most probably from
the same cell.

I am yet to see any GSMD, WV or web radar imagery since returning, so if
anyone has this, please let me know what you have.

Some scans are ready now (how's that for soon?)...
nice development from Breeza at 2.30pm
australiansevereweather.simplenet.com/photography/photos/1999/0130mb03.jpg

*the* lowering to our NW (3.25 to 3.35)pm:
australiansevereweather.simplenet.com/photography/photos/1999/0130mb10.jpg
australiansevereweather.simplenet.com/photography/photos/1999/0130mb11.jpg
australiansevereweather.simplenet.com/photography/photos/1999/0130mb12.jpg
australiansevereweather.simplenet.com/photography/photos/1999/0130mb13.jpg
that caused this:
australiansevereweather.simplenet.com/photography/photos/1999/0130mb17.jpg


regards, Michael


*==========================================================*
 Michael Bath  Oakhurst, Sydney   mbath at ozemail.com.au
                 Australian Severe Weather
       http://australiansevereweather.simplenet.com/
*==========================================================*

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
033

X-Sender: mbath at ozemail.com.au
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.1
Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 20:45:58 +1100
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
From: Michael Bath [mbath at ozemail.com.au]
Subject: aussie-weather: Fwd: Severe thunderstorm Evans Head/Bundjalung.
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Report from Stuart Macdonald based in Alstonville NSW:

--------------------------------------------------

This may come a bit late for I only heard the report on the radio this morning.
On the 30/1/99 between 5pm and 7pm a severe storm passed through the Bundjalung
aboriginal community as well as parts of Evans Head causing some damage. 

The coast guard at Evans Head reported a lightning strike causing damage to
radio equipment, fax, photo copier etc. According to news reports they were
able to use spare equipment. 

The main storm hit the Bundjalung area which is about 5km south of Evans Head.
Winds of around 110 km's were reported. Rain during the storm was around 50mm.
There was a report of hail which may have caused damage or possible injury I am
not sure. This is what I heard on our local ABC 2NR. It is best you contact the
Bureau for more details. 

The storm didn't hit our area. The day was cloudy with about 5-6 octas cumulous
throughout most of the day and it was humid even though we had a southerly wind
come up during the afternoon. Storms were hard to see because of the cloud
however around 7:30pm very regular lightning was seen I assume to the distant
SE again hard to see due to cloud and the trees. This I assume was the storm
that I had mentioned. 

Hope you find this interesting. 

Cheers Stuart Macdonald. macka at nor.com.au

*==========================================================*
 Michael Bath  Oakhurst, Sydney   mbath at ozemail.com.au
                 Australian Severe Weather
       http://australiansevereweather.simplenet.com/
*==========================================================*

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
034

From: "Michael Thompson" [michaelt at ozemail.com.au]
To: [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: Re: aussie-weather: Re:NW Slopes splitting supercell
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 21:00:33 +1100
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3110.1
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Can't wait to see the video.....

All these pics and Anthonys are making me depressed. I am thinking of
starting a new group called SOB - Stratocumulus Observers Bureau, members
can talk about their favourite stratocumulus formations ( my personal
favourite I have dubbed Pancake Stratocumulus, because it looks the same
from the bottom or in a plane from top ). We can discuss our favourite
drizzle outbreak stories and look at Sc chase videos.

Michael T



>Some scans are ready now (how's that for soon?)...
>nice development from Breeza at 2.30pm
>australiansevereweather.simplenet.com/photography/photos/1999/0130mb03.jpg
>
>*the* lowering to our NW (3.25 to 3.35)pm:
>australiansevereweather.simplenet.com/photography/photos/1999/0130mb10.jpg
>australiansevereweather.simplenet.com/photography/photos/1999/0130mb11.jpg
>australiansevereweather.simplenet.com/photography/photos/1999/0130mb12.jpg
>australiansevereweather.simplenet.com/photography/photos/1999/0130mb13.jpg
>that caused this:
>australiansevereweather.simplenet.com/photography/photos/1999/0130mb17.jpg

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035

X-Sender: jimmyd at pop.ozemail.com.au
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.1
Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 21:07:25 +1100
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
From: Jimmy Deguara [jimmyd at ozemail.com.au]
Subject: Re: aussie-weather: Re:NW Slopes splitting supercell
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Hi Michael and friends,

I am busy but couldn't resist this one.

We would easily be able to chase stratocu and for once you couldn't wait
for the SE change to clear any chance for convection. Those bloody storms.
Clear off will you! Oh here come the change. Yehhhhhhh

Jimmy Deguara

BTW   I am in the process of trying to find time to breathe then answer
appropriate e-mails that need answering and so on and also my school work
preparation. Please take Michael's brief report as a fair indication of
what happened. I will have to ask Matt Smith to write a detailed report on
the chase. Can you Matt??


At 09:00 PM 2/1/99 +1100, you wrote:
>Can't wait to see the video.....
>
>All these pics and Anthonys are making me depressed. I am thinking of
>starting a new group called SOB - Stratocumulus Observers Bureau, members
>can talk about their favourite stratocumulus formations ( my personal
>favourite I have dubbed Pancake Stratocumulus, because it looks the same
>from the bottom or in a plane from top ). We can discuss our favourite
>drizzle outbreak stories and look at Sc chase videos.
>
>Michael T

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
036

Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 20:18:04 +1000
From: Anthony Cornelius [cyclone at stealth.com.au]
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win98; I)
X-Accept-Language: en
To: Australian Weather Mailing List [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: aussie-weather: QLD ASWA Meeting
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Hi all,

The next QLD ASWA meeting will be held on Saturday the 20th of Febuary,
the venue is TBA, but it will be held in the Brisbane suburbs (most
likely at my house again) at 10am.

The main agenda will be discussing some of the stratergies that we wish
to implement in QLD ASWA, if you have any pictures or video footage that
you would like to bring, you are more then welcome!

Please RSVP or put in your apologies  by emailing me on
cyclone at stealth.com.au or contact me by phone on (07) 3390 4812.

Thanks,

Anthony Cornelius
QLD ASWA Rep.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
037

From: "John  Graham" [gorzzz at one.net.au]
To: "Aussie Weather" [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: aussie-weather: Re: Some Q's about radio for spotters....
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 21:34:22 +1100
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.2106.4
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Hi Everyone,

Ross has the right idea about radio's but I will disagree with him on one
point.....and that is the "dickhead factor". I don't know if Ross is still
on UHF, but hearing the f**kwits that get on in Brisbane it will make life
hard (& if you're wondering how I can Brisbane down here in
Ballina......it's all to do with ducting).On the same note, I have been
offered 5 or 6 Phillips FM 92 commercial radios (25w instead of 5w for
normal UHF radios & yes they can be reprogrammed to the UHF cb freqs.too!!!)
for $260 ea. One is under dash, the rest have remote heads-the "face"is only
on the dash rest of the radio is  in the boot.
If anyone's interested, send me an email.
See Ya's
John

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
038

X-Originating-Ip: [203.108.28.137]
From: "Chris Gribben" [chrisgribben at hotmail.com]
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
Subject: aussie-weather: North of Melb chase report (big bust)
Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 03:01:49 PST
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com


Hi everyone. I just got back from a fruitless chase to the north of 
Melbourne. 

After seeing the radar on Ch 9 news, I decided to try and intercept the 
storms to the NW of Mebourne as they were moving from ESE to WNW as Jane 
has previously mentioned. Even though the cell near Anthony Macdonald 
seemed to have died to some extent there was some nice building to the 
front of the storm. I took the Calder Fwy out towards Woodend and 
Macedon about 7pm or so and at this point it still looked alright. There 
was some nice hail shafts, a shelf cloud and what looked to be a mini 
wall cloud and I do mean mini (took photo), and still a little bit of 
new development. As I kept going things started to fall apart. I had to 
make my way east somehow to get near the storm. I took the New Gisborne 
turnoff and ended up on some dirt roads driving in circles around Mt 
Macedon. By the time I sorted myself out near Hanging Rock everything 
had pretty much died except for some heavy rain to the north.

Needless to say I was annoyed but I should have studied the roads in a 
bit more detail. I know the area fairly well but once I got on backroads 
around those hills I had no idea where I was going.

I won't chase tommorrow but I think I'll go full on on Wednesday.


Now for Jane's question about the direction of the storms today. I 
recall a few times, not too often, when storms have come off the ranges 
with the NE wind, as they probably should have today. However, today I 
noticed that the anvil on a cell that tried to get going to the SE about 
5.30pm was blowing out to the north, that is, the upper winds were a 
southerly. This could be part of the reason and another is probably the 
seabreeze front Jane mentioned. The same happened last Thursday when a 
severe storm and squall warning was issued for the northern suburbs but 
ended up being cancelled as the storms changed direction to the north, 
perhaps due to the seabreeze that kicked up not long after the advice 
was issued. This is just my opinion. I could be wrong and I hope others 
try to answer Jane as well as I wouldn't mind knowing too.

Happy Chasing everyone (it's looking good for Vic this week and SA 
tommorrow)

Chris

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
039

X-Originating-Ip: [203.108.28.137]
From: "Chris Gribben" [chrisgribben at hotmail.com]
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
Subject: aussie-weather: A couple of additions
Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 03:15:07 PST
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com


I called it a bust chase due to the fact I saw no lightning, didn't get 
close to any precipitation,the cloud fromations I mentioned were nothing 
special and the storm died on me.

It may have been Wednesday last week that the advice was issued

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
040

X-Sender: disarm at mail.braenet.com.au
X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0 (32)
Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 22:21:25 +1100
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
From: Matt Smith [disarm at braenet.com.au]
Subject: Re: aussie-weather: Re:NW Slopes splitting supercell
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Jimmy

Yeah thats not problem, give me to the end of the week, im a bit busy till
sunday, 100% up on Monday though, but ill try and make it earlier. Ill
email you and michael about places/times etc as i think this report will be
fairly longish..
Matt Smith

PS> My photo's(most of them) are in for development and i should hopefully
have them scanned for everyone tomorrow night, 

PPS>Michael the pics dont do that lowering justice do they, things always
seem better in real life, although the pics are still great and a momento
of the chase.
>Hi Michael and friends,
>
>I am busy but couldn't resist this one.
>
>We would easily be able to chase stratocu and for once you couldn't wait
>for the SE change to clear any chance for convection. Those bloody storms.
>Clear off will you! Oh here come the change. Yehhhhhhh
>
>Jimmy Deguara
>
>BTW   I am in the process of trying to find time to breathe then answer
>appropriate e-mails that need answering and so on and also my school work
>preparation. Please take Michael's brief report as a fair indication of
>what happened. I will have to ask Matt Smith to write a detailed report on
>the chase. Can you Matt??

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
041

From: "Michael Thompson" [michaelt at ozemail.com.au]
To: [aussie-weather at world.std.com]
Subject: Re: aussie-weather: Re:NW Slopes splitting supercell
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 22:23:22 +1100
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3110.1
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

I think the camera took exposure off the dark road and fields, which will
leave the clouds over exposed, thus whiter than what they really looked.
You can compensate on most SLR cameras by using the exposure compensation
dial, but if like me you tend to forget in the heat of the moment. You will
find that the video will give you a better exposure.

The lowering still looks good though, I know mean weather when I see it, and
that is an example.

Michael


>PPS>Michael the pics dont do that lowering justice do they, things always
>seem better in real life, although the pics are still great and a momento
>of the chase.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
042

Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 03:25:07 -0800 (PST)
From: David Croan [bustchase at yahoo.com]
Subject: Re: aussie-weather: Re:NW Slopes splitting supercell
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com


---Michael Thompson  wrote:

> All these pics and Anthonys are making me depressed. > I am thinking
of
> starting a new group called SOB - 
> We can discuss our favourite drizzle outbreak stories > and look at
Sc chase videos.


This is a good tactic Michael - I think once we start seriously
chasing strataQ we will surely be getting supercells - i was thinking
a chasing a drought but then flash floods would be a serious threat to
people.


Bye the way, the back end of that Gunnedah storm looks just awesome
Michael (B) - thanks for scanning the pics and uploading them so
quickly.  Inspite of this appearance I still reckon Jimmy would gone
after hail in it as I'm pretty certain he's keen to cop something a
bit bigger than the 5cm stones, I saw belting into his torana on video
during that '95 storm - jeez imagine what they would do to the new car.

David

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
043

X-Sender: jimmyd at pop.ozemail.com.au
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.1
Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 22:31:06 +1100
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
From: Jimmy Deguara [jimmyd at ozemail.com.au]
Subject: Re: aussie-weather: Re:NW Slopes splitting supercell
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

David, that was the ESCORT 1974 model that copped a beating and it had
minor hail dents. I can tell you the torana would not have been so lucky
and I did observe Goeff's car and his mate's cars all in the same place in
Horsley Park from the same storm. They had to be repannelled. All of them
that is.

Jimmy

>This is a good tactic Michael - I think once we start seriously
>chasing strataQ we will surely be getting supercells - i was thinking
>a chasing a drought but then flash floods would be a serious threat to
>people.
>
>
>Bye the way, the back end of that Gunnedah storm looks just awesome
>Michael (B) - thanks for scanning the pics and uploading them so
>quickly.  Inspite of this appearance I still reckon Jimmy would gone
>after hail in it as I'm pretty certain he's keen to cop something a
>bit bigger than the 5cm stones, I saw belting into his torana on video
>during that '95 storm - jeez imagine what they would do to the new car.
>
>David

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
044

X-Sender: jimmyd at pop.ozemail.com.au
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.1
Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 23:22:19 +1100
To: aussie-weather at world.std.com
From: Jimmy Deguara [jimmyd at ozemail.com.au]
Subject: aussie-weather: Report on the feasibility of future chasing...
Sender: aussie-weather-approval at world.std.com
Reply-To: aussie-weather at world.std.com

Hi everyone.

Jimmy here. I thought I would start a debate or two. This topic has itched
me for some time and is an important one to discuss. Please do not
misinterpret the message in any way. It is more a general reminder of how
things seem to be moving in ASWA and was prompted by many factors of past
chases. Your POSTIVE input would be very much appreciated. Remember, some
or all of the  issues discussed may not be appropriate in some areas or
regions.

As we all know and whether we like or not, the development of ASWA had
changed the way chasers plan chases and take part in chases. We are in a
position like never before to make predictions and chase storms farther
afield. I think good examples of this is the successful operation in
Victoria on the 28th January and on the 30th January in NNSW. The
communication od weather resources to chasers in the field has been
excellent and I thank those involved anmd encourage others to participate
wherever possible.

Now that we are chasing farther afield, it has come time to bring up the
topic of "car hiring". As has been mentioned, the Moree Gunnedah chase was
a success but had a few pitfalls which concerned me. They were the following:

- Matthew Piper nor David Croan could not come on the chase as there was no
room for five in the car. This meant that available chasers were not able
to enjoy the spectacle. David Croan had his car needing repairs. It also
means that those that have or cannot afford at this stage to maintain a
vehicle provides then a chance to chase if they can afford the odd chase.
(Cars in NSW attract very expensive registration and insurance costs nore
than any other part of the country). This certainly means that another car
is out of the question just for chasing.
- I myself drove an incredible distance (1300km which I am not used to) in
two days. In the case of an earlier storm chase, David Croan drove 70-800km
in one day. This is one aspect which has changed since my early days
chasing. Driving for such a distance requires regular stops at least every
two hours to be comfortable and safe. I found that the last stretch which
was the notiorious Putty Road was very tiring and another experienced
driver could have helped. This obviously was possible but I think a hired
car would cause less hassles.
- If there had to be an accident, car damage or any other misadventure with
the car, who pays for the cost? Obviously the owner of the vehicle. Please
do not misinterpret this as being "stingy" as some of the costs can amount
to hundreds or sometimes thousands of dollars. Nobody looks at this until
it happens and then it is too late. I would rather bring it in the open for
discussion now rather than when an incident happens.
- There are legalaties of which I will not venture into as I am not
absolutely sure but with the current society I can guess can cause problems
for indivuals and/or ASWA.

As you can see, these are the main concerns I can raise at this point but
there may be more. The bottom line is that to alleviate at least some of
the hassles and reponsibilities, I think that some thoughts should be to
investiagte "car hiring" as a possibility. Local chases are ok with our own
vehicles but long chases...???


Other points in storm chasing.

I think, and this will become apparent when ASWA begins to take shape, that
membership will have to reflect each individual's background.. What I mean
is we need to know details of other's next of kin for instance and in the
case of under or around the age of 18 years, full approval of parents or
persons in charge. THEY MUST have full knowledge of what they are doing and
where they are going including some form of contact details. Storm chasing
is quite serious and can obviously involve vasrious forms of hazards.
Perhaps direct reassurance of a more senior member from ASWA can help fully
explain the situation. If this means one cannot chase, then SO BE IT.

This is all I can think of at this stage. 

So please discuss this seriously and offer positive feedback. Please do not
flood the e-mail list with tonnes of short e-mails wherever possible but
think carefully and offer a well thought out longer e-mail or two. If you
think "car hiring" is good for certain situations, then we should
investigate it. If not, do you have other suggstions I haven't thought
about. Catching a plane to the target area and hring from there can save
time but costs $$$$$. Perhaps a contact will help in this idea. However, as
Michael Bath says and I agree, the change in scenery is always and
interesting part of storm chases.

Jimmy Deguara

Document: 990201.htm
Updated: 12th February, 1999

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