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STORMPLANET - Severe Event Reports
Storm Chase!!
SE Australia -
Australia Day Outbreak!
January 26th to 28th 2005
All images viewable by clicking on them
Wednesday January 26th
(Australia Day) | Thursday January 27th |
Friday January 28th
Wednesday January
26th (Australia Day)
Above: hourly radar and lightning tracker loop from about 3pm to
3am Thursday, courtesy
Weatherzone
and
Australian Weather News. Water Vapour Loops courtesy
BOM &
Weatherzone
Above: Synoptic chart, Melbourne sounding, animated radar
sequence (courtesy Mike Fewings excellent
radar & satellite archive)
and jetstream winds
courtesy
BOM &
Weatherzone.
Above: National and state animated satellite images,
courtesy
BOM &
Weatherzone
Above: AVN showing RH, CAPE, LI's & 850 temps. Note that this was
a low wind shear day.
On this day,
moisture from the Tasman and Coral seas
had travelled across the eastern inland and was now helping trigger
showers and thunderstorms in SA, VIC and TAS. The humid north-easterly
winds combined with a near stationary surface trough, potentially
causing further rain and storms on Thursday and Friday. Severe
thunderstorm warnings were issued for eastern and northern SA and the
western half of VIC with the threat of heavy rain, strong winds and
large hail. A storm passing over Hobart, a rare event, produced a wind
gust of 85 km/h. The northerly winds produced a hot day with highs
climbing up to 15 degrees above average in VIC and TAS and 13 above in
SA.
 
Above: Various images taken from
early in the journey form 1.30 p.m. through to 4.30 p.m. These cells
matured quickly, then mostly delivered some heavy rain and lightning and
then dissipated, often in their wake new cells would propagate. The last
image above is a good example of precipitation falling into drier lower
layers but this precipitation from this cell did eventually make its way
to the ground.
Today I drove 693km, the
chase took me as far west as Stawell. I encountered a number of
interesting pulse storms throughout the western and west central area
and got caught up in an amazing outflow induced line of lifted dust and
70KMH winds (measured with my trust Kestrel) ahead of a storm near
Avoca, was a bit like the gustnado experience in November, an
exhilarating situation and it came out of nowhere like a train!
Later on I ended up tracking the Geelong storm, approaching it from the
north and covered it from three flanks, such was the slow progression of
the storm. I observed and filmed from the northern, western and eastern
flanks and the storm produced flash flooding, frequent CG lightning and
there were reports from fellow chaser Clyve Herbert of 2cm hail.
The Geelong storm was an absolute
bloody ripper with some very strong embedded winds and torrential and
prolonged rain periods, as can be seen in the videos here. Whiteout
conditions on the roads at times, a memorable event!
 Video
1: taken as I approach the dust
squall moving ahead of the storm near Avoca,
at 4.32 p.m. (7.4mb)
Video 2:
Here is some footage of the Geelong cell as seen from this northern
vantage point as I drive (2.7mb)
Video 3: TIME-LAPSE taken from
a side road between Lethbridge & Bannockburn at 6.30 p.m.
looking towards Geelong at the cell. (746kb)
Video
4: More of this cell from the above position
with some CG's, then on the road and entering the storm on the outer
limits of Geelong (2.2mb)
Video
5: Driving through the thickest parts of the
torrential rain (4.7mb)
Video
6: A few selected lightning strikes filmed
east of Geelong (5.8mb)
The following images show the Geelong cell, taken from as far north as
Skipton, descriptions shown further down:
Above: photos taken in
chronological order, showing the Geelong cell from as far north as
Skipton, as I drove further SE towards Geelong. The BP roadhouse shots
were taken on the eastern side of Geelong and the final 2 images were
taken about 10km east of Geelong as the storm finally moved further
south of Geelong.
Above: lightning still captures
from video
BOM State Forecast
Issued at 1620 on Wednesday the 26th of January 2005
Warnings
A severe thunderstorm warning is current for the Western, Central,
Mallee and
Wimmera and West and South Gippsland districts. A severe thunderstorm
warning is also current for the Melbourne metropolitan area. A strong
wind warning is current for Victorian coastal waters east of Lakes
Entrance.
Weather Pattern
A low pressure trough will be located over the southwest of the state
tonight and remain almost stationary until Friday. A cold front will
enter western Victoria later on Friday before moving through the
remainder of the state on Saturday. On Sunday a high pressure system
will move across the state.
Victoria
Tonight and Thursday: Scattered showers and thunderstorms tonight,
mainly in the west, and possibly severe with large hail, damaging winds
and heavy rain. Scattered showers and thunderstorms tomorrow,
particularly in the west and mainly during the afternoon and evening.
Warm to hot and humid inland, but
milder in the southwest. Generally light to moderate northerly wind,
locally fresh at times, and afternoon coastal sea breezes.
Fire Danger: High to very high.
UV Index: 11 [very high] reducing to 7 [ high] under cloud.
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Current Observations for Geelong Airport |
|
Date Time
(AEDT) |
Temp
(deg C) |
Dew
point
(deg C) |
Rel
Hum
(%) |
Wind dir |
Wind speed |
Wind gust |
Press
(hPa) |
Rain since 9am
(mm) |
|
(km/h) |
(knots) |
(km/h) |
(knots) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
26
22:00 |
19.0 |
19.0 |
100 |
S |
17 |
9 |
24 |
13 |
1012.7 |
97.8 |
|
26
21:00 |
20.0 |
20.0 |
100 |
WSW |
43 |
23 |
59 |
32 |
1011.0 |
86.4 |
|
26
19:56 |
21.4 |
21.4 |
100 |
SE |
20 |
11 |
83 |
45 |
1010.3 |
83.6 |
|
26
18:56 |
24.3 |
23.3 |
94 |
ENE |
13 |
7 |
48 |
26 |
1009.5 |
47.8 |
|
26
18:00 |
19.3 |
19.1 |
99 |
N |
54 |
29 |
83 |
45 |
1010.0 |
17.6 |
|
26
17:00 |
33.2 |
14.8 |
33 |
NE |
20 |
11 |
28 |
15 |
1008.7 |
0.0 |
|
26
16:00 |
33.0 |
14.6 |
33 |
NW |
22 |
12 |
30 |
16 |
1009.7 |
0.0 |
|
26
15:00 |
35.7 |
14.9 |
29 |
NNW |
22 |
12 |
39 |
21 |
1010.3 |
0.0 |
|
26
14:00 |
35.0 |
14.8 |
30 |
N |
24 |
13 |
37 |
20 |
1011.0 |
0.0 |
|
26
13:00 |
34.5 |
15.4 |
32 |
N |
28 |
15 |
44 |
24 |
1011.7 |
0.0 |
Above: I have included the following Geelong observations for the period
1300hrs through to 2200hrs AEST, take a look at those rain
accumulations!
Thursday January
27th
The low pressure trough over western Victoria moved more eastwards today
across the state,
ahead of a cold front that was due to pass just to the south of Victoria
on Friday night and Saturday morning.
Above: Convective
outlook for Thursday & synoptic with satellite overlay, courtesy
Weatherzone.
IR Satellite images courtesy
BOM.
Above: Radar loop,
satellite loop and rainfall to 0900hrs chart courtesy
BOM
Above: Synoptic charts
courtesy
BOM
Being a late afternoon and evening
window of opportunity for me to chase, I focused on two large and severe
thunderstorms, travelling total was 200km. My route took me from Yarra
Glen to Kinglake, Flowerdale, and back to Glenburn then tracked via
Toolangi to Healesville and then back home.
Above: The cell approaching
Kinglake as seen from Dixons Creek and Kinglake, starting at 5.20 p.m.
Notice the appearance of an apparent inflow band in the last two images.
Video 1: Kinglake cell (from
above) (1.4mb)
Above: Nice cell approaching
Flowerdale from the north, offering up some lightning along the way.
The two large storms I stayed on were the one that passed through
Kinglake to Hurstbridge and then I believe it travelled to the CBD but
lost some intensity. This cell produced a lot of lightning overhead and
nearby my vantage point in Kinglake (see above) so I withdrew to safer
ground towards Flowerdale. My intention was to get as close as possible
to the updraft region of the cell to see what may or may not be
happening. My suspicion was on the money, as I soon observed a long,
ropey but thin funnel extending from the updraft region of this storm. I
filmed and observed the funnel but it was still over 10km away and not
too clear except to the naked eye. The funnel lasted approx 2 mins and
extended, from where I could see it, about half way to the ground in a
rope like descent. It was quite weak but 2 mins isn't too bad.
Above:
this image grabbed from video is the best I can do to show the funnel.
It's easy to see in the image but the quality is poor. I suspect that
this area within the updraft region may have had multiple vortices but
that's just a theory I cannot substantiate due to the distance away from
the area. In the second frame, a nice CG is seen with the funnel still
visible.
Video 2: Video of the above
storm, updraft region, you will see the white, thin ropey funnel
extending down but distance and poor light make it difficult. Some
lightning captured also. (8 mb)
Video 3: short unplanned
time-lapse of the updraft region, showing rotation (1.9 mb)
Above: this cell threw some
nice CG lightning as it moved further south towards Hurstbridge
Video 4: A few more CG's
captured on film (.5mb)
I reported this to the BOM, some 35 mins later when I got some cell
phone coverage. This phone conversation was taking place as I was
filming my next big cell, I'll call it the Yea cell, I believe there
were 2, this was the strongest which I think was the first one. This was
a very large cell with an enormous precipitation region. As I was on the
phone to the BOM I hear a "click", like a spark, followed
instantaneously by a bone shaking and shattering crack of thunder.
This was my first "click and spark" experience, i.e. a strike within
metres of where I stood. I can't type here what I said to the BOM when
this happened, this was a rogue strike and I was very lucky not to be
struck. Although adjacent to the steering flow of the storm and at what
I regard a safe distance, one can never be sure.
Anyway, I observed this cell from Flowerdale for around 20 mins before
moving closer as it moved further South to SSE and positioned myself not
far from Glenburn. It was from here that I captured countless CG images,
and the structure was fascinating with this cell. The storm was tracking
through the Toolangi State Forest and going by the green tinges in the
storm (greenage) I had a feeling that some decent sized hail was
probably falling.
Above: Panorama of the cell
over the Toolangi region
 
 
Above: Images of the severe
storm approaching Toolangi. Greenage easy to see and the structure here
really was impressive.
Video 5: The storm passing
through Toolangi, lightning captures (3.5 mb)
I observed some rotation in the mid-level structure of this cell and as
the wall cloud, as shown in the images below, grew it also showed some
weak rotation. The cell was not striated however the mid level
surrounding structure was nicely banded and curved around the cell. The
cell became outflow dominant however the mid-level rotation remained
until the cell was totally obscured by outflow. I am waiting on BOM data
to support or dismiss my suspicions that this storm was a supercell, at
the time they reported back to me that they had 50+db returns at their
end.
I then tracked back down to the south and
then decided to take the road to Yarra Glen via Healesville via the
Toolangi Forest, a sensational part of the world as it is however I was
more interested in observing the aftermath of this storm as I knew that
the State Forest was in its path. Before doing so I stopped at Glenburn
to photograph a nicely contrasted rain shaft well off to my east in the
ranges, as below:
The drive was a rather dangerous one as it
turned out, I saw quite a few exploded trees where lightning has
obviously struck and the litter on the road was providing total coverage
of the road surface. I found no hailstones however I believe that my
earlier observations and summation that large hail had fallen here was
correct. Unfortunately there were no man-made structures that I could
observe for possible hail damage and very little light penetrates the
forest canopy so photography was a problem.
Anyway, for just a few hours investment
after work, I was pretty damn excited about the two big storms that I
had tracked and observed today!
Friday January
28th
Synoptic & IR Satellite images
courtesy
BOM.
Showers and thunderstorms were
due to develop today, tending to rain areas later in the west as the
cold front came into play. Conditions were sultry in the central
district with mainly moderate northerly winds, which turned westerly
during the day and then more southerly across western and central areas
late in the day. By the time I could consider a chase, the few isolated
storms that had developed were subsiding, leaving me with a couple of
photogenic rain shafts and mature cells north of the Yarra Valley within
a dying multicell, scrappy environment. The plains west of Melbourne
turned up with a few storms as the rain areas propagated northwest along
the trough. First image
taken at Dixons Creek looking south, the other two taken from Glenburn
looking west:
Of course, there was still activity about earlier in the
day, as evidenced by warnings such as these, issued by the BOM:
TOP PRIORITY FOR IMMEDIATE
BROADCAST
MELBOURNE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
for Damaging Wind Gusts, Large Hailstones and Very Heavy Rainfall
For people in Melbourne Metropolitan, Port Phillip, Mornington and
Bellarine
Peninsula
Issued at 1:55 pm EDT on Friday 28 January 2005
A thunderstorm, identified as severe on radar is located southeast of
Cranbourne, as is moving in a southeasterly direction at 35km/hr and
will affect
the far southeast suburbs. Further isolated thunderstorms, are presently
developing over the Melbourne Metropolitan, Port Phillip, Mornington and
Bellarine Peninsula areas, and are likely to become severe.
TOP PRIORITY FOR IMMEDIATE BROADCAST
VICTORIAN SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
for Damaging Wind Gusts, Large Hailstones and Very Heavy Rainfall
For people in the Central, Western, North Central, Northern Country,
North
Eastern and Alpine, West and South Gippsland and East Gippsland
Issued at 2:10 pm EDT on Friday 28 January 2005
Scattered thunderstorms, some of which have been identified as severe on
radar,
have developed over the Central, Western, North Central, Northern
Country, North
Eastern and Alpine, West and South Gippsland and East Gippsland, and are
generally moving in a east to southeasterly direction at about 30km/hr.
These
severe thunderstorms may produce damaging wind gusts, large hail and
very heavy
rain.
Links to other reports from this weeks
storms in Victoria:
Australian Weather News
Jane ONeill
Lindsay Knowles
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T a k i n g A u s t r a l i a b y
S t o r m ! 
