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December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

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rikjpool
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December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by rikjpool »

Ill start this thread up, as I've seen some amazing pics around already from Christmas Eve and with Christmas day and Boxing day looking to bring some goods as well... should see some amazing stuff in this thread. Stay tuned for my early morning report coming soon. :)
I live in a world where I dont see to believe, but I believe to see...
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rikjpool
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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by rikjpool »

Stage 1

Ok, well after missing all the storms that happened yesterday, Christmas Eve, I was a little dissapointed. I had christmas dinner and presents and what not on yesterday so was pinned down so to speak. However I was still awake at 12am, and saw that there were some storms firing up near horsham. So I set my internal alarm for 3am (not real one as to not wake the wife). I woke up at 2:55am, looked outside and it had already got here. Moving a bit faster at night than they were during the day. So I rushed out of bed, chucked some cloths on and jumped in the car. I headed down the road to the Queen Elizabeth oval to hopefully grab some pics. But didnt get further than the car park. The next few shots are from the car park, looking back (WSW) towards Bendigo CBD. Now stupid me packed the tripod but not the tripod mount for the camera... :? So they are a little on the blury side, but you get the idea anyway. Mostly cc with the odd Cg chucked in there.

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From there I went home, got my tripod mount and headed out to Mickey Mouse Hill. Looking East now as it had blown over by this stage. I didnt stay long as at 3:30am, at this said point, is obviously a "make out" point with the younger kids. Im talking 4 cars parked around me with some 'interesting noises' coming out of them. Bagged this shot before I left....
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rikjpool
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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by rikjpool »

Stage 2

So from here I looked at the radar and saw that it was firing in a line from Horsham Northwards. This time I thought I'll head out and meet it as it was travelling so fast.
So I took the road out to Bridgewater. However by the time I got there it was mostly "dead" in my eyes. So I thought to my self "Well im already up I may as well wait and see what happens."
At this point its around 4:30am. So I left Bridgewater, and cut across to the St Arnold Road, headed back towards Bendigo to a little rise in the road that I know of to wait it out and hope that something will fire up again.

Whilst im waiting and my eyes grow accustomed to the light, I look to the eastern Horizon, and to my surprise I saw what I can only Describe as a comet?! I didnt know that we were "due" For one. Anyway took a few snaps of this whilst the rain band to my west was slowly moving over to me.

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Decided to turn my camera back to the West and take a photo of the line approaching from the west. The cloud bank looked nice in the rising light of the dawn sun. And as soon as I turned around and clicked the trigger an all mighty discharge was released catching me completely off gaurd.

This is one 20second exposure. And it was all one bolt. Amazing to watch creep across the sky....
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Boy I was happy. From there it became clear that it was only the beginning. I watched the updraught grow whilst it just continued to spit out more and more...
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Then there was a Lul for about 10 min. I was about to pack up and head home, however I noticed the updraught was still rising, and a nice feature was apearing on the base. Sure enough another 5 min wait and...
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I watched as a few more cg's pounded the ground towards me. I got the wide angle lens out as it got closer and closer. The next shot is a composite of 3 images taken one after the other at 8second intervals. After this barrage, including one that I didn't see, but certainly heard it, I jumped back into the car and watched it as it went over me with a few more nice flangs and booms. Then decided to call it, and headed home after a nice 3 and a half hour Chase. So now I live today on around and hour and a half sleep. :)

Merry Christmas Everyone!
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solcampbell
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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by solcampbell »

Awesome shots Rikki. Especially like the last one. Sounds like your christmas came early this year. The comet could be Comet Lovejoy I think?? Anyway great write up and Merry Christmas.
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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by rikjpool »

Here is a larger shot of the triple bolts. Get an idea of how close one of them actually was.... :D

http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a318/ ... edcrop.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I live in a world where I dont see to believe, but I believe to see...
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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by Pete »

Awesome shots! That last one is a pants filler! :o Somebody had a merry start to Christmas then. :D
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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by Hamlan »

Nice bolts!

Chased yesterday and got some severe storms including funnels and a downburst near Murchison, then this crazy sunset on the back of the storm taken from Lancefield 8-)

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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by Didjman »

Merry Christmas to all! We have all been good obviously - WX-Santa delivered, and keeps on:D.
As mentioned in my previous post, I saw the "Warby" cell from a strong updraught under the dying anvil of the cell before(the storms were moving west to east which was unusual). I saw it mature into a monster that others aptly described, to the end of its maturity in stage 1. It appeared to weaken, as massive updraughts - one after the other kept it going. Here are 3 pics of it taken from Chirnside Park - looking east:


http://files.petermatters.com.au/storm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;% ... inning.JPG

In this pic, you can see 2 updraughts rising into the remains of the previous storms anvil(the anvil passed over Chirnside Park with decent mamattus under it).


http://files.petermatters.com.au/storm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;% ... turing.JPG

Here u can see the "Nuke" appearance that others described, with the engine room on the right hand side of the storm.


http://files.petermatters.com.au/storm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;% ... 0cycle.JPG

In this pic, you can see the sheer size of this monster!! while the anvil is thinning out, note the updraught on the right hand side exploding through the anvil.
A few minutes later, foreground cloud was creeping in, so I went inside to be sociable(Christmas Lunch at the inlaws tho late):D

At around 2300, I was treated to these 2 awesome spectacles!!
http://files.petermatters.com.au/storm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;% ... g%20CG.JPG
http://files.petermatters.com.au/storm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;% ... lydale.JPG

I was woken at 0400 this morning, but most of the lightning was in the clouds from my vantage point, so no other pics.
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Hamlan
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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by Hamlan »

Wow! after an awesome christmas lunch with the best crackling ever I drove all of 5mins to Mt Cooper and timelapsed the most incredibly structured supercell right in from of me for over an hour!!!! then I realised I had a puncture so a few frantic calls and help from my wife I got another car and raced west to get onto the tornadic monster near the airport and it was EPIC! I tracked this supercell across Melbournes north to Yan Yean where it was still capable of producing tornadoes (lets put it that way for now) before I moved back west 10mins and immediately picked up another tornadic supercell Brad(again lets put it that way for now!) which I timelapsed from an elevated position at Eden Park and then witnessed possibly my highlight amongst highlights as the storm definately was capable of producing a tornado (i keep hearing the USA national weather service voiceover!) near the Flowerdale turnoff on the Hume!!!!!! Of course not to be done there I drove in to intercept and got hit by whiteout RFD before turning south on the Hume where I witnessed an extraordinarily beautiful and huge LP supercell that left me shaking my head at sunset. Close to 1000 pics and hours of video of these supercells going nuts over Melbourne - who would have ever thought. And all this after 2 hours sleep after watching lightning till 5am today!

Brad

Edit - added pic:

Ok, one pic processed...1050 pics from Sunday to go

Taken on the Hume near Clonbinane looking SE in the evening Sun Dec 25th 2011.

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rikjpool
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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by rikjpool »

Amazing Hamlan! Can't wait to the pics that will continue to be posted in this thread. :)
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Meso
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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by Meso »

Nice Brad. What do you think you were looking at there? Wall cloud? Looks like a big meso!

I'll add mine from the last few days. Didn't get up close to any storms, but saw some monsters from a distance and managed to finally shoot some decent lightning photos.

First couple are from the 23rd, looking at storms over the ranges from a distance...

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Few from Phillip Island the next day, looking towards the storms in the E/NE...

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Same line of storms still kicking on a few hours later, shot from near The Pinnacles....

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And then we had a fantastic light show Christmas Eve, so a few bolts as the storm moved in from the west....

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Spewing this was just outside the frame...

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And few more distant ones as storms continue to go crazy towards the east...

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Hamlan
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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by Hamlan »

Ok, can no longer keep eyes open. Have scanned my eye over my pics of Sundays supercell outbreak in and around Melbourne and have whittled down a selection to post online however i'm too tired right now. I will hopefully get them online tomorrow. They are worth the wait IMO. I could not however resist stitching this one :)

Taken next to Melbourne airport at Tullamarine and looking west. 7 or 8 wide angle shots stitched. This is the Fiskville monster and it was on top of me and I had literally seconds to get the shots, pull a u-turn and head under the structure to my north road to reposition. I was on this supercell to Yan Yean near Whittlesea and there are many more shots where this came from!

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Hamlan
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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by Hamlan »

So tired that I cant sleep so here's a pic of the giant hail producer from xmas day. I got over an hours timelapse of this cell without moving! then I intercepted the Fiskville supercell and chased that from Tulla to Yan Yean 8-)

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Edit: added pic

Incredible rain/hail foot on this supercell. Cricket practice in the western and north western suburbs!

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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by AUSSKY »

Evening all,

Clyve and I left Geelong (after rushing out from Christmas lunch) about 3.30pm and headed up towards the Fiskville area. Have put a shot here to give you an idea of what we saw and reported to the BoM and the rest of the images are on the linked pages below.

Compilation couresy of Paul Graham
396384_10150443373527779_654462778_8624322_376285448_n.jpg
396384_10150443373527779_654462778_8624322_376285448_n.jpg (158.05 KiB) Viewed 17988 times
Shot taken east of Fiskville looking west
381801_2433098508440_1280978498_32262889_763383738_n.jpg
381801_2433098508440_1280978498_32262889_763383738_n.jpg (35.97 KiB) Viewed 17988 times
Rest of the images including funnels and hail from the Fiskville area on these pages....
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 47efa02d60
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 1e34f08d9f

That's what you call a storm!!!!!

Jane & Clyve
Australian Sky & Weather (AUSSKY)
Victoria - The State of Drizzle & Occasional Tornadoes
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Rivergirl
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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by Rivergirl »

WOW!!! :shock: :shock: Awesome pics guys.
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Lily
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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by Lily »

Is there a better Christmas present any stormchaser could have wished for lol? Who would have thought, eh? Loving the pics and reports, thanks everyone :D
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flatcam
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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by flatcam »

Well, that was a Christmas to remember! The storms I saw that day were some of the biggest I have ever seen.

My father and I headed out when we noticed quite a nice anvil forming to our West. This cell was an absolute beast, anviling out within 10 minutes! Here's a picture of what we saw.

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Five or so minutes past until we were ready to leave to chase this storm. When we finally left our house, the storm had grown to a truely massive size! It was so huge that I could not even get it all in the shot.

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After a short drive we decided to park on top of a small hill and watch the cell as it grew. This is a pano of what we saw.

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At this point, this cell was intensifying rapidly! Lightning and thunder were quite frequent at this point in time as the rain core grew rapidly. It wasn't long before we were confronted with this.

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While moving position to get a closer look, we saw a massive chunk of ice hit the road and smash. This was only the first as golf ball-sized hail stones started pounding on the roof of our car. We had never seen hail this size before! Not wanting to risk denting our car, we turned around rather quickly! :laughing: What was amazing was at this point, we wern't close to the actual core! This made me wonder just how big the hail this storm was producing actually was! After we had escaped the hail, I looked back to see this...

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That was the most amazing thing I had seen in a storm since I started photographing them two years ago! Little did I know what would occur later!

On returning home, a new cell had developed off the back of the storm pictured above. This storm also had a black core on radar. I was amazed at the greenage I saw when I looked up!

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And here's a lowering from underneath the rain free base :D

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This cell also had a nice rain/hail core.

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Later on in the afternoon. The Fiskville supercell came knocking at my front door. My father drove me around to the local park to get some pictures of this storm. What confronted us was absolutely amazing! There was some very nice greenage surrounding a shelf-like structure to the south but, what was more impressive, was what was directly overhead. The whole structure was rotating, rotating quicker than anything I had ever seen before. Beneath this structure was a vast mess of scud being sucked up into the storm accompanying several suspicious lowerings. The whole mass of cloud was rotating incredibly fast. As it moved closer, the wind slowly picked up before peaking as the structure was almost overhead. The wind roared powerfully with huge gusts sending masses of debris flying past us. It was at this point we decided it was time to get back to the car!

Upon returning home, lightning and hail greeted us. These hailstones were much smaller than the ones from the cell earlier in the day, being roughly the size of 10 cent pieces. At home, I plugged the camera into my computer to see the images I had captured. I was worried to see no pictures stored? As it turned out, in the rush to see the structure before the rain and hail came, I had left the memory card in my computer at home!!!! This still hurts to this day! I had taken panoramas and other shots that I would have loved to have seen how they turned out, but I guess I'm just going to have to rely on video stills :x :( :( :(

Anyway, it was an amazing day with three crazy supercells intercepted. :D Hope you all enjoyed the brief report and pictures and I'm very sorry for the powerlines in the shots :laughing:

I will try and get screenshots of what I saw of the Fiskville supercell up in the next couple of days :D

Cheers, Cam
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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by Rivergirl »

Great report and pics Cam. Certainly a day to remember in more ways than one. A real bummer leaving your card in the computer. I hope you can get some stills off your video recorder.
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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by Lily »

Oh no, Cam! Ohhhhhhh... how awfully frustrating for you :( I enjoyed your reporting of the events, is that any consolation lol?

What a bummer!
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Hamlan
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Re: December 24th to 26th Reports and Pictures

Post by Hamlan »

And the images keep'a'rollin out!

Here is a selection of shots showing the evolution of a tornadic phase of the Fiskville-Yan Yean (and beyond!) supercell on Christmas Day. Taken from Donnybrook Road, then along the western side of Yan Yean reservoir and finally from just east of Whittlesea.

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