Welcome New Members! We want to hear from you. Register, stop lurking and start posting!

Severe Thunderstorms - NSW & Vic - 29th Nov

Archived storm chasing events are located here.
Locked
User avatar
apocalypse
Cumulonumbus Calvas
Reactions:
Posts: 761
Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 6:17 pm
Location: Wagga Wagga, NSW 189m asl

Severe Thunderstorms - NSW & Vic - 29th Nov

Post by apocalypse »

What an eventful day!!

I headed to the west, around 4pm, after some cells became apparent on the radar. Everything was messy and had no structure. Just lots of very heavy rain.
I decided to go back to Wagga and then proceed to the north where I could see clear air, and some large Cb developing. It took me a few roads to find a place to pull over (all the places I could had large trees next to them!). Downdrafts were popping up left, right and centre by then, so it was hard to setup the tripod without getting rained on or struck by lightning. This wasn't going to work, so I drove on for a bit, until I found myself being engulfed by one of the storms coming from the NW. There was a nice RFB attached to this also which I think made me a little distracted! I sat it out, with crazy wind driven rain blasting the car, and a nice lightning show to boot!

Image
Image
Image
Click this link for storm intercept video

I guess I picked the right spot, because they just kept coming and coming!! And CG's everywhere!! Roads were starting to flood. Radar showed I was in the centre of the training thunderstorms.

Image

I made my way home, after driving through a couple small flood waters, and was greeted by an amazing shelf cloud, with what I think looked like a rotating mesocyclone. At one stage I thought it was going to put down a tornado!!
This storm was there one minute and gone the next as it flew off to the SE, but there were more storms developing behind it, so I headed out again to chase some rain and pea sized hail (didn't sound like it though!). Saw a nice double rainbow on the way home.

Image
Click here for possible funnel video

We got a direct hit from another storm later, with a slight bow on radar. This put out a lot of spectacular CG's, which I couldn't photograph since it was raining so much. After the rain had died down a bit, I went out to the back yard under the shelter, and started snapping away!

These are my first attempts at lightning. I got the first shot on my first go!! It's a shame it's a little out of focus though.

Image
Image

Got another hit a few hours ago, which was the windiest, and had the had the heaviest rain of them all.
23.4mm fell at home, but I suspect further to the north would have had a lot more. The airport to the east sure did!!
57.4mm, which places this November as the wettest on record!
151.0mm this month.
Nathan Morris
2013 Rainfall
Jan - 3.8mm
Feb - 27.0mm
Mar - 0.0mm
YTD - 30.8mm
User avatar
crikey
Supercell
Reactions:
Posts: 1314
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:02 pm
Location: tweed shire NSW and nDUNOLLY.. Nth Central district VIC
Contact:

Re: Severe Thunderstorms - NSW & Vic - 29th Nov

Post by crikey »

Enjoyed the commentary on your travels Apocalypse and Your photos. You must be excited about your lightning snaps :P
Checked out the monthly NOV rainfall stats of 151mm against some of the wagga wagga stations BOM record database. I found one higher in NOV November at 166.2 mm in 1971
Station: Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute Number: 73127 Opened: 1898 Now: Open
Lat: 35.05° S Lon: 147.35° E Elevation: 219 m
http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/weat ... num=073127" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
However the the monthly total of 151mm is above the 95th percentile for November and a significant month for November rainfall .
The mean for the above station is 40mm ( so you had over 3 1/2 times the mean )

http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/weat ... num=073127" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
User avatar
apocalypse
Cumulonumbus Calvas
Reactions:
Posts: 761
Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 6:17 pm
Location: Wagga Wagga, NSW 189m asl

Re: Severe Thunderstorms - NSW & Vic - 29th Nov

Post by apocalypse »

Thanks for the info, crikey. And yes, I was ECSTATIC about the pictures!! I've tried before without a tripod, but they've never really worked out. :P

I use the Airport AWS (or Wagga Wagga AMO) for statistics. 151mm is the highest for this station, and the previous was 142.4mm in 1970. Another record breaking statistic was the highest daily November rainfall - 57.4mm - the previous was 51.6mm on the 7th 1971.

The Gurwood Street station recorded 163.6mm for the month (of which 66.6mm fell yesterday). So getting close to the all time record for all the stations!!
Nathan Morris
2013 Rainfall
Jan - 3.8mm
Feb - 27.0mm
Mar - 0.0mm
YTD - 30.8mm
H
Hamlan
Storm Chaser
Reactions:
Posts: 449
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2009 11:05 pm
Location: Northern suburbs

Re: Severe Thunderstorms - NSW & Vic - 29th Nov

Post by Hamlan »

Chased the Nyngan-Parkes region supercells with John on Tues and despite a late initiation that was concerning, the atmosphere got its act together in our target area and went beserk! We intercepted several structured supercells, observed rotating wallclouds, funnels, extremely strong RFD many times, raised dust whirls lifted by RFD and masses of hail to 7cm. A nighttime intercept near Forbes netted a supercell with liberty bell structure and significant wall cloud followed by brilliant lightning. I havent processed my pics or stitched panos yet except for these monumental wide angle crawlers taken near Parkes. The shots are at 10mm and the big one went well and truly over and behind us to give you an idea of just how epic this bolt was. John captured it with his 14mm wide on a full frame and it's fair to say the locals could probably hear us from 10km away as we celebrated!

Image

Image
t
tonycynic
Cumulonimbus
Reactions:
Posts: 494
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2011 5:57 pm
Location: Mount Evelyn (h),Donvale (w)

Re: Severe Thunderstorms - NSW & Vic - 29th Nov

Post by tonycynic »

A question on lightning triggers, any reccomendations for using with a canon 550d?
H
Hamlan
Storm Chaser
Reactions:
Posts: 449
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2009 11:05 pm
Location: Northern suburbs

Re: Severe Thunderstorms - NSW & Vic - 29th Nov

Post by Hamlan »

Hello Tony, I cant help because I havent used a lightning trigger.
User avatar
Meso
Supercell
Reactions:
Posts: 1415
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 9:00 pm
Location: Springfield, QLD

Re: Severe Thunderstorms - NSW & Vic - 29th Nov

Post by Meso »

I think you're better off spending your time learning how to catch lightning without a trigger. Given the right situation and enough time spent practicing, you'll get better results through mastering the cameras settings rather than relying on a trigger to do the work. That's not to say a trigger isn't worth getting if you have the cash, but I just think the time invested stuffing around with the trigger could be better spent learning more traditional ways of capturing lightning.
t
tonycynic
Cumulonimbus
Reactions:
Posts: 494
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2011 5:57 pm
Location: Mount Evelyn (h),Donvale (w)

Re: Severe Thunderstorms - NSW & Vic - 29th Nov

Post by tonycynic »

Cool, thanks.
Have got a few lightning shots at night but am working on getting some daylight shots.
Those 2 last ones are stunning tho. Was a great result.
H
Hamlan
Storm Chaser
Reactions:
Posts: 449
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2009 11:05 pm
Location: Northern suburbs

Re: Severe Thunderstorms - NSW & Vic - 29th Nov

Post by Hamlan »

Here's a 10-shot wide angle stitched pano of one of the supercells we intercepted near Nyngan on the 29th Nov:

Image

and another of the same storm as it was forming a ringing structure above us:

Image

and a very close CG shot with my 10-22mm at Forbes later that night and as you can tell it was bright!:

Image
User avatar
Meso
Supercell
Reactions:
Posts: 1415
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 9:00 pm
Location: Springfield, QLD

Re: Severe Thunderstorms - NSW & Vic - 29th Nov

Post by Meso »

Second one is great! Right on sunset by the looks of it.
H
Hamlan
Storm Chaser
Reactions:
Posts: 449
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2009 11:05 pm
Location: Northern suburbs

Re: Severe Thunderstorms - NSW & Vic - 29th Nov

Post by Hamlan »

yeah close enough to sunset, still had another 20mins or so of good light. Storm went nuts after this point, smashed us with intense RFD, produced a swathe of 5-7cm hail, lifted dirt and basically put on a show. I think some south aussie chasers got distant structure shots which are very nice.
User avatar
Meso
Supercell
Reactions:
Posts: 1415
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 9:00 pm
Location: Springfield, QLD

Re: Severe Thunderstorms - NSW & Vic - 29th Nov

Post by Meso »

Just had a look where Nyngan is...you were nearly in QLD!!??
H
Hamlan
Storm Chaser
Reactions:
Posts: 449
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2009 11:05 pm
Location: Northern suburbs

Re: Severe Thunderstorms - NSW & Vic - 29th Nov

Post by Hamlan »

:D yeah we took a wrong turn somewhere :) but the storms we got made it worthwhile.
Locked