Vic - Potential showers/storms - 21st Dec to Boxing Day 2011

[stratospear]

Not much happening here. Northwest Vic is looking fairly active atm, but it doesn't look like heading this way. Event total - 2mm which fell this morning. Having to water garden every second day.

[Dane]

Plenty of thunder and lightning here today but the most active cells were to far north of us here, had just 2mm's of rain although that last shower had a few small hail stones it it.
I have never seen hail larger than marble size in my life and that record remains intact after today.
Radar indicating a clearing trend now should be all clear in the Metro area by 10pm I think.

[TheFishmanAU]

50mm of rain here. WOW!!
Ding, Ding Round 6 is coming.

[Geoff]

Extraordinary atmospherics up here as this thunderstorm is caught by the pink glow of the sunset, the lightning was so frequent I just pressed the shutter and caught this...

Mt Dandenong Storm..jpg (22.59 KiB) Viewed 7386 times

[stratospear]

Eildon just copped a severe downdraft of 115 km/h from a black cored storm:
http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDV60801 ... 4881.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I wouldn't want to be on a houseboat there atm!!!

[Soxy]

56mm in Warrandyte in about 1 - 1/2 hours not really fun at all

[Flangfest]

Here's my contribution from today. These are just stills from my recordings today. I wish it would not deform the bolt when I cap it but oh well.



These 4 pics occurred in under a second right after each other!






I wish I was a more professional photographer but these will do me for now! 30mm here. Today lived up to my username for sure!

[TheFishmanAU]

My battery in the camera has run out, I have yet to photograph anything good.

There is a really good light show to my east.

[aussiestormfreak]

WOW!!!!!!!!! What a day... full of Christmas cheer (presents, food, family, friends, etc) and some of the best electrical storms I've ever seen!

No hail, squalls or tornadoes at my end, but spectacular lightning (including great CGs and CCs), lots and lots of thunder and pouring rain (not as heavy as it was 2 weeks ago). I'm exhausted, my feet are KILLING me and I was very worried that I may not have enough space on my memory cards to capture the action

The majority of the action has gone but a few more showers and thunderstorms coming through, got just enough space to film some lightning this evening, hope it's as good as last night's electrical storm!!

PS just heard a rumble of thunder so once again... GAME ON!!!

Merry Christmas everybody!

[Lily]

The Age photo gallery of today's storms http://www.theage.com.au/photogallery/v ... tedImage=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

AV, there's a shot taken in Kangaroo Ground of the storm you taped at your father's home.


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-25/w ... ne/3746994" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wild storms lash Melbourne
Updated December 25, 2011 20:47:32


Wild storms packing hailstones the size of lemons and strong winds have battered Melbourne during a severe thunderstorm.

Roads have been flooded and some flights have been grounded at Melbourne airport.

The tornado hit Fiskville, 15 kilometres west of Bacchus Marsh, with reports its force picked cars up off the ground.

The weather bureau's Richard Russell says there was a tornado threat for about 20 minutes.

"The report we had was from a very credible storm spotter," he told ABC News 24.

"He reported that a car was blown off or across the road as it went through."

Victoria's emergency services have already received hundreds of calls for help with reports of hailstones the size of lemons and roofs caving in from heavy rain.

Spokesman Lachlan Quick says some highways are flooded and trees have fallen onto roads.

"Anecedotally, we've had reports of lots of lots of vehicles with front and back vehicles smashed," he said.

Some international and domestic flights have also been delayed.

Melbourne Airport's Anna Gillot says when the initial storm hit, flights were grounded but some have now resumed.

She is advising passengers to check departure times with airlines.

"We'll do the best that we can, it's just dependent on the weather and they're fairly horrific storms," she said.

"We're doing the best that we can and just ask people to be patient and take safety precautions."

The thunderstorms are moving east with flash flooding and more hail expected.

Duty forecaster Chris Godfred said earlier in the evening that on top of the severe storm warning for metropolitan Melbourne, there was also a general warning for the entire state.

"That ranges right up to the northern parts of country Victoria and across to the Wimmera and also extending down into western and central Gippsland," he said.

"The warning area does cover about 70 per cent of the state."

[Geoff]

Okay, the main course seems to be over now for the Melbourne area. I came out from the UK over 6 years ago (after marrying my Aussie wife) expecting to see storms like this on a fairly regular basis, but that it seems is not how it is. Does anyone regard today's extraordinary event to be something of a one-off, possibly the best multiple storm event for some years, it's certainly the best since I've been here!

[Lily]

And the Herald Sun's photo gallery, reminiscent of the March hailstorm http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/photo- ... 439?page=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[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 (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!

[nafets]

Cell just developed overhead...

[Lily]

Can't wait to see what you captured, Hamlan This thing is the gift that keeps on giving - rain and lightning started up again here!

[TheFishmanAU]

Suddenly a challenger appears, the radar looked dead but out of nowhere the radar exploded over the word Melbourne.

[BigBen]

Happy Chrismas storm lovers, Santa delivered in spades today!

Was in Ringwood East, some of teh best Flang's I've seen, so loud, so frequent. Get home to find I've missed huge hail, housemates car looks like a nutter went crazy with a little ball hammer, windscreen of his car is fractured, says it was 6-8 cm chunks of ice falling (sadly no footage)

Awesome view coming home, on bus going through footscray looking at a cell over the cbd about 8.15pm, there was an orange/red ball of cloud, rain curtain and a little green tinge at the edge, looked so amazing, if I had a camera I would have got off the bus and taken pictures. I'm hoping somebody got some shots of it.

[Anthony Violi]

Trough still over us, so they will continue to fire through the night, probably be a few hours before they move East.

Amazing falls, 60mm here, 92mm at Greensborough.

[Flangfest]

They just don't stop...#8 today rolling in! All CC but very nice to watch and great thunder too !

[greensyboy]

Hey All,

Just got home and had a shower. Spent 12 hours over the past two days chasing. Amazing stuff. Just had a quick look, Hamlan mentioned a supercell capable of dropping tornadoes over Yan Yean. I was on the thing also for about 10 minutes before I got overtaken by hail. Was the most amazing structure I have seen yet.
I haven't been through all the post - that will be tomorrow! But I would like to say that the Northern Suburbs got absolutely blasted this afternoon. Once in a lifetime stuff. A street less than a km from me was flooded, I would guess close to 6ft. There a flood retarding basin at the bottom which couldn't cope (or coped too well) flood marks up people's fences, fences washed away, backyards, mud and silt all over the road. I was up in QLD helping out with the flood recovery earlier in the year and it was exactly the same. Got some pics, but wanted to be respectful of what people had gone through especially on Christmas day.
Have a lot of footage to go through, pics and vids. Unfortunately I only had my phone plus a point and shoot with me, still saving my pennies for something high quality, should still be some good stuff though. Will probably create a thread for it (Mods might like to help me out with what the best place for that would be). But for now, time for dinner.

Stay safe all,

Nate