Storm Chasing Tornadoes and Weather - Weather Education, Photographs and Videos

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1829280/
Giant smashing hailstones violent incredible lightning tornado

Take a look at this clip of tornadoes, giant hailstones and incredible lightning.

{Michael, add your video here as well}

Jimmy

Michael,

Happy New Year! I hope your year turns out to be fruitful and pleasant. Sympathies for the bad news you and your family have had to endure. It is part of life’s pains.

What is it this year with the storms! How explosive was that last lot! Some impressive structures and intense supercells this year on the north coast. Down here, we are stuggling to produce any storms - very low below average and we have had one half hearted attempt of a low topped version a month or so ago. Even the Hunter has relatively been down. So now we have to endure some heat after yesterday’s storms over the ranges.

Imelda and Kimberly are doing well - Imelda goes for a pregnancy check-up tomorrow.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

Tuesday 30th December could not have turned out much better than it did. A classic supercell evolved between Casino and Lismore before tracking over the eastern parts of Lismore, my place at McLeans Ridges then off the coast north of Byron Bay. The structure was incredible. CAPE was calculated at 4000 from the Casino obs of 35/21 at 3pm. No wonder updrafts were like a nuclear bomb in appearance. Some very large hail to 7cm diameter fell at Lismore Heights and Goonellabah with stones to about 4cm at my place.  The thing that struck me the most watching the storm develop from the first congestus of the day to a massive supercell was the very obvious base rotation - certainly have not seen anything as quick as that around here. Not surprisingly, while on chase we saw two very well defined mid-level funnels and another person photographed one under the meso.

Hi Jimmy,  been a busy week of storms yet again. Was great to catch up with you Imelda and Kimberley on Boxing Day and glad you’ve managed to track down some storms :)   Certainly been a mixed week for emotions there, some highs with the terrific storms locally but also sadness with the death of my aunty on Christmas morning and our family cat the day before.

I will post some recent pictures here soon. Today could see some poweful storms again in NE NSW and SE QLD - will depend on how things dry out though DPs remain healthy so far today.

Michael,

There were some impressive storms across eastern NSW which produced so much lightning in areas where people were enjoying their holidays - someone had to be hit! The man touching a mast was struck but luckily not to be killed. This happened in the Hunter region.

Some impressive storms occurred including hail to 6cm at Comboyne with more incredibly structured storms in the Northern Rivers. We were able to view the aftermath of the hailstorm that went through Cooronbong and there still was hailstones lying there 4 hours later.

What a season it hasn’t been Michael - will it happen in Sydney? There is the potential for something decent to occur so we will see what happens. Then it seems all North Coast from there.

Michael, that storm you intercepted near Casino and the storm near Grafton was simply amazing to watch as they exploded even on radar - classic supercells in isolation. That is what one calls an incredible afteroon’s chasing - well done! That certainly looks like a beaver tail in the first photograph.

Jimmy

Hi Jimmy - a couple of quite days weatherwise following the low that crossed the Southeast over the weekend. Some rather good rainfall totals in parts of Tas, Vic and NSW with some flood warnings issued. I note the Tamworth region copped another flood but nothing like the one two weeks ago.
A number of significant storm events have occurred locally with the 10th Dec a stand out with isolated supercells in the Northern Rivers region. It was unusual to have development so late in the day with my chase that afternoon not even starting until 5pm! A cell exploded SW of Casino and tracked NNE dropping large hail in parts.

Northern Star

Michael

Michael,

It seems we are in active phase with pulses of activity coming through as the upper troughs progress across the continent. However, Sydney has faired marginally during some of these events and I am hoping the short waves do come across during the December period as the moisture becomes more available. A nice hailstorm came through central Sydney near Parramatta with some nice low bases and interesting structure including inflow and a definite mesocyclone. I was unavailable during that specific phase which is unfortunate - I had a visitor throughout that time frame. I did not even know just what was going on at the time. Anyway, will have to wait until next time.

Jimmy

Hi Jimmy - been a very hectic past 10 days or so with the major thunderstorm events in SE QLD and parts of NSW, but with Brisbane copping the worst a few times.  I think I must have done about 100 hours work with EWN last week LOL  - been enjoyable but quite tiring. It was good to have a break on Sunday and Monday. Went to see Quantum of Solace - the new Bond movie on Monday night. I enjoyed it but it lacked some the usual things you’d expect from a Bond film.

The 16th Nov chase was great - so much lightning on the day too. I don’t normally try to get much lightning on video , but this day was a gift - even apart from all the severe weather !

Then the 20th November we had some severe storms locally - with the beautiful shelf cloud structures that developed over a wide area.

Hi Michael,

I must say, south east Queensland has gone against the odds for incredible storms and hail production including some incredible shelf cloud structures. I think the amount of moisture that exists throughout inland Queensland has aided in this moisture depth. Have you any other events to post of incredible footage or images from the past few days?

Jimmy