6th december 2004 Week of Storms

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Its hard to know just where to start with this one. What a week! It started with a trough on the monday (6th)

From the approaching rain band came some decent falls central ranges and some northern plains locations. (Click for rainfall distribution map) Lightning, thunder and more rain followed that afternoon with some pretty decent activity and some very nice views to be had for those lucky enough to be out in it! See the images from the link below.

IMAGES FROM THE 6TH

Next on the list was a powerful retrogade low moving from EAST to WEST! This was the juicy part. These systems bring can be quite unpredictable and have potential to bring huge rains and severe storms with their passing. With the reversal in the flow Adelaide and the western ranges are often in the rain shadow situation.

The system did anything but disappoint. The ranges themselves were for once NOT the object of the severe weather. The mallee copped a pizzling from days of storms and severe rains. So much happened its impossible to cover it all here. The weatherzone forum of the event is certainly worth a read.

Where to start, Some good falls overnight on the 7th, mostly over the northern ranges (click for the rain map) where totals in excess of 40mm were not uncommon. I recorded 18mm. Wednesday the 8th saw the S/eastern areas explode into action in the evening. I spent the evening at Woodchester and Callington with some speccy lightning around. Had a short and heavy spike of rain at home in the ranges from this one but nothing significant there. At Woodchester however the heavens opened with bursts of torrential rain and quite a lot of lightning activity. The link to the pictures is below.

IMAGES FROM THE 8TH

The 9th held much promise with yet again storms moving across the eastern flats towards the ranges. It all died as it hit the southern ranges, but held up enough to produce a spectacular guster over the northern plains and delivered nearly 30mm to the airport. I did snap a series of images from the afternoon down south, however all in all it was quite a disappointing end to the day down here. Some quite spectacular CB's were to be seen for those in the right locations.

But it was the 10th and 11th that really took the cake. The fternoon of the 11th saw the eastern horizon exploding with thunderheads. The south coast near the river mouth saw one of the most intense and sustained deluges I can remember seeing on a radar image. How much rain (and hail likely) fell will never be known as there is no recording station down there, but one can only imagine. Check out the radar image, especially around the river mouth.

This intensity was maintained for nearly an hour!

Later that afternoon I headed east from Meadows to catch up to the intensifying show to the east. Here is my take....

" Geeze where to start - left home around 6pm friday the 10th, off east to strath, paused to snap a few pics of the awesome anvils on the eastern horizon. Sped off towards Callington and the freeway and headed into an increasingly black and turbulent sky. Hit the hill overlooking Murray Bridge on the freeway and had to stop - simply awesome. Black and grey lowering with impenetrable rain shaft behind. Freakin magnificent, add the odd CG and CC and what more could a bloke want? OK enough of ogling, onwards we go - on hitting the swanport bridge the drops started, by the other side I had to slow down. Man it was raining alright, so don't doubt those radar echoes. Turned left just over the bridge to the little lookout, headed uphill along a road that had turned into a river. Torrential rain, drops like dinner plates on the windscreen. Thunder/ lightning as well. On leaving back to the freeway looked to my left to see a veritable river running across a paddock and flooding across a road. Found my way over to the spot and the water must have been 2 feet deep across the road and cutting deep ruts across the paddock. Made it thru in 4WD, but only with significant wheelslip from the mud covering the road under all the bloody water which was flowing fast enough to kayak on. The amount of water from such a small slope had to be seen to be believed. It was hardly a large catchment.
Ok then, off to Tailem way for fuel and food, but the M/bridge deluge did not make it that far, puddles only at Tailem. Noticed a large anvil towards Karoonda so off we go again. Had to stop for one of the best sunsets I have ever seen - bloody awesome in an amazing way!!!!!!
Get a call from my brother in law who tells me that he has just driven thru a guster at ground level with rain like he has never seen. In all the years out there this was the most severe storm he has ever witnessed. I was too far away to catch up so hightailed to Copeville stopping to snap some lightning on the way.
Arrive, and off to the hill to watch that storm that earlier hammered Russell not decay, oh no anything but. CG's and CC' every second and then some, while to my north another cell began growing and lightning up. The southern cell flashed constantly for hours and is still flashing if backbuilding counts. I have never seen such an electrically active storm for so long. All a bit far away for good lightning shots, but really at that point to be surrounded by storms on all sides I hardly cared.
Well we decided to chase off for the northern cell after a look at the radar, grabbed JD supplies and headed off. Russell decided a back road was the way to go. Well this was fun enough to justify the drive and I shall leave it at that.. LOL
Arrived at Big Bend as the storm decayed. Bugger. A few good CG's, but was falling apart. Oh well home again to Copeville, with the southern sky still flashing away. The northern stuff flashing occasionally as well.
Well its 1:30am Sat morning and reckon I shall just go out after writing this post and watch the strong southern cells go from strength to strenght as they continue to light up the southern horizon.
Man, what an afternoon!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sat morn (the 11th) and I wake to a clear Mallee sky. Intense blue with hot and humid conditions in the sun. 30 mins later at around 10:00am and a few cumulus clouds are beginning to appear. 45 mins later and the sky is filled with some of the fastest developing Cu I have seen. Time to go, so we pack up and its back into the car. A cell looks to be coagulating towards Karoonda and that is the direction we head. About 10kays down the road I change my mind - the western sky is looking threatening indeed and all in the space of 20 mins! On hitting the river its getting pretty serious with darkness and anvils beginning to crowd my western horizon. The speed of development is simply awesome! Choosing a direction is not easy, but in the end its Murray Bridge way. Straight into a brewing thunderstorm. Spectacular vision all round. Stop to take pics and watch the storm split and head NW and W.
Moving on to Murray Bridge, we arrive to water everywhere. Lakes, the CFS and emergency services are out with blocked roads and signs of the water damage everywhere. The cell must have hit hard and reports of over 100mm begin to surface. I have never seen so much water! We hang aound the Bridge for a while in the constant rain and heavy grey skies, have some lunch, then west we head towards Callington. Rivers running down the roadsides, simply unbelievable. On the way home just west of callington the heavens opened to a deluge of biblical proportions. The roads were a river making driving somehwat hazardous. Hells bells did it rain!! Just east of Kanmantoo the rain stopped and road was bone dry. Just like that. The cell we had just been thru continued to travel ever so slowly south dumping at phenomenal rates until it disipated somewhere south of wellington (I think) we skirted around it to the west, copping some great views from Mt Barker summit and the Wistow road before finally stopping at Langhornes as it decayed fatally. So much damn rain must have come from that. Phew, that covers it - sort of. But such events need to be experienced as words often fail."

I do have quite few images from these 2 days. There is 2 sets of images in the link below - an album from each day and 2 pages of thumbnails in each album.

IMAGES FROM THE 10TH TO THE 11TH

The BOM december summary is quite tellling and reads like this

Significant December Weather

Thunderstorms and Flash Flooding:
A deep low pressure system was located over western New South Wales on the 7th and 8th, and moved gradually to the southwest on the 9th to be positioned south of Kangaroo Island on the 10th, before slowly moving eastwards into northern Victoria late on the 11th. This low produced widespread rainfall and occasional thunderstorms over Agricultural Areas and southern Pastoral districts for the period from the 7th until the 11th. Localised flash flooding was reported at many locations including Port Augusta, Yabmana (Eastern Eyre Peninsula), Lucindale (Lower South East) and at several locations on and east of the Mount Lofty Ranges including Mannum, Eudunda, Mypolonga, Belvedere and Murray Bridge.
On the 9th, 75 mm of rainfall in 30 minutes was reported at Yabmana, with 45 mm in 90 mm recorded at Glenelg.

On the 10th, Mypolonga received 150 mm of rainfall in less than 2 hours and Lucindale reported 57mm in 15 minutes. Golf ball size hail was also reported in Murray Bridge.

The Mount Lofty Ranges district received further flash flooding on the 11th, with reports of 75mm in 1 hour at Mypolonga and 120 mm in 2 hours at Belvedere, southeast of Strathalbyn.

Severe Winds:
On the 3rd a cold front moved across the west of the State producing a wind squall as it passed through Ceduna. A severe wind gust of 111 km/h was reported at Ceduna and 95 km/h at Thevenard.

A deepening low pressure system located over western New South Wales on the 7th and 8th produced strong to gale force southerly winds across the Mount Lofty Ranges district. Gale force winds were reported recurrently at Sellicks Hill from the afternoon of the 7th through until midnight of the 8th, with a squall of 87 km/h and gusts to 109 km/h.

Tim Eckerts report of the event is also well worth the read.