25th to 27th Jan 2005 Storms

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This system showed much promise, but being so soon after the last storms it had some people wondering whether we may be dreaming! Such frequency of stormy weather has been uncommon around SA of late and the summer of 2005 has so far delivered the goods.

A NE infeed of moisture combined with a trough to deliver some explosive and spectacular development over the northern ranges and mallee districts. The synoptic does not look overly complicated but great potential is there with the NE infeed.

It started locally on the evening of the 25th when some convective development east of the ranges brewed some nice little anvils which produced sporadic lightning and localised rainfall, though not heavy. Some fires were started out near Keith and Ngarkat NP from lightning strikes. Temperatures were warm and humid. Pictures from the 25th can be seen below.

The 26th was a public holiday and the day started hot and clear. Humidity increased and by mid morning was quite high. Nothing happened until after lunch when signs of crisp convection appeared east of the ranges. I took off in the direction of Strathalbyn and watched as the development increased along a line east of the ranges and up to the mid north hills. One particular spot was shooting upwards quicker than others and I decided this would be the go as the cell to follow. Little did I know that this would be the humble beginning of a line that deluged over Murray Bridge and Monarto. It began life just north of Langhornes Creek and before long had dropped a rain shaft as a small anvil and fibrous top made itself visible above the surrounding cloud. Skirting to the north of the cell saw me end up at Murray Bridge at the Swanport lookout where I had a good view of proceedings. By this time the cell had developed quite a downburst of rain and was rumbling thunder constantly, constantly backbuilding as it headed NE. Lightning was mostly in cloud with a few visible CG's and crawlers every few minutes. At this same time a severe cell was hammering Ardrossan on Yorkes peninsula with huge hail and torrential downpours causing localised damage. More strong cells were building over the Pt Wakefield and Mid north areas where a landspout was observed by one chaser. (see below) The radar image to the right shows the Ardrossan Cell described above and the Cell I was observing just west of Murray Bridge.

Back to the story and Murray Bridge - After watching the rain hammer down over the range to the west of Muray Bridge I noticed some development behind me and took off towards Tailem Bend to watch happenings. It ws here that an intense microburst backbuilding along a similar line mentioned earlier, drenched an area south west of Wellington. I had a birds eye view of this and watched as it continued to deluge for about 15 minutes. Next it was back to the Bridge where signs of the heavy rain could be seen with the drainage ponds along the freeway full and rivers of water flowing down the drainage ditches. This continued all the way into monarto where the signs of the heavy rain was clear. Large hail was also reported to have fallen at this time. It looked to be losing momentum now and we decided to head home to where a cold S/easterly wind had blown in a fog to the southern ranges. This turned out to be a mistake as just after dark an intense thunderstorm developed out of nowhere near Swan Reach, travelling northe ast it put on one of the best light shows seen for many years in the district with HUGE CG's and pounding down every second for hours as it travelled all the way to the Riverland. A few people managed to catch the edge of the lightshow. Some examples from Helen Simpson of Booborowie can be seen here. My pics from the 26th can also be seen below.   The image to the left from the aqua satellite on the 26th shows the early beginnings of the Murray Bridge storms while still over Langhornes and solid development near Pt Wakefield. Note the line of fog and low cloud shrouding the Sth Coast of KI. This moved up with the seabreeze in the evening to the S/eastern ranges pushing the storms further north and east.

A landspout was observed by Ben Stevens of Gawler. Looking east from near Pt Wakefield he spotted this funnel dropping from a developing cell. At about the same time Murray Bridge cell was dumping strong rain and Ardrossan was getting hammered by a strong thunderstorm. One hell of an afternoon! The funnel was some distance from the camera and as such the images are stretched for resolution, even so it is clearly visible.
Click on the thumbnails of the photos for larger versions in a new window.

Radar Image of the cell (near Pt Wakefield)	View of the cell and funnel dropping to the ground

A close up view of the funnel, contrast enhanced to highlight structure.	Touchdown of the funnel on the ground. Enlarged 300% hence some detail loss

All images © Ben Stevens 2005 and used here with permission.

The 27th also started as a hot and humid day. In fact the humidity was so oppressive I was sweating just standing still! I was stuck at work, but watched with interest for any signs of development. All was quiet until at around 2:00pm the first signs of convective development began to show in the east. Didn't it explode indeed! Huge towrs of boiling cloud rocketing skywards in the heat and humidity with a speed like I have not seen for years. The development was truly spectacular. The eastern and northern horizon looked like a war zone and the first signs of heavy precipitation bgan to show on the radar over the mid north. As the anvils spread out I looked at the clock with frustration waiting for knock off time! Finally I escaped work and roared off east towards a horizon of anvils and expolosive CB's. First off we roared off to Murray Bridge with the intent of heading Mannum way, but by the time I got there it was rocketing east. So off in Copeville/Karoonda direction, but could simply not catch the storm line, it was contracting eastwards too fast. Stopped for some viewing of the monstrous cells building to the east and to snap pics of rainbows, rainshafts and structure, before heading to Copeville where I knew a radar image would be available. An absolute monster of a cell was exploding to the SE. How far away is hard to judge, but it dominated through the rainshafts and heat haze. At Copeville I got a phone call to let me know the border was firing off, I could see the tops of the clouds lightning up, but no visible strikes, just Cb tops. Well it really was way off east (~150kms away), backbuilding by the border at this stage and I had work tomorrow. So I sadly turned back home watching the eastern horizon flicker away in the far distance. By the time I was back in the Bridge, I could no longer see it. By the time I get home its pea soup fog again and 15 degrees. What a day, it really was spectacular in development, Such lines of CB'with a crispness I have not seen in ages. Pity I could not get going a few hours earlier. My pics from the 27th can be seen below.

The 256 radar image on the right shows the strong precipitation cells from the explosive development over the mid north.   The aqua sat image below reflects what the radar is showing.

Friday the 28th and a small line of lightning producing cells moved over Adelaide in the early morning hours giving a somewhat muted show to those awake. Nothing was to be seen in the southern ranges as it collapsed just before hitting the coast. Tim Eckert did capture a few images which can be seen on his website. A little over 3mm fell at this location with the accompanying rain band in the NW airstream. The day itself was mostly uneventful and it all looked to be over when in the evening an approaching line of storms form the Eyre Peninsula showed promise. A few flashes were seen from Adelaide in the west but it all fell apart as it approached the metro area. What did happen was unexpected and in the nocturnal cooling of the evening a cell exploded out of Swan Reach going red on the radar in 10 minutes! This was one intense and VERY lightning active cell and kept up this intensity all the way to the SA-VIC border. My brother in Law at Copeville was in the firing line and may well have had a small tornado just to the north of his house.   The radar image to the right shows the cell that dropped the suspected tornado at Copeville on the evening of the 28th as described below

This is his description of events.. "I was sitting out the back watching the show, it was particularly good, one of the best I have seen for a while. Despite all the electrical activity and thunder it was pretty calm and quiet in between flashes, hardly a breath of wind. Then the hairs on the back of my neck bristled as an eerie howling sound, much like a jet or train or ... hard to describe really .... came down from out of the sky just to the north of the house. It lasted for 10-15 seconds then all was quiet again apart from the thunder"

This sound is often described by people just before a tornado touches down or as it passes close by! Damage to trees further down the road was evident with twisted off tree tops in a straight line from 50 metres or so. What a pity it was dark when it happened as he would have been in box seat to observe the whole thing!.

CLICK HERE FOR IMAGES FROM THE EVENT