A story- Breaking the 10 month Drought!!!!

I just might start this little report with a story. It has been SOOOOO long.. :-)

"A break of sorts finally smashed the monotony of blue skies and calm conditions. As I write these few lines it is blowing a gale, the sky is angry and occasional rumbles of deep low thunder rumble ominously through the wind. It certainly is windy and howling gusts whistle through the house eaves, smash into frantic trees and howl through the pines. Transient rain drops that come and go as if controlled by a huge tap smash onto the roof like hailstones yet there are not enough to wet the ground. They are gone as fast as they come. It is Saturday the 11th November 2006, the 88th anniversary of Remembrance Day and mother nature has broken her near 11 month spell of stormless weather for the southern ranges.........

But I should start this little tale at the beginning I suppose so lets go back a few days. The potential for an approaching trough to be unsettled and possible stormy was quite good. However the last 10 systems had also showed promise yet they collapsed and fizzled before reaching us. Such has been the story of 2006. So it was a little caution and perhaps cynicism that found its way into our forecasts. With less than 24 hours to go we allowed a little excitement to creep in. By Friday (10th) night storms were firing up nicely on Eyre Peninsula and heading my way. ETA 3am. On the charger went the camera, the phone and the torches. The tripod came out of hibernation and was set up in readiness. All that work meant that the system was bound to collapse! A little sleep was a good idea and I drifted restlessly off by 10pm Friday. Suddenly I was jolted awake by an SMS from fellow stormchaser, Tim Eckert, at 2:30am with just one word incoming! It was all the information I needed and it was time to go. Grab the camera bag, the tripod and dog, into the ute and off up the hill. Flashes were on my western horizon for the first time in nearly a year and I jumped and hooted like a little kid. Camera set up, snap snap and 2 pics straight away. Despite the flashes and storms being a VERY long way away and needing the use of the 300mm lens @ the full 300mm I was one happy camper! This went on till dawn which greeted me with a rich red sky to announce its arrival. FANTASTIC. But all was not over.

Daytime saw an increasingly unstable sky that by late afternoon was becoming pretty threatening indeed. (At this point we join up with the beginning of my story.) Thundery cells popped up all over the radar with intense rain cores delivering tropical style deluges. I chased one of these locally and watched as an impenetrable rain foot drenched a small area of the ranges south of Meadows. Fantastic to see after all this time. That would have been enough as my sleep deprived brain needed a rest. But it was still not over! Storms were again firing up and extended from Ceduna to Yorke Peninsula and, you guessed it, heading our way! It was huge, a line of actively firing cells over 1000km long. Just amazing. So off I went again with camera and dog in tow. The first line hit in the early evening and it just kept on going rain, thunder lightning, winds and even a tiny bit of hail. It was just heaven and incredibly photogenic as I captured some of my best ever lightning photos. By 2am the rain had become persistent making decent photography impossible. Time to call it quits nearly 24 hours, numerous kilometres and 120 images after it all started. I was exhausted but as stoked as a stormchaser can get."

Charts 'N Stuff

Friday Night/ Saturday Morning - While not entirely unexpected friday night was a better show than originally thought. The troughline was still over Eyre peninsula but moving our way and the trackers were alive with an incredibly lighting active area of instability as can be seen from the image below.

Below Right - Synoptic Chart Below Left - Lightning Tracker

I sat on the hill from 3am till dawn and despite the distance from the viewpoint still managed quite a few shots, the best of which is probably this one.. No rain made it to me on friday night.

Saturday Day - Instability during the day continued with numerous cells over the central area. Most notable down my way passed through just after lunch delivering an intense trpoical style deluge to the hills less than a kilometer south of my location and continued in this strength as it passed over the ranges. This was the start of any decent rain around "just" missing me and it continued to do so for the rest of the event. The radar image below shows the impressive cell just south of Meadows.

	Left - Radar Image from Saturday showing the midday deluge that passed just south of me. "Oh so close"       Below - The cell was quite photogenic as can be seen from this rough panorama showing the intense rain core as it passed just east of the ranges.

Saturday Night/ Sunday Morning - This was the best show of all. A hugely electrically active line of storms extending arcoss the width of the state is what finally smashed the 10 month drought of good storms. The lightning tracker image is unbelievable!

Left - Lightning tracker image showing the extent of the storm line.

The show started for me at dusk. I was joined soon after dark by Tim Eckert and a little later by Greg Sorenson. We were treated to an unreal display of mother natures power as storm cell after storm cell passed overhead. Occasional rain showers ranging from light to moderate made photography difficult but still many shots were captured. A small sample of the images captured is below..

Finally the storm drought of 2006 has been broken!!

Rainfalls... As is always the case with these sorts of systems the rain went north. By the morning Distributions of falls were in the normal spots with Mt Crawford recording the highest official gauging of 28mm. Other non official reports of 30+mm from Freeling and other northern centres rolled in. I even heard of an unsubstantiated report of 40mm at Norton Summit! In the unstable atmosphere with very tight precipitation lines this is quite possible. Down here as always falls were light, never very heavy and on/off. Just 11.25mm was in my gauge by the morning. Despite this pathetic fall compared to my neighbouring regions it was very much welcome and topped up my dwindling rain water supplies.

Radar image to the right shows the heavy rain cells over the northern Adelaide regions in the early hous of Sunday Morning. The arrow represents the direction of flow and terminates at my approximate location. Notice the clear line of very few storms and rain following the line back along its length. Notice also the small developing cells just above the line and how close these are to the line. These moved in and over just missing my spot yet again down to less than 5km! It happens in 99% of these situations causing me to miss out on the decent rainfalls time and time again. Am I having a whinge - YOU BET YA!

PICTURES!

It may have been a rain drought for me, but a picture drought it was not. Follow this link to the FULL GALLERY of the event. A sample in the meantime..