21st Dec 2006 Storms and Rain Page 1.

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It was certainly looking pretty good. A broad trough, lots of moisture, lots of heat and the potential for storms and heavy rain was high! Forecast dewpoints were amazing! See how the AVN forecast model saw the scenario from the images below.

4 Animated loops of 5 images each from 06Z to 18Z Thursday the 21st December as seen by AVN plot Monday 18th December 2006. Click on the Plot link for the animation you want to see. Each loop is approx 100kb each. Also included is the 19th Satellite image showing just how much moisture was present over the continent and the Synoptic Chart from the 21st.

|  Rain plot  |  Dewpoint plot  |  Cape plot  |  LI plot  |  19th Satellite  |  Synoptic

Images sourced from BOM Australia and Brisbane Storm Chaers.

And so the waiting began. On the 19th (tuesday) the BOM issued a flood watch.

FLOOD WATCH
For the Greater Adelaide and Mt. Lofty Ranges District and Mid North District for Thursday 21st December.
Issued at 4:15 pm on Tuesday, 19 December 2006
Note: This Flood Watch is a "heads up" for possible future flooding and is NOT a Flood Warning.
Synoptic Situation:
Heavy showers and isolated thunderstorms are forecast for Thursday afternoon and evening with the passage of a front.
Rainfall:
Forecast: 10 to 20mm generally late Thursday to Friday, with local falls of 20 to 40mm with thunderstorms.
Flood Risk:
Although catchments are very dry there is a risk of flash flooding, particularly in built up urban areas, associated with potentially heavy thunderstorms forecast for Thursday.

Of course the press went mad over this and interpereted it as a flood warning that the world was to be washed away. It certainly added hype to the approaching event. Thursday arrived and by mid afternoon the forecast dewpoints were becoming a reality and convective cumulus was billowing under a deck of high cloud. Small cells exploded with torrential rain cores over Metro Adelaide and the hills. I was lucky enough to be in the middle of one at Belair and it was like someone just threw buckets from the heavens. Fantastic. But they were patchy and short lived. At my home at Meadows we copped one such deluge from an amazingly localised and concentrated dump that gave 4mm in just a few minutes. (radar archives are available on request) With a nice ENE moisture infeed and convergence lines running down the eastern ranges this continued till evening and gave me another 4mm to make 8mm to this point in total. On the west coast things were going ballistic with such events as Cleve Airport copping 16mm in 30 mins with 109km/hr winds! Things were heating up on the Eyre Peninsula and further north and Woomera got caned by some mightily impressive looking storms on radar! See image to right. In the meantime the rain had cleared from Adelaide and Surrounds, but all was not over as a gustfront line developed near Eyre Peninsula honed in towards Adelaide and the Suburbs. The BOM had also noticed this and warning crawlers appeared on local TV.

This line hit the mid north and Helen Simspon of Booborowie caught some amazing "gustnado" images in the difficult photography conditions. See her pics from these links( Gustfront, Gustnado, Gustnado). The line also pasted the Yorke Peninsula where Steve Newton captured more amazing images (see this hillsrain gallery). Other Stormchasers were also out and about over the Northern Adelaide Plains. Perhaps the best image captured of the "Guster" was from Greg Sorenson. See his incredible panorama HERE.

It was time for me to head out to the hill. The approaching line was visible as were regular flashes of lightning. As night approached the lightning highlighted structure nicely and the "guster" was visible over the southern areas. (see this pic). As the line approached it split and went north and south as it often does but this left me in prime position for what happened next. Rain started falling lightly so I took cover in the canopy of my ute and popped the side windows allowing me to take pictures in saftey and dry. Lightning was regular with a few "flash Bangs" rumbling very closely. Some very heavy precipitaion and impressive structure could be seen to my north and I snapped this pic over Meadows Township. It was calm as the guster had collapsed as it usually does and raining lightly. New lightning south got my attention so I swapped directions set up the cam and BOOM, the lightning highlighted a dark angry shadow almost touching the ground just a few KM away. The main precipitaion and gust front had already passed so what was this monster? Moving from my right to left across my field of view I watched this development in the lightning with intensity all the while the camera clicking away. Heavy rain was visible behind the structure but all was pretty clear in the foreground leaving me in prime position for viewing. It was awesome and I have not seen anything quite like it. So what would the pics show? The usual lightning shots were present. Then there was this one -

The original pic was very dark and as I pushed the exposure in photoshop to the max my eyes widened. What was that lowering? It looked like a funnel!

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