13th -14th May 2007 - Storms and localised downpours

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This is another story of failed weather for my location. Another story of being stuck yet again in the middle. But its my website so I am allowed to whinge! he he Now that's out of the way what happened? Readers of the site will remember the forecast I posted on the 11th May showing a low stalling in the Bight with good chances of rains. You can see the animation of the forecasts from that time HERE. It certainly showed potential. Would follow up rains and maybe some stormy action as a bonus happen? Well for some it did, for some it didn't.

Mothers Day -the 13th and Storms

The low was looking great, almost (in appearance only) a southern cyclone on the satellite image. (image below right)

An arm of the rotating low together with trough and instability originating over Eyre Peninsula (as it often does) brewed up some nice looking action during the day. East of the ranges convective development also occurred, an example of which can be seen in this contrast enhanced image. It was however, the western development which grabbed the most attention as a line of intense storms built in a long line from Kangaroo Island - lower Yorkes Peninsula and back across most of central Eyre Peninsula. The lightning detector grab shows the extent (see image below)

It never really made it to the central districts that evening, getting no further than the southern tip of the Fleurieu. Still I sat on the hill and watched the impressive electrical activity with the camera and 300mm lens. A few pics were to be had, including one very impressive looking guster that formed as the line hit the southern Fleurieu. You can se the guster pic HERE and the album of images HERE. Nothing of rain significance at my location (0.25mm) , but falls around the 10mm mark were to be seen on Yorkes Peninsula, the far north and Areas of Eyre Peninsula. Best official fall was 17mm at Tumby Bay.

The 14th and Adelaide cops it.

The 14th dawned fine, clear and warm. Perfect for Storm development. The low was still sitting stationary out in the bight and again as in the day before the action begins over Eyre Peninsula.

The satellite image to the right from the afternoon of the 14th shows the fantastic convective development extending from Upper Eyre Peninsula Down to Northern Kangaroo Island. Fantastic anvil structure accompanied this development and by late afternoon it was raining and dropping lightning from these cells. The BOM issued an STA. TOP PRIORITY FOR IMMEDIATE BROADCAST SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING for DAMAGING WIND and LARGE HAILSTONES For people in the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges, Yorke Peninsula and parts of the Mid North districts. Issued at 10:10 PM Monday, 14 May 2007. Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce damaging winds and large hailstones in the warning area over the next several hours. Locations which may be affected include Maitland, Kadina, Adelaide, Gawler, Victor Harbor and Port Wakefield. Finally some action closer to home? A quick look at the evening radar showed a VERY impressive line of intense rain. Time to get to the hill!

Arriving to my viewpoint and the views were fantastic. A cell had made it into the gulf and was firing flash after flash, The structure was beautiful with the whole cloud lit up within by the bolts. Low bases made actual capture of the lightning itself difficult, but the scene as a whole was amazing and rare for this part of the world. I had to use high iso on the cam to freeze the action. You can see one of the pics HERE.

The radar snippet to the right shows how intense the storm line was. Behind that was much much more and it looked like the southern suburbs may get some good viewing while Adelaide just clip the edge. The stormchasrs on the road were anticipating this and were mostly located on the southern beaches. Then as often happens Adelaides coastline exploded in action from nowhere! Left - Radar Snippet of the City Coastal Explosion Oh this was unfair and it left the chasers stranded down south while the Adelaide coastline was smashed with magnificent bolts!

As I watched this from my hill. the phone rang and a mate in the middle of the deluge shouted over the sound of hail! Bloody hell! Above me was only stars and even the viewpoint for lightning was ruined by the explosion of rain. The next few radar frames saw the northern suburbs and ranges explode into a plethora of red cored cells and lightning activity. All that reached me from this activity was light drizzle! Even the fantastic lightning to be seen in Adelaide was obscured from my vision by the torrential rain in between!

Right - Radar snippet showing just how close the night time rain came to Meadows. By the morning the rain had all moved East leaving me with just 1.4mm and the ground was dry again. Even Kuitpo just 5km away as the crow flies straight line had received 7mm. This system and indeed this whole year has been more frustrating in close by missed rainfall streams than I can remember. Some more impressive sippets of radar and a lightning detector grab from the night of the 14th can be seen below. All around me but no direct hit yet again.

UPDATE!!!!! The 15th and onwards

The system did not just stop at the 14th. The low was indeed very slow moving and on the evening of the 15th the trough line had moved east and simply exploded into action over the mallee regions. See satellite image and lightning tracker image below.

At dusk I moved to the viewpoint east which is at 420 metres ASL and gives me an excellent viewpoint for a very long way east. It is possible from here for to see storms all the way to NSW. I have viewed many shows from here, but nothing like the one that greeted me on arrival. The eastern horizon looked like it was being obliterated by nuclear fury. Huge cauliflower storm cells were alight from within with flashes of ligtning that were as frequent as 3 a second. There would be a break of 1-2 seconds then a storm cell would flash again and act like a trigger to the others which would then trigger the ones next and so on till the whole multi hundreds of kilometre long line of storms was alive again. Did I mention this was truly spectacular!!!

Its hard to believe, but 99% of all this electrical activity was up in the clouds. Very few strikes actually went to ground and because of this it made photgraphy very very difficult. I did get a few images which can be seen in the gallery listed below on pages 3 and 4. The 16th was relatively benign locally although severe thunderstorms were seen in the far north. But the 17th was another day when convective instability dominated and yet again towers went up east of the ranges.

A few showers moved over metropolitan Adelaide, but no more than 1-2mm was to be had. Then as the sun set a freak occurrence. The remnants of one of the northern rain cells exploded just south of Meadows towering up like a bubbling cauldron! (see radar snippet to the right) Why this happened here is anyones guess as it just does not occur at this location as a general rule. The small core went yellow, dropped 1mm and promptly died. Strange and amazing. This teeny little rain bought my system total to a useless 3mm. Rainwise she was a shocker!!! But the little cell decided to have one last hurrah and on hitting the coast fired up electrically for a short time. It was quite photogenic too and it was so sudden and short lived I nearly missed the occurrence. Luckily I snapped 2 pics before all switched off and these can be seen in the gallery below as the last 2 images on page 4. Probably the best shots of the whole event actually, for lightning and composition anyway.

All the while I was trying to photograph this small local cell the eastern horizon was again alive with amazing lightning from the days convection I mentioned earlier. It was an incredible few days for the Mallee with torrential downpours and localised flooding on a farm near Peake and 40+mm from a property near Parrakie. Not to mention the unbelieveable lightning show they got. Like all thundery activity the rain was not widespread and many spots missed out. Much like myself in this system.

Strange and amazing week indeed.

Images from the event.

For me, it was a very challenging photgraphic event. It was also a rainfall flop. Difficult to photograph, too distant and too much rain in between. My favourite is the one below. The whole gallery with contributions from Dave Salisbury can be seen HERE.

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