Feb 19 to 20 2007 Storms

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Mother nature did not even pause to take a breath from the last event and moved straight into more stormy conditions. A ridging high pressure cell looked like blocking the central and Adelaide districts from any action while a trough further north with lots of heat and moisture promised even more storms. What a season of storms the mid north and flinders has had this summer of 2007!

Below - Synoptic from the 19th

Mid north storms Mon 19th

It certainly was an unstable day and sure enough the towers began pluming northwards in the mid north. They were very dynamic, spreading out into nice anvils and even overshooting these! The Satelllite image displays beautifully the line of anvil fans extending up the spine of the mid north.

Left - Anvil fans of mid north storms as seen by satellite The storm cells were clearly visible from even my part of the ranges and I captured this panoramic view of my northern horizon. (click on the pic for a larger version) The closest anvil on the right hand side of the image was located near Eudunda. The fans of the massive anvils extending all the way to the flinders ranges can be seen on the horizon behind the Eudunda cell. This gives an idea of the height and power of the development occurring. They very quickly formed intense rain shafts delivering tropical style deluges to those caught under them.

10pm that night the storms were very lightning active and my northern horizon was a barrage of flashes. Despite the distance from home individual bolts were still visible! I watched the show for an hour or so before coming back tot he house to check on radar and satellite updates. All the action looked like staying too far north to keep me awake so I retired for the evening - or so I thought!

The southern show

At about 3:15am the phone beeped with an SMS. I groggily read the message "storm heading straight at you - get up!" "What the" I though, nothing was expected this far south. A look at the radar and yep, ideed there was! The camera wa already on the tripod so I grabbed and ran as the flashes lit my path to the hilltop. Well it was spectacular! A beautiiful perfect little anvil approached with perfectly structured lightning bolts shooting earthwards. Getting good shots was so easy. Then I thought to myself - "Oh I have not changed the battery for some time" I looked at the battery meter and yep it was down to 1 bar. BLOODY HELL! In a rush I aimed the camera stowmwards, tripped the shutter and sprinted back to the house, grabbed the new battery and sprinted back to the hill! Well it took all of 5 minutes and in that time the camera caught numerous strikes. The image was an interesting one and can be seen HERE. The clouds are double and triple exposed from flashes and as for lightning - well there are quite a few bolts! A scenic mistake!

But my storm died. Just like that as if a giant breeze blew it all away it simply disappeared in front of my eyes. It went from a perfect little anvil with scuddy front, rain and lightning to nothing in less than 20 minutes. Rarely have I seen such a total collapse. I suppose it was headed for the storm repellant capital of SA - my place! he he... See the radar image to the right which demostrates how completely and rapidly it fell apart. Right - radar animation of "My Storm" Note how the cell splits right on the course with Meadows Town and the southern half completely evaporates in just two frames. while the northern half "pulls" northwards away from my location. It was incredible to see. Depressingly such happenings are all too common.

With this collapse my fantastic lightning show also disappeared. Bugger. More flashes were starting up a bit further north from new cells, but the really good images were over for me. I could clearly see the structure of these cells as highlit by very regular flashes, however the bolts stayed within the cloud mostly and moving too fast to enable any clear shots. But in Adelaide it was spectacular as an intense rain core crossed the coast near Pt Adelaide before it too collapsed completely just a few kilometres inland. All in all a very lucky event for us "southerners", especially when it was never expected to get as low as this area.

Something else rather amazing also happened this night. Read more about this HERE.

PICS..

I did manage some pics before the collapse. These can be seen in THIS GALLERY. A sample...