Notable Weather Events Page 21

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Morning Instablity 25-11-05

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Some fantastic lightning friday morning on the west coast, a little rumble or 2 in the central districts, afternoon thunderstorms in the mid north and east of the ranges. This little system was not totally benign. Visually it was a treat too with some fantastic structure about in the morning in the southern ranges. As often happens I snapped a few images. I forgot to reset the iso sensitivity on the cam back to 200 after a night shoot on 1600! DOH!! The images can be viewed HERE

Spring Wrapup 2005

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Spring 2005 was wet with most of South Australia recording average to above average falls. In fact Leigh Creek in the Flinders Ranges recorded its wettest spring period on record with 105mm! Uraidla,as it often does, topped the spring rainfall list with 487mm for September to November. At my spot in the Bull Creek Ranges I recorded 362mm which is a massive 134mm above our average fall for spring. This is in stark contrast to 2004 where we had only 147mm, 107mm BELOW the spring average. Even 2003 managed just 220mm. For those totally addicted to statistics, only the legendary 1992 was wetter in my spot. That year a staggering 412mm fell in the 3 months of spring!!! Certainly no two years or seasons are the same that’s for sure.

LIGHTNING FEAST! 05-12-05 to 06-12-05

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A approaching trough late in the evening of the 5th promised a possible light show. The synop and sat shown below are fairly standard.

Left Synoptic Chart and above the associated sat image.

At about 10:30pm a few flashes became visible on my western horizon. A quick look at the radar showed a fast moving line of cells over Yorke Peninsula and the gulfs as can be seen in the radar snippet below left.

Right - GPATS lightning image from the event.

It certainly was active. Visible flashes every 2-3 seconds with increases in intensity to more than 1 a second at times. I hoped and prayed it would not cark it on hitting the gulf! By midnight it was nearly on my doorstep and becomming photogenic and best of all holding intensity. Just where to point the camera was the hard part as the whole 180 degree western horizon was very active. 2 spots were better than others though and this is where I pointed the cam. This line passed with a wind guster and gusts to above 60km/h here could be heard roaring across the hillside before it hit with force. Not a lot of rain was with the line which passed over quickly. The skies cleared and within 45 minutes more flashes were visible on the western horizon as more cells approached. (radar image below)

I stayed out on the hilltop until it was getting too close with a number of massive pulsing CG strikes just south of me from a particularly active cell in the first line of storms. The rain and close strikes forced me back to the house. 0.25mm of rain fell from the light rain.

I managed to capture a LOT of images which can be viewed in THIS GALLERY. But its only fair that I include a sample here...

Fires and Lightning 27-12-05

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An approaching trough and low saw high temps and strong winds before its arrival. High based mostly dry but electrically active storms moved through with the trough and caused problems statewide with lightning spawned fires. The CFS issued a media release..

Above - 27th synoptic

CFS announcement The SA Country Fire Service has responded to more than 100 emergency incidents today including 60 grass and scrub fires, the likely cause of which are lightning strikes. According to the Bureau of Meteorology’s website, the State has been impacted by more than 14,500 lightning strikes to 6pm today. In the past hour to 1.30pm today, several fires have also been reported in the Mount Lofty Ranges, including Clarendon, McLaren Vale, Willunga, Myponga, Kanmantoo (near Callington), Meadows, Inglewood and Langhorne Creek. The worst hit areas to 6pm include the State’s southern and eastern Mount Lofty Ranges, Eyre Peninsula, Yorke Peninsula, and Lower North. The State’s aerial firefighting support, including helicopters and fixed wing water bombers, has also been active throughout the day. Earlier today a Bushfire Warning Message was issued for a fire burning at Darke Peak on the Eastern Eyre Peninsula. That fire has burnt more than 1500 hectares of grass and scrub and is now contained.

I was at Copeville in the Mallee and this is how I saw it.

The evening of the 26th saw some interesting cirrus formations. (pics in gallery)
I awoke the morning of the 27th to a classic mallee sunrise. Spectacular and vivid fading to a pastel pink and blue sky. (pics in gallery)
By mid morning the temp had climbed to be ~36 degrees and surprisingly did not get much hotter as strong and gusty winds hammered across the flat mallee landscape. Some fascinating cirrocumulus skies around 10:00am had me out with the cam. (pics in gallery)
By midday(ish) some local convective cu had me hop in the car for a drive to the higher points around. Strong winds and dusty skies could not hide the dark southern and western horizon. Listening to the cricket as I drove, VERY strong static bursts every second broke the commentary. No lightning was however visible. The bases stayed high and the rain stayed in the distance sliding to the southeast. The radio stayed active but still no visible strikes or audible thunder. Snapped a few pics and back to the house for a cold drink. Sometime later I thought I heard thunder but still no visible strikes.
Well it must have struck ground because around 3-4ish I looked out the window and saw a plume of smoke! A scan on the UHF confirmed our fears so its on with the water tank and firefighter and off we go confirming location as we drove. There were at least 3 fires east of us. 1 in stubble and 2 further out clearly in scrub as huge columns of thick black smoke stained the horizon. One closer to Copeville was 99% under control as we arrived and we spent the next hour knocking flare ups in the roadside scrub.
Strong wind made life difficult. This under control we left to go to the scrub fire about 15km away. The winds were clearly fanning this and the smoke plume was impresive. The winds had swung to the sw on the surface but were still in the NW higher up and this gave the smoke an amazing corkscrew like appearance.
We arrived on the scene to a line of utes and CFS trucks catching flare ups on the edge of the scrub as it tried to break out into the paddock. VERY luckily the paddock was grazed heavily and not in crop and this averted a true disaster as there would have been no stopping it in crop or stubble. The fireballs and exploding scrub were impressive (have not seen in a long time) with the heat causing spontaneous combustion along the firefront. Small spot fires in the paddock were put out by all and sundry. Thick black smoke turned the sky dark. The wind died suddenly and the fire without its fan lost its fury and burned down to an acrid smoulder by the time we left.

Images captured from the fires and some amazing cirrocumulus formations at Copeville can be seen in the gallery HERE.

Hottest December Day since 1939 30-12-05

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A hot oppressive day where the temp hovered above 40 degrees for 7 hours in Adelaide. A maximum of 42.5 made the 30th the hottest december day since 1939. Even in the hills we sweltered where I reached 36.4 at this website's location. The 31st was also hot and oppressive with 34.9 maximum in the hills and 39 degrees in the city. Overnight temperatures were simply astounding across the state, most notably Pt Augusta where it was still above 40 degrees (and rising!!!!) after midnight!

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