Notable Weather Events Page 28

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21-11-06 Lightning Fires and Gales.

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Temperatures were extreme ahead of an approaching broad trough. Up here in the ranges on the 20th we made 31.6 while elsewhere around the state sweltered under plus 40 degree heat. Nullabor broke its all time november record making a hot 45 degrees. Overnight the story was the same and actually rose above 30 degrees around midnight with the arrival of a hot northerly. By 2am coastal Noarlunga was an amazing 32 degrees! By morning of the 21st the winds had picked up gusting to 60km/h. This and the tinder dry heat made for a very bad potential fire day. Then the trough arrived.

With the arrival of the trough came lightning. Lots of it and the worse fears of the day were realised. FIRE! To compound the problem the winds persisted and very little rain was present to dampen the burning potential. Check out the lightning strikes present that afternoon on the map below.

Above - satellite image of the trough Left Lightning strikes for the 21st

Many fires were recorded. Notable blazes included - A fire in Humbug Scrub near One tree Hill in the Mt Loft Ranges and Scrub fires in the Carcuma Conservation Park in the Mallee. Rain and cooler winds eventually aided the control of the Mt Lofty Ranges blazes. But the dry conditions in the mallee and upper southeast kept firefighters very busy. The intensity of the strikes in this region (see map above) really highlight the problems experienced by the region. Matt Harvey, in the middle of all this chaos at Geranium captured a few superb images of the fires near Carcuma. Helen Simpson (visit her website) at Booborowie in the states Mid North avoided the fires but copped nasty winds and dust storms. Both Helen's and Matt's pictures can be seen HERE.

**update** - fantastic daytime lightning strike captured by Peter Bannister of Mundulla. View the image HERE. Such powerful cloud to ground strikes such as this were responsible for the many fires reported this day.( Visit Peters Website)

08-12-06 First 40 degree day of summer and crazy december cold.

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What a scorcher! Adelaide reaches its first 40 degree day for the summer of 06'07. The city sweltered under a max temp of 40.7 C at 16:31. Up here in the ranges it was bit cooler and we made 35.3 at 14:27. This was the hottest day thus far for us in the hills this summer season.

The outlook for saturday (9th dec) was even worse with 41 degrees and strong winds forecast. A day of EXTREME fire danger. It certainly was hot. The forecast was pretty much spot on and Kent Town AWS made 41.4 C at 13:20! Plenty hot enough. Winds were gusty and while the potential for fire was extreme the firebugs thankfully stayed away. The overnight minimum of 29.4 C at 06:01 may JUST have been something of a record. The previous of 29.3 was on the 12th dec 98.

Up in the ranges it was also a scorcher. Was a hot 30.3 here at 9am on the saturday. This is our second hottest 9am temp. The only hotter morning was on feb 14th 2004 when it made 31.1. It went on to make 39.1 that Febuary day which is extreme for here. Feb 2004 was a shocker of a month. See here for a run down of that month as I saw it. It went on to make 36.9 giving us 2 days over 35 in a row. Unusual and uncomfortable.

To continue with the topsy turvey madness - the morning of the 12th, just 3 days out from the soaring summer heat saw the temperature plummet to just 4.1 degrees in a truly cold blustery south easterly wind. This was the coldest December temperature I have yet recorded and has given us a massive 32 degree temp variation in just a few days. My garden (whats left of it) does not know if it's coming or going!

21-12-06 Thunderstoms, rain and funnels.

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Well what a system this was! Gustfronts, torrential deluges and possible funnel. Read the report HERE!

28/29-12-06 and New Years Eve. The festival of Lightning.

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The weather has certainly taken a turn for the "stormy" Story time.......

It starts thursday night the 28th. "beep beep, beep beep" An SMS from a fellow stormchaser with a "heads up"! Ah c'mon, I am buggered from work! Still not gonna miss anything so to the hill for a view. Is freezing on the hill in 7 degrees and low fog but the north is lighting up. Nice little baby anvils were visible between fog and moonlight. No real pics from this night. Too far away and too foggy, but is visually pleasing so I stay up and watch it. Eventually it rains and 3mm is in the gauge by the morning. Woken early by thunder and an angry sky and speccy sunrise. Friday at work ggrrrr. Rumbles during the day with the odd torrential drop. Just watch it all in a sleep deprived haze waiting for home time. Friday evening comes and its going again! Nice little updraughts and cells around the place. Ahhhh too tired but this is looking good. Copped a few daytime CG's. and the sunset is spectacular. Firing into the night and its getting late and I still have not had tea, but man its flashing its head off in the NW so who has time to eat? No rain yet at my spot but Adelaide gets drenched. hhmmm is it dying? Perhaps so back to the house to feed my face. Its smelling good and am just about to bite when BOOM!! A flang overhead. What the? Quick where is the cam, Oh hell its in the car, Oh hell here comes the rain, Ah Bugger I am surrounded by trees and bad views! Still I set up out front and its a flangfest! Strikes on the next ridge, Strikes behind the house (looking the other way of course! lol) Crawlers all over, constant thunder, booming thunder, can hear an electric rattle in the air just before the big ones hit! Dog is going troppo. I am in a euphoric state of ecstasy. But I am at the house and the pics are impossible from here so I just enjoy it for the most part as I get permanent images seared on my happy retinas. If I had waited another 20 minutes on the hill I would've almost certainly captured ground strikes just a few hundred metres away. Managed some pics in the end - a sample is the gallery linked below.. Finally it rattles off east still lighting up the sky with regular flashes. Total rain just 2mm. Seemed to be a rain repeller friday night, the radar archives are amazing both for the collapse of rain over my place and the intensity of rain over the burbs and the constant backbuilding to their birthplace in the gulf. Incredible little system.

The whole album with larger pics can be seen here - Not my best photographic attempt but a great night nonetheless. Crawled into bed at 2am and woke up at 10am.Ah sleep.....Finally. A "flang" sample from the gallery...

Instability over the next few days promises much but struggles to deliver. Nevertheless it does fire up and Matt Harvey of Geranium captured a few excellent shots of some SE and Coorong Storms on Saturday the 30th. His photos can be seen in THIS GALLERY. New years eve comes and sees me at Copeville in the Mallee. A hot and humid day. Convective cells build up in the east and by evening are flashing away irregularly over the SA/Vic border. Midnight and 2007. A new year when "flash"! What the!! That was close and unexpected. Right - Radar loop of the birth of the storm right on the centre of the low. Time for another Story...

OMG - no exaggeration it was the best electrical display I have ever seen It was a religious experience.
I captured if from its spidery CG birth in the moonlight to its slow down. I say slowdown 'cause it never really stopped, just got slower. At 4am I was stuffed, falling asleep in the back of the ute even as crawlers shot backwards overhead from the retreating cell. As I retired new storms had fired up north that (no joke) were firing bolts 2, 3 times a second in a display that would have been amazing if there. Hells bells! But it was a long long way away and I needed sleep.
But to "my" cell. Words will never describe. Pulsing CG's. bam bam bam bam bam, 5 repeating shotgun stikes, over a second and a half of barrage attack on the ground not uncommon. So bright they blew the image completely on the camera at f18. But when I close my eyes there they are again. Massive crawlers filling the sky with their never before seen brilliance.
I got about 130 pics, a few which are my best ever. But so many just blown to smithereens in rain wrapped brilliance. The bar has been set - how will anything else ever meet the standard?
In the meantime close ya eyes and shoot your retinas full of spidery pulsing CG's and a black/purple sky. Thunder rumbles all around and crawlers light your way overhead. That was my night, my 4 hours of ecstasy, my 4 hours of bliss.

The whole gallery of the event can be seen here. In the meantime a sample.

What a way to end 2006 and welcome 2007!

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