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Severe Storm Outbreak 4-2-11

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flatcam
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Severe Storm Outbreak 4-2-11

Post by flatcam »

Hi guys,

With all of the thunderstorm activity we saw yesterday, it's probably a good idea to start a thread with photo's and discussions about the event? I wasn't exactly sure whether to put this here or in the other picture thread in the "Victoria's Breaking Weather" forum, but decided to put it here as all of the pictures so far in that thread have been of the deluge.

I initially thought I would miss most of the storm activity whilst I was at school, as the stormcast chart indicated thunderstorms developing from midday and earlier. I was extremely happy to find out I was wrong! The cells were developing at incredible rates as I left school and I was rushing to find my camera. The first cell I noticed was the massive anvil over the city and quickly took a pano of it.

Image

There was also an incredible cell firing to my NW over Castlemaine. The thunderstorm's shape was very similar to an atomic bomb explosion and looked incredible. Unfortunately, this was on the way home from school and I didn't have a camera on me! :(
I looked on the radar when I got home and noticed some very interesting doppler signatures. I think this cell may have been developing rotating winds inside itself, making it a supercell?

A little while later, the large anvil over the city had broken down into a line of severe thunderstorms. My father and I went up to Mt. Ridley to try and get some shots and ended up with this rather nice pano:

Image

There was also a lot of wall and scud clouds under this line of storms' base. One wall cloud extended almost all the way to the ground and almost looked like a funnel cloud.

This line became harder and harder to see as time went by because of an increasing number of low level clouds blocking my view. The BOM radar indicated that it was still growing in intensity though! To give an indication to the severity of this line of thunderstorms, one severe thunderstorm warning said "This line of storms is capable of demonstrating all sorts of severe phenomena". I have never seen a warning say this before!
(I am Going by memory with the quote, so please forgive me if I'm wrong)

Some time later, I decided to leave the house to go the milkbar and noticed the storm had an awe-inspiring green tinge. This was an incredible moment, as I have never seen a green tinge that bright before. This was a massive thunderstorm!

On my way back home from the milkbar, I was absolutely gobbsmacked when I saw that the thunderstorm had developed an incredible shelf cloud! I had been waiting to see another shelf cloud since the first, and last one I saw in February 2010! It had a slight green tinge to it but, by the time we got a few pictures, this tinge had pretty much disappeared. Some of the shots we got are attached below.

(By far the best storm pic I have ever taken) :D
Image

This was a truely incredible storm!
Image

We were quite lucky to get these shots as the shelf cloud was short-lived, and basically disintegrated after the taking of the photographs.

After watching the storm for several hours, the low level cloud clamped together, completely blocking our view here. My father and I enjoyed watching lightning and hearing thunder for the next few hours, as several smaller cells passed our house. Unfortunately, it was too wet to attempt a photograph of lightning (we haven't done this as of yet. We are extremely eager to get one though).

Hope you all enjoyed my report and photographs. This was an incredible evening, one which will not be forgotten for a long while.
Please feel free to post your own pictures and experiences of the thunderstorms below. :D

Cheers, Cam :D
EDIT: One of the images wasn't working properly.
Last edited by flatcam on Sat Feb 05, 2011 2:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Ausmammal
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Re: Severe Storm Outbreak 4-2-11

Post by Ausmammal »

Last pic is awesome flatcam. well done :)
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Re: Severe Storm Outbreak 4-2-11

Post by Meso »

Hey cam, I started a thread yesterday for this weeks storms - http://www.theaustralianweatherforum.co ... f=23&t=998" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Maybe a mod can merge?
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flatcam
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Re: Severe Storm Outbreak 4-2-11

Post by flatcam »

Meso wrote:Hey cam, I started a thread yesterday for this weeks storms - http://www.theaustralianweatherforum.co ... f=23&t=998" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Maybe a mod can merge?
Sorry Meso, could a mod please merge the two topics?

Thankyou Ausmammal for your comments. I also like that one very much. :D

Cheers, Cam :D
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Re: Severe Storm Outbreak 4-2-11

Post by schitzengiggles »

Any pictures of this shelf?
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flatcam
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Re: Severe Storm Outbreak 4-2-11

Post by flatcam »

schitzengiggles wrote:Any pictures of this shelf?
Isn't the last pic a small shelf cloud forming? I'm still learning so please forgive me if I'm wrong :(

Cheers, Cam
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