Outback Queensland Thunderstorms - Nov 30, 2010

[Vortex]

Hi there everyone!

This season has been quite terrible for us up here in South-East Queensland which prompted Cam and myself to concentrate on the central interior (or outback) Queensland for thunderstorms due to the trough stalling out to the W. We decided a couple of days prior that we would try our hand at chasing some storms some 500kms away from Brisbane and meet some of the locals there. It really was a fantastic trip however the third day did not really pan out too well for us and it dried out considerably.

Anyhow I thought I would share with you guys some of the images and footage that we captured on Nov 30 which was clearly the best day. We both witnessed multiple pushes and redevelopments during various stages of the thunderstorm lifecycle. We also en-counted approximately 4 to 5 rotating wall clouds covering 4 different thunderstorms.

Area's covered were Roma, Hodgeson, Mount Abundance, Muckadilla, Amby and Eurella. Thanks to AC (Downunder Chasing) for assisting us with reporting our observations to the Bureau consequently resulting in a Severe Thunderstorm Warning issued for the Warrego and Maranoa Districts for flash flooding as we endured large areas of water over the roads (cut-off in some places and wild winds from the RFD).

For people in parts of the
Central Highlands and Coalfields,
Maranoa and Warrego and
Darling Downs and Granite Belt Forecast Districts.

Issued at 4:29 pm Tuesday, 30 November 2010.

Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce very heavy rainfall, flash flooding and large hailstones in the warning area over the next several hours. Locations which may be affected include Roma, Mitchell and Injune.

Here is some video of the storms we encountered that day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=debyFK0NwGw

Cheers! Hope you enjoyed the pics and footage!

[Blackee]

Fantastic report and photos Andy!
Hopefully things improve in SEQ so you don't have to drive as far!

[Vortex]

Thanks!! That would be nice! Here is Cam's writeup.

Hi everyone

Just thought i'd put a bit of a chase report up for Randy and I's 3 day chase adventure out to the Maranoa and Warrego district of QLD.

November 30 was a day that will long be etched into my mind for a long time to come yet! The day before consisted of a lot of low cloud and a period of thundery rain as the sun went down. The next morning however (Nov 30) was a different story. The day started off covered with a thin layer of low strato-cu so heating was a bit of a concern. However by about 10am it started to clear out west and we headed about 30km's west of Roma where we were staying and were greeted with some lovely looking towers going up along the dryline.

As we got closer and things started to develop quite quickly, we were greeted by quite a meaty looking guster and a thin but very nicely structured line extending in a North-South direction from the Warrego Hwy.





Parts of the line were visually much more intense. It seemed like several discrete cells were trying to get themselves organised along the line. Some defined precip cores were continuously pulsing with several outflow pushes and solid microbursts (one very intense one) resulting from this one cluster of multi-cells!

The cells that were trying to become discrete were also producing nice wall clouds and some points. One of the most interesting things that we witnessed were how many times the storms tried to become outflow dominant but were kept in check by the NE'lys which retreated the outflow back as inflow, and in turn kept consistently re-intensifying the storms. This happened at least 4 times that I witnessed.







At one point one of the most intense cells along the line even produced a nice RFB and double layered meso detached from the main precip core!



After this unleashed a torrential amount of precip and wind gusts in the 60-70km/h range we were forced to push north due to the lack of roads any further east. After we came very close to a solid microburst, the northern part of the line was starting to become more organised. So we shot back north back to the Warrego Hwy. Only about 20km's north there was another decently surfaced road that headed north from the highway.

Once we got into position, this storm also produced some lovely structure.. one of the best rainfoot/precip cores with an associated RFB and wall cloud that i've seen in a long time!





To be continued in Part 2

[Vortex]

Continued from part 1.

The storm above intenified big time at one point.. the wall cloud was almost a ground scraper for about 15-20 mins before some solid outflow messed the structure up.





By this point, Randy was out of camera battery so we both had to head back into town and literally recharge.

About an hour later there were more intense looking cells firing close to Mitchell (about 90kms further west). These earlier cells finally started to weaken so the attention shifted to these cells further west. As a departing present, the earlier cells gave us an awesome rainbow on the back edge of the anvil.



An hour later the western storms were starting to become visible with some solid looking towers to the west.



These cells were also much more lightning active than the previous ones although CGs were pretty rare



Shear was incredible within this storm.. with lines of inflow close to 100km's long from both the SE and the NE! It literally looked like the towers were getting fed by two tubes of moisture, and the structure this produced was something I will never forget.





Certainly the best day i've had this year (and probably Randy too!) and certainly worth the 3 days out there. If anyone ever plans on chasing out there I highly recommend it! The landscape is perfect for chasing... few trees and a decent road network (although largely dirt roads).

Cheers

[Vortex]

Not much interest in Queensland Wx which is a shame!

[ULD]

Nice images and chase account Vortex. Have chased out there myself and as you intimated, lack of road options are the big downer out there. I think the Vics have preoccupied with their own show in recent times.

[Lily]

Love the rainbow photo Thanks so much for posting, such a shame you had to travel so far but love your dedication! Fingers crossed some come a little closer to home for you soon

[Jake Smethurst]

Yeah that rainbow image is a keeper!!! Good work, keep it up!! Looking forward to more, whenever QLD avails it's stormy potential!!