Cold Fronts: August 22 - 26

[Monbulkian]

Karl and i have just come back from sky high.

You should be up here now you two, it's absolute mayhem! (6.45pm)

I know Had to get back to hubby and the kids. Lightning looked impressive from home. Will be interesting to see what is too come looking at the radar

[TheFishmanAU]

We did well today on weak convection. I'm feeling that we are going to have some really good storms this summer.

[Lily]

Timelapse courtesy of 3AW on youtube of the storms today


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[blackmamba]

Timelapse courtesy of 3AW on youtube of the storms today


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Very awesome!

[stratospear]

I was expecting more precipitation today, but I suspect the current weak El Nino is starting to make its presence felt. Perhaps some more tomorrow when the Low finally makes its move eastwards.

El Ninos have quite a habit of producing hail storms in winter/spring - I still haven't forgotten an amazing evening storm in Sept 1982 (I think) in Bendigo which unloaded a barrage of marble sized hail for about 10-15 minutes with barely a drop of rain in the mix. Low level moisture was stupidly low for most of that shocking drought year.

As an aside, Adelaide reached only 12c today, while Sydney cooked with a 29.2c max (30c at the airport) - not quite the 31.3c of August 1995!

[Rhino]

Got 2.5mm here today out of a couple of showers that had some small hail in them, no storms though, and not expecting much here over the coming days. Looked great on radar around the metro areas, you guys always get the storms down there , hope you enjoyed it.

Rhino.

[crikey]

We had mainly rice sized hail here today for precipitation.LOL
An unusual event here.
It made the pond look like it was boiling as the hail hit the water.
Then some thunder later but didn't see any lightning.Wondered if it was cloud to cloud lightning?
Could see in the distance ,Bendigo ,castlemaine. maldon areas got a storm cell/rain hail shafts.
Then some brief showers here and
then the BEST rainbow l have ever seen
It was so close ..one end of the rainbow appeared only about 50 m away in the paddock
The rainbow was so strong and bright . Not only was the rainbow a double bow
But the inner bow had a double bands in the violet range.
The sun appeared so intense from the west in a break in the clouds that when you looked it just really intense and hurt your eyes. I have never seen the sun shine like that..
There was this beautiful mist of rain falling down over us at the time
Just spectacular and jaw dropping stuff!

Jane Bunn talking snow down to 400-700m tomorrow and 20-30cm snow for the VIC alps..
It snowed down to 350m in hills in SA today
Bendigo forecast max of 11 deg c and a low of 3 deg c tomorrow

Enjoying the posts.. Thanks
Nice to read your happy posts again LILY.

[droughtbreaker]

I haven't emptied the gauge yet but BOM suggests around 4mm so far. There is definitely an El Nino type influence over our weather atm even though to me it looks fairly disorganised in terms of SST anomalies etc. It may only be a temporary thing where a lot of anomalously cool water has built across the top end of AUS, leaving the interior hot and dry and now we are getting some of that air over us. The cold air mass we are seeing atm is naturally dry, the difference between now and what we have been seeing this winter is that there is insufficient moisture to interact so no extensive rain band etc.

IMO, September will be significantly dry across the state and warmer than average even if the El Nino fails to develop properly.

BTW, about the hail in spring. I went to high school half way up Mount Macedon and I remember a front passing through in the late afternoon in September 1999 that was pure hail, not a drop of rain in it whatsoever. One second it was fine and mild the next there was about 20cm of hail on the ground, then it was sunny and mild again. It certainly does happen.

[Meso]

Pretty uneventful day here, few intense wind gusts and turbulent clouds passing overhead about 4:30, before it cleared briefly then ramped up again with a 30 sec hail shower (tiny stuff) and that was it. Would have loved to have been up in ne NSW today with that massive line ploughing through.

[Jake Smethurst]

We missed out on most of the thunderstorm activity where I was, although we did see some very heavy showers with embedded hail! Certainly reminded me of Spring type conditions or the storm season at least with mild conditions to start with advancing convection and then the arrival of the squally cold front!! Managed about 8mm so far, with further showers expected tonight!

And might I add good pick up from the AWF forecast team with regards to thunderstorms today; this taken from the thunderstorm forecast issued this morning:

A strong pre-frontal trough and cold front are expected to cross Victoria during Thursday. Latest model guidance is indicating quite unstable conditions. Isolated thunderstorms are considered possible through the area marked on the map, particularly during the afternoon hours. The area with the greatest risk of thunderstorms appears to be over southwest and central districts. Damaging wind gusts are possible in thunderstorms and showers today, and non-severe small hail is also likely.

I'd watch for winds tomorrow particularly over elevated areas of southern and mountain parts, could see them gust above 100 km/h!

[crikey]

11.30pm obs Mt William minus 0.5 deg c .. Freezing level around 1150 m in s/west VIC atm
Some parts of the state only 5 deg c atm .It sure feels cold here.

[Karl Lijnders]

Very rough weather at home yesterday. Lots of small branches and twigs thrown onto the road and leaves belted off by hail. Looked like pea sized hail and the odd marble as it passed through the area. 9mm from the effort yesterday in quick time.

Had a lovely small chase with my sister yesterday through the lookouts in the Dandenongs. Was awesome to watch the cells propogate and then drop their guts as they got close. Nice close CGs and a lightshow over the ranges to the east. Nice start to storm season.

NE NSW had 2 confirmed HP Supercells in the Narrabri to Coonabarrabran areas yesterday with 3-5cm hail stones and 100kmh winds so things starting to take off.

Today rather cold and showery weather will drift over southern areas with afternoon thunderstorms in central and eastern areas with more hail.

Showery tomorrow but conditions easing rapidly through Sunday and a fine start to next week ahead of more stormy weather Tuesday.

[Anthony Violi]

No argument necessary, the whole eastern seaboard was in Dps of 8 or higher, which triggered storms across 4 states. The dry air you mentioned got isolated in the interior and sent nw. You did say there would be no Moisture infeed ahead of the front, and there certainly was. That was my point I mentioned the other day, that despite the models saying that there would be no moisture, Dps for August were quite high as I thought they would be.

[Karl Lijnders]

The arguement lay within what is being described as inland. I think a more specific statement would help in future. Alice Springs is notoriously dry at this time of year, I think we forget what a dry season looks like after the past few.

Eastern QLD, NE NSW were pretty humid and remain so today and the fetch in the NE/N flow over spring time could be interesting as it comes into Victoria ahead of any cold front. Yesterday we copped that with minimal moisture.

Cold weather remains today with squally westerly winds developing.

[Gordon]

5.5 mm here for the 24 hours plus a lazy 1 mm beforehand brings us to 80 mm mtd. Back to cold and wet after a 36 hr sniff of spring.

[Rivergirl]

Severe Weather Warning
IDV28000

Severe Weather Warning
for damaging winds
for people in the South West, Central, West and South Gippsland and East Gippsland forecast districts

Issued at 4:50 am EST on Friday 24 August 2012.

Weather Situation

Vigorous northwesterly flow associated with a low pressure system west of Tasmania.

Damaging northwest to westerly winds averaging 60 km/h with peak gusts around 90 km/h are forecast to develop late morning for parts of the South West, Central, West and South Gippsland and East Gippsland forecast districts.

The State Emergency Service advises that people should:
Move vehicles under cover or away from trees.
Secure or put away loose items around your house, yard and balcony.
Keep clear of fallen power lines.

The next warning will be issued by 11:00 am EST Friday.

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[stratospear]

Going by the satpic and radar it seems that most of the action is in Bass Strait today. It is cold though and apparently it was snowing on Mt Macedon this morning.

[Alexia]

19mm rain so far it is very wet too wet really lucky a bit less than some.Very cold too 5.7c at present see Thredbo is -5.8c they are not that far away[as the crow flies]

Little showers still comming through.

[occluded]

Tipped out 7.5mm this morning, the bulk of that just after 4pm yesterday when the squall hit with a vengeance, must've been in a sweet spot yesterday for a change!

78km/h gusts recorded at Viewbank AWS during yesterday's action which I haven't noticed in a while.

Despite the windy action only one tree down reported in the area just off Wetherby Rd.

[stratospear]

Hail here in Bayswater atm. A cold old day.