Vic - Potential showers/storms - 21st Dec to Boxing Day 2011

[Storm2]

Large hail reported at inverloch

[rikjpool]

Meso mate!!! Amazing work! I'd kill to see those storms on the bay....

[heatherjoan]

I can see it in the distance from Sale - once I turned the Christmas lights off - can hear distant thunder too. Maybe I will stay up a bit.

[Bellarine]

MESO! Love your work, what a Christmas present Santa is delivering us tonight

So... do I get back downstairs and shut the windows or not...

P.S. Bel, that brandy custard sounds a bit potent! Swing some my way, yeah? Gent dressed in red has left our place so should be with you any minute.

Lily, it's normal custard mix added with 1/2 cup brandy and two tablespoons of treacle / golden syrup - chilled in the fridge and what a ripper it was. Must remind myself not to make 10 dishes on a hot day next time

All eased off here, can see some flashes out to the east, but will try and get what little sleep I can with a pair of oversugared, overtired and overexcited munchkins waiting on Santa, who has apparently just passed Valdivostok on his way to Australia (if you follow santatracker !)

[Jake Smethurst]

Just released the thunderstorm chart for tomorrow as promised.

And .... I heard thunder!!!!! Must be from the cells out at sea at the moment.

[TheFishmanAU]

So been bed-ridden all day due to heat fatigue & exhaustion due to my fatigue related illness, I go out for my late night jog knowing there were some big cells around but nothing in and around Melbourne & the radar said likewise. As I'm starting my jog, I realise there's frequent lightning to my East & South East, nothing special just frequent high-based flashes & some CC's. Very bright though as at times they lit up the whole area, barely any thunder but made the jog more interesting..

As I turn around to head back, I realise there's even more lightning to my North-North West, not as frequent but more spectacular. 2 CG's that had me blind for a second & some decent crawlers. 1 of the CG's had some pretty good thunder.

Get home expecting the radar to be lit up but hardly anything at all haha. Atmosphere is quite volatile & lightning active. Don't think I've seen that much lightning from nearly every direction without the radar being lit up haha.

Sure made the jog that more bit more interesting, tomorrow should be well set up for Central.

Merry Xmas & enjoy.

I can't remember seeing as intense a light show in 30 years. It came and went without any rain. As I posted earlier, It started as stars, flangfest, stars again. It was like the electrical storms of the 80s.

[tonycynic]

Just had a ripper of a storm go right over the top of us. Plenty of lightning and a little cooling rain. Great xmas pressie.

[James]

lightning went to my north, very active...but only a few drops of rain with it

kids were letting off fireworks across the street, didnt know which was thunder and which was fireworks!! bangs all around!

the air is stifling out there at the moment

[Geoff]

Yep, nice little storm to finish the day. 2 little girls have FINALLY gone to sleep, so Santa can do his thing and get to bed at last! Happy Crimbo everyone!

[droughtbreaker]

It's really unstable out there with showers and storms still developing across the state and some severe storms about the coast. Tomorrow is going to be crazy IMHO, I haven't seen the atmosphere this primed for a long time, the moisture levels are really high and the air mass is quite hot with close to mid 30s just over the ranges today. Tomorrow will be tropical basically and add a deep trough into the mix. Storms should dissipate in the hours up until dawn but start redeveloping by about mid morning I reckon and become extensive and severe soon after midday. My gut feeling is for storms to form rain areas by late afternoon and continue right through the evening and overnight. It could be a really big one and provide a major distraction on Christmas Day.

Quite a few places could see up to 50mm in all seriousness.

[rikjpool]

Lol, and tomorrow has a forcast of clearing showers and 26c's here in Bendigo..... REALLY?!?!?

[rikjpool]

The storm of to the north of Bendigo I can see from here.... nice crisp updraughts and prob flashing around 30times every min. Way to far away to see any Cg's as im in suburbs still. But looks nice still. And the one out to the east is still bubbling away with some really nice powerfull flashes on the backside of that as well.... Hope round 2 tomorrow is just as good if not better after dark as I'll hopefully be able to escape after 8pm tomorrow night.

[Meso]

Meso mate!!! Amazing work! I'd kill to see those storms on the bay....

Thanks mate! Been waiting for a chance at coastal storm shots for ages, but just never been down here at the right time. Finally fell in to place tonight after a failed trip to photograph The Pinnacles. So was a nice high after a bit of a downer. Would have preferred a mothership rolling in over the ocean during the day, but hey, you can't win em all!

Headin home tomorrow for Xmas dinner with the family. Crossing my fingers things fire up early, so I can "stumble" across a storm or two on the way home.

[thunderhead]

Went out to take pics of the local Chrissy decorative light shows and ended up taking some shots of a much more spectacular light show! Watched 180º of CGs and crawlers from a spot in Burwood. A bit too far away for decent shots, but spectacular to watch. Best sparkles I've seen in a long time - and kept dry as well.

[Jake Smethurst]

Storm to my west!! LIGHTNING!!

[Storm2]

This storm is awesome, 360 degree lightning dont know where to look

[AUS_Twisted]

Damn Meso that first shot is awesome! and so are the others, it's rare that we get clear air storms for good CG's and you were in the right spot for a great foreground.

I was at the Berwick lookout for a few hours watching the action, a lot of stuff behind rain and foggy air it seemed and then things got better with CG's in front of the rain, got about 50 CG shots. Will post a few soon

[rikjpool]

MESO WAKE UP!!!! Another monster coming your way! I dont have your number or i'd send ya a message bro!

[Jake Smethurst]

What a beaut of a thunderstorm. Small cell, but my oh my did she have some lightning in it, seems to have all exploded on top of us looking at the WZ lightning tracker. I saw some of the best crawlers in over a year tonight, and we had five flangs, was totally amazing, and deafening!! But so awesome!! It was a good storm, and no wind, I think that made it creepier. Did get heavy rain for about 2 minutes in it, but only 1mm in the gauge. Couldn't really make out the structure of it, was blinded too much from the lightning! Still the risk of further storms overnight, but tomorrow shall be interesting, time to get some sleep think!

[AUS_Twisted]

If Meso's asleep hopefully those CG's to the south of the Island woke him up, I'd go for a drive again if I had my own car

I was posting about this is on FB not long ago but a bat has managed to get into a CG shot with the outline lit up 4 times from the pulsing CG, I didn't know what it was till I zoomed in and could see the shape and remember a bat flying around.

Here's the twin CG shot and a crop to show the bats outline in 4 spots, will post more later