Recent Flooding: May 20
Posted on June 22, 2009
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Coastal Gales
Posted on September 25, 2008
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Last night and during today, strong to gale force SSE to SE winds have been affecting the coast. The strongest winds in our part of the world occurred last night. Cape Moreton’s best gusts were 91, 93, 98 and 102km/h while Double Island Point had gusts to 91km/h. Moisture depth is rather thin so any showers caused by these winds were light, brief, and chiefly offshore.
Back to a normal September
Posted on September 24, 2008
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The latest system didn’t deliver – only producing isolated weak storms on the Downs and Granite Belt, and off the coast. So now we are, back to a more normal September pattern. In other words, cool changes that lead to warm and rather dry days, then cool changes again. We had a SSE change early today which helped produce the very isolated shower and storm activity this morning. This afternoon, some weak to moderate storms developed from the Wide Bay/Burnett northwards, affecting towns like Gympie, Gayndah and Goomeri but really they weren’t terribly exciting. Today’s max temps in the Brisbane area were in the low 20′s, and they felt cooler with the cloudy conditions and fresh SSE winds. These winds will hang around for a day or so before they swing to the SE, E, NE then N over the weekend with rising temps. It looks too dry for any storms at this stage.
The SES goes to work | Storms possible tomorrow
Posted on September 22, 2008
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Yesterday’s hailstorm was fairly severe, with the SES called to over 230 jobs in the Ipswich area. The biggest reported hail was just bigger than golfball size (5-6cm diameter) and there were also winds to around 100km/h. You don’t want golball hail propelled at you at that speed! The damage consisted of dented cars and broken skylights and windows. A few injuries (bruising) were reported as well.
Storms are possible again tomorrow but they aren’t expected to be severe. A cloudband currently across much of SE Aus will move across southern Qld tomorrow and there is the chance of storms developing on the leading edge. Today, storms have been quite active across the southern inland and northern inland of NSW. After this system clears, a return to SE winds and cooler temperatures is expected, before conditions warm up again at the end of the week.
21/09/08 3rd Severe Day in a row (& it’s only September)
Posted on September 21, 2008
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Another day, another round of severe thunderstorms! Mid level storm development started early (9-10am) in the Moree area and quickly tracked through into the NSW Northern Rivers. By midday, these storms became more surface based, with the first severe thunderstorms developing ear Tenterfield not long after. Soon, some of these crossed the border, with some assuming rather massive proportions. It was not long until the BoM was warning of “very dangerous thunderstorms” tracking across the Border Ranges towards Rathdowney, Beaudesert and Boonah. Eventually the whole of SEQld came alive with moderate to severe thunderstorms. 
Golfball hail is believe to have caused light hail damage to cars in the Ipswich area, where over 40mm fell inside 30mins. The cooling seabreeze and mostly northerly tracking of the storms prevented the coast from seeing the best of the activity again as expected. The lightshow was again entertaining however!
Click here for a few other photos I took today 
More storms Sunday?
Posted on September 21, 2008
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It looks like another good round of storms today, which are likely to be severe inland. In fact, just about all activity should be inland today but coastal areas may receive the dregs or nothing at all. Steering wind shear has weakened since yesterday, and again the strongest storms should move in a more northerly direction. Also warmer temps just above the ground should mean that storms will get underway a bit later.
20/09/08 Severe Saturday
Posted on September 21, 2008
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Saturday (the 20th) was as big as expected, with several supercells and other severe thunderstorms marching across the district. Just south of the border, Kyogle was hit by a big hailstorm which covered the area white with golfball hail, while in the Rosewood/Harrisville areas, a lovely supercell was photographed. 
Click here for those images, on the WZ forums. To the left is a small snippet of this afternoon’s radar, showing the Harrisville supercell. Click on the loop (or here) for a full loop of today’s widespread action. The storms had large amounts of lightning, as evidenced by this image taken from the Energex Lightning Tracker. Also of note was some heavy local rainfalls. The best was a very welcome 46mm at Oreilleys Weir at Wivenhoe and 41mm at Boonah.
More severe action likely
Posted on September 19, 2008
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Saturday has the potential to be bigger than today. The computer models suggest instability is stronger, and the decent shear (but not awesome) should hang around. Also, temperatures high up, at 300mb are cooling and this should lead to higher storm tops and therefore a chance of larger (golfball size) hail. Today, low to mid level cloud nearly ruined the day, but luckily it cleared after lunch time. Further low-mid level cloud is likely tomorrow but I don’t think it will be thick enough to stop the storm activity. Also, surface temperatures are expected to climb towards 30C (up from 25C today) and this should help fuel bigger storms. 850mb temps should increase a little but hopefully the warmer temps at the surface will reduce the threat of a flop.
Severe thunderstorms are again a threat on Sunday but at this stage, Saturday looks like the bigger day. Stay tuned.
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