Hi guys,
Coincidently, I was working today in one of Penrith's suburbs. Who was to guess even up to 10 minutes prior, a storm was going to explode as it did this afternoon. I left school about 2:50pm and headed south to investigate the activity nearer Camden. I did not even get near the area - I was not impresed with radar. I was actually checking a boundary that would pass through the region. Just south of Orchard Hills, I noted the rainfree base of what seemed like a small cell and took interest with it tapping the moisture. In hindsight, it would have been in the region of the trippled point!
After watching the cell begin to drop its first shower, I decided to head back north. Only in Penrith and I saw two bolts of lightning. To me the frequency of these two bolts puzzled me. The rapidly increasing rain core also puzzled me but also look familiar to a heavy rainfall event last year! I raced east along the M4 and up the M7 and wow!! Was that a wall cloud? Definitely a solid rain free base with scud. Decision time - which exit do I take?
The road headed E soon but I required to remain out of the rain. I took the punt and exited the Richmond Road turn-off. It was raining lighly but I had excellent visual of the base and feature!
I took video and pictures in this spot for 15 to 20 minutes and then headed back on the M7. On the egde of the core, you could feel the hailstones edging closer but none reported. The rest of the chase was trying to fight Sydney traffic through Castle Hill - and then north. I missed a couple of opportunities of taking a couple of shots and that was it! The storm collapsed almost as quickly as it developed.
A nice afternoon's chasing - surprise event!
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
Hi Jimmy great stuff. Glad someone got very close to the storm from its birth to its finish. Was certainly a good storm to watch, had a nice wall cloud on it for a good hour or so. I took some timelapse using stills but will get them up after my exam tomorrow. Here is a couple of shots from my house near Hornsby
See : 64km Radar Loop for Sydney (Terrey Hills), 02:00 07/11/2011 to 10:00 07/11/2011 UTC
That was an awesome storm Jimmy, your photos show some really interesting structure. The experience at my place was the equivilent of the supercell we has here last December except the hail was much smaller and lasted for only a couple of minutes, but the rain rate was phenominal and we had an estimated 40-50mm in about 30 minutes. Jeff.
When I was out hiking yesterday I came across some localised tree damage with tree tops twisted off and some trees 1-2 foot thick completely snapped off. The damage was near Blackheath and looks to be about 1 or so years old. If anyone remembers a severe storm in that area last year that had suspect lowerings let me know.
Got a timelapse up for this storm using still images.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5ycEyZueXI
Hi,
That timelapse seems to lean towards supercell rotation which is what I was leaning towards in the first place.
Good stuff!
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
How I would love to have something like this again soon!
How I would love to have something like this again soon!
I remember this one
Video of the Penrith likely supercell!
And how about the video of it!!!