Any thoughts about what was observed here? I had to boost the contrast as the light was fairly harsh. The storm developed south of Urbenville during the afternoon of 18th November. The photos are of the right mover of a split from 04.05 UTC
128km Radar Loop for Brisbane, 03:00 18/11/2012 to 06:00 18/11/2012 UTC
First photo shows the cumulonimbus structure, then zoomed in after that.
Nice funnel pictures Michael Bath! I guess you are posting the pictures to ask for opinions on the possibility of it being a tornado? Not sure what opinions you are asking? Do you have any video of the event? I know you are busy at the moment with all the severe storm activity in SE Qld! http://www.extremestorms.com.au/2012/11/22/severe-storms-se-qld-and-ne-nsw-22nd-november-2012/
Further to my comments Michael Bath, were winds southeasterly in the region? Were SW winds moving into the region. Enroute down the coast of NE NSW after crossing the border, there was an E-W boundary we passed under. If such a boundary had been present in the area it could have easily enhance vorticity in the storm environment.
A substantial SE wind shift developing during the afternoon. I recall winds seemed fairly light at our location at the time – which was approx 40km ESE of the funnel cloud. Jason Paterson should have some video. Yeah it seems a bit too large to just be a funnel though you can’t see any contact to the ground from those shots.
I guess you will have to find the elevation of the region it was in and the typical LCL you would expect from the soundings to give some insight on the probability of it being close to the ground or basically on the ground.