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6th-11th December |
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| An amazing week of storms and heavy rain hit the eastern half of SA due to a low pressure system forming in NSW and then moving back westwards into SA. It all started on Monday 6th December as a trough moved through Adelaide during the morning. This had kicked off numerous storms over Eyre Peninsula and the West Coast overnight. The first band of storms died by the time they reached Adelaide but it did bring a weak roll cloud over the suburbs around 8am. |
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| Unfortunately I was working this day and was stuck at work from 9am onwards. It ended up being a very frustrating day for me. By about 10.30am a second band of very active thunderstorms developed over the Adelaide area and continued until about 2pm in the arvo. Very annoying being stuck inside a shopping centre when you can hear booming cracks of thunder every 5 secs!! |
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| Tracker 4.50am 6/12/04 | Satpic 7.30am 6/12/04 | ||
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| Radar 7.54am 6/12/04 | Radar 11am 6/12/04 | MSL 11am 6/12/04 |
| Radar Loop of
whole event 10.30am-2pm (zip file)
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| Tuesday
7th: My day off is Tuesday and with the chance of storms in
the east of the state I decided to head off early in the morning with
Lennie to chase whatever was around. Unfortunately for us it was probably
the worst day of the week storm-wise. We headed towards the Riverland and
reached Loxton by about 11am with a few showers around and a little
mid-level convection appearing above the low level crap that was still
hanging around.
After being updated on the situation we decided it best to head further east, nearer to where storms were firing in sth NSW and heading in a SW direction. Soon after crossing the VIC border on the way to Mildura, the convective cloud bases began to get a lot lower, rain shafts started to appear, and the lower cloud that was obscuring our view earlier was all gone. Still there were no storms though although some of the showers were quite heavy. After lunch in Mildura we headed further east towards Euston and a view towards the storms in the Balranald direction. We had a good view of the bases and rain shafts from our vantage spot. |
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| It seemed to be dying a bit to our east and it was getting to mid arvo so we headed back in the direction of Mildura. As we went, the cells to our north started exploding but they were in the middle of nowhere so hard to chase. Moving back into SA, a few cells started to really pick up in intensity in the Riverland area with some really heavy rainfall. We went through Renmark shortly after a large dump went through. As we approached Barmera we could see some convection really firing in the direction of Blanchetown so we floored it to try and intercept it. As we got closer to Waikerie the base seemed to be forming a guster. We stopped and got some pics just east of Waikerie before corepunching it on the way to Blanchetown, encountering some very heavy rainfall and large wind gusts. Wasn't much more around and it was nearing twilight so we headed home after a rather long drive.... |
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| Mildura Radar 3.24pm 7/12/04 | MSL 4pm 7/12/04 |
| Wednesday 8th: Once again I'm stuck at work during the day but thankfully storms don't fire much until after about 4pm and only out in the Mallee at that time. I checked the situation on the net as soon as I got home and then decided to head NE to intercept incoming cells moving NW from the Mallee. Leaving home at about 7pm I could see a huge Cb to my north out in the Burra direction and also some developing storms in the same line towards the Riverland. |
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| Cells developing towards the NE | Huge Cb anvil in Burra direction | Storms forming to the NE | Convection to the East |
| Heading NE along the Sturt Highway I reach Truro and turn north onto the Eudunda Road to try and intercept the line of storms moving NW. This road gives fantastic clear views to the east which was exactly what was required to view some magnificent colours and structure as the setting sun shone on the storms. Getting closer, it appeared to have a magnificent guster underneath, parts of which at times looked very close to the ground. Reaching Eudunda, I drove about 2kms north on the Robertstown Road to set up with a clear 180 degree view of the incoming guster. By now Cg's were starting to pop out everywhere along the line from the NE to the SE. Fellow ASWA member, Werner, joined me soon afterwards and we sat in awe as the line moved ever so closer to us. |
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| More cells to the NE | Looking NE at northern end of line | Looking ENE, guster appearing | close-up of guster |
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| ENE view of guster | Amazing colours!! | Easterly view of guster | Easterly view of guster |
| With the sun getting quite low on the western horizon the colours were changing by the second and were some of the most inspiring scenes I have ever seen. Unfortunately it was still a little too light to successfully capture a lightning bolt, but I still got some great pics of the storms approaching. With light gradually disappearing I started taking pics on a longer shutter speed to try and capture the structure of the guster as it approached. It was quite hard to make it out with the naked eye by the time it got near us. I was also lucky to capture a couple of bolts even though the lightning seemed to die a bit as it got closer. |
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| Guster to the ESE heading our way | Looking ESE | interesting cloud to NE | Sensational colours again!!! |
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| Looking NE | Looking ESE | Looking East | guster approaching from ESE |
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| guster approaching from ESE | Lightning showing up guster base | guster approaching from ESE | long shutter speed to show structure |
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| long shutter speed to show structure | long shutter speed to show structure | Getting close now! | A Cg really making it look mean now!!! |
| With the storm about a kilometre or 2 away all of a sudden we are hit by the outflow winds. Sustained winds would've been over 70km/h before the main guster went over us. In the safety of my car I watch now for at least 20 mins as torrential rain and Cgs pound the countryside... With the heaviest of the storm over us I decide to head into Eudunda. Having to drive barely 20km/h as the roads are awash it is hard to work out what to do. I drive into the main street of Eudunda amazed as the road is basically covered in stormwater. The drains cannot cope with such a downpour. I estimated about an inch of rain in about 30mins. After ringing the BOM I take a couple of pics and we head west towards Kapunda to try and intercept another storm approaching from the SE. |
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| heading straight for me!! | finding safety in the car now!! | flash flooding in Eudunda | Eudunda Main Street |
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We find a nice open location about 10kms south of Kapunda and watch as the storm approaches. A few Cgs but mainly embedded CC's and the rain is not as heavy so we call it a night. Driving home this storm picks up electrically as it nears the coast to the west and gives me a nice show as I drive home. |
| Cc south of Kapunda | finally capture a bolt.... |
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| Adelaide 256km Radar 9.24pm 8/12/04 | Adelaide 128km Radar 9.13pm 8/12/04 |
| Adelaide 256km Radar Loop 7pm-midnight 8/12/04 (zip file) | Adelaide 128km Radar Loop 8pm-midnight 8/12/04 (zip file) |
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| MSL 10pm 8/12/04 | Sat pic 10.30pm 8/12/04 |
| Thursday 9th: Stuck at work again but able to leave at about 4.30pm as convection really started taking off over the ranges and the Adelaide metro area. I was joined by Duane and then picked up Lennie on the way up to Wynn Vale Lookout. With panoramic views over to Mt Lofty, the city and suburbs, and across to the sea, it turned out to be the perfect location for the evenings action. Heading up to the lookout we could see a large Cb coming over the ranges into the Eastern suburbs. A huge rain shaft was evident and at the back it looked like a hail shaft. It was an impressive sight as it roared over the suburbs and headed for the city. On two occasions we also had a cell develop almost on top of us and all we knew about it was the roar of hail and heavy rain approaching with just enough time to seek shelter in the car. |
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| Convection over the suburbs | Huge rain shaft over eastern suburbs |
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| Rain shaft approaching the city | heavy dumpage out in the western burbs |
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| Another cell to the west | New shaft over the eastern suburbs | Looking west |
| We now turned our attention to an increasingly black area on our eastern horizon over the ranges as there appeared to be another guster forming on the edge. As it got closer it was obvious it was quite a nasty guster with a massive green tinge indicating hail. Some impressive turbulent skies are shown below as the guster moved over, giving us some very intense wind gusts. Eventually the heavy rain arrived but most of the hail had gone by the time it reached us. |
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| MSL 4pm 9/12/04 | WZ convective outlook 9/12/04 |
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| Adelaide 128km Radar 4.44pm 9/12/04 | |
| Adelaide 128km Radar Loop 3pm-5pm 9/12/04 (zip file) |
| Friday 10th: Huge storms out in the Mallee and other eastern areas of SA. I'm stuck at work all day and then a Christmas dinner in the evening so no chasing for me which sucked because it was probably the best lightning active storms of the week! Several other chasers were out in it though and scored some nice action! |
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| Adelaide 128km Radar 6.13pm 10/12/04 | Adelaide 128km Radar 6.45pm 10/12/04 |
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| MSL 4pm 10/12/04 |
Saturday 11th: Once again some huge storms out in the eastern areas of SA. Murray Bridge and Mannum copped the worst of them with some bad flash flooding problems.
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| MSL 4pm 11/12/04 | BOM rainfall map - week ending 13th December 2004 |
| Some huge
rainfall totals were recorded in eastern areas of the state, with some
places breaking December records.
Go HERE for a full list of rainfall recordings for the week! (PDF file)
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| Other Photos & Reports of this event: | |
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Tim Thorpe's extensive report & heaps of pics! |