SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS IN COASTAL AREAS OF SE QLD - AUGUST 23, 2000

A combination between a surface and upper level trough caused showers and thunderstorms to develop in coastal areas of SE QLD Wednesday, August 23.

Storms began developing in the northern suburbs by late morning/early afternoon, with storms developing and moving over the same area for several hours.  They were moving incredibly fast and were very hard to chase, but i did manage to take photos as they moved off the coast.

Click here or on the above stills to go to my chase report

Mid afternoon a storm moved through the NW and southern suburbs of Brisbane dumping hail and heavy rain in many suburbs.  As this storm moved offshore it took on a spectacular appearance.

By evening most storms had moved offshore, and a spectacular lightning show was to follow.

There were reports of severe weather.  A possible Tornado was sighted from the Sunshine Coast.  The following information is courtesy of Andrew McDonald from MSC - whos grandparents live at Moffats beach.

A funnel was sighted at around 3:30pm from the 'back end of a thunderstorm'.  The funnel slowly extended towards the ground and appeared to be on the ground for a period of around 15 minutes.  The Tornado was 20-30km's NW of the observers, probably somewhere in the Cooroy - Gympie - Brooloo area.

Flash flooding reported on Rochedale road and branches and a tree down on Mt Cotton road.  There were also reports of hail in numerous suburbs throughout Brisbane, including hail from 1.5-2cm at  The Gap from Narelle Bowmaker.  

The following summary is from Anthony Cornelius.

What a great day it was!  (Except for the fact that I was at work for most of it).  I went to work early so I could try and leave work early if I had to.  We had not one, but two hailstorms at work!  Once at 1:50pm (only very small and brief), and again at 2:20pm.  We had strong winds (30kn) with heavy rain initially, and then the winds died off (we have a tin roof at the office), and then I suddenly heard sone "tings" and yelled "THAT'S HAIL!!!" as I flew out the door for the millionth time (much to my boss' displeasure) with the video camera.  In the background, my boss was telling me how hopeless I was for saying she didn't have to move her car!  She didn't understand that pea sized hail wouldn't do anything! 

Anyway, 5mins later, I wrapped it up (finally) and left - the storms were moving to the SE to fast, so I headed to Rochedale Rd as there was a nice little lookout there to the east, and it'd put me in a better position if anything else developed.  There was a lot of water on the road near work, and some on Logan Rd - flash flooding on Rochedale Rd! Branches and stuff down on Logan Rd (northbound), and also a tree down on Mt Cotton Rd.

I had to eventually turn back and head for uni - I took the SE Fwy into the city to goto uni.  On the way I was watching some AWESOME updrafts on the Cb's out to sea, and decided that a stop in the emergency storm chasing lane (known to others as the emergency stopping lane) on the freeway and videoed and took some photos - awesome site!!!

After uni, I battled with peak hour to try and get home quickly...stopping after watching a beautiful sunset unfold to the west and took a few photos with the Brisbane CBD as the backdrop.  The Cb's out to sea were still visible and lightning active.  I had to get home and do a few household chores - I wanted to do these ASAP in case a lightning show formed.  And it did!!!  At 6:30pm I flew out the door again an raced eastwards to Cleveland Pt (not Redcliffe...) and tried to get there before the PITA "Koala zone speed limits' kicked in the bayside suburbs.  I got there at 6:50pm, and watched an orgasmical lightning show for 1-1.5hrs!  I think I got about 40-50mins of continuous lightning footage.  I grabbed my fold-up arm chair and sat down and relaxed next to the water while watching 12-15 different active cells out to sea - HEAVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!

Too much excitement for this storm chaser!!!  Lets slow it down just a bit...at least until the uni holidays so I have the time <g>

I had a call from Narelle Bowmaker (ASWA QLD) on my answering machine reporting 1.5-2cm hail. Ross Portas also phoned me twice with joyous exclamations as he was sitting down on the Gold Coast watching the lightning show too. 

Wow - this day was FANTASTIC!!!  Just everything looked so beautiful!

The following summary is by James Chambers from the Brisbane and SE QLD Storm Site.

Going out the door this morning I saw a TCU in the corner of my eye - it was then I decided to bring the cameras to work just in case.  (If it wasn't for that cloud, I would have gone camcorder-less hehe).  Anyway, at work I was drooling as I looked outside and luckily I got out early at 2pm.  I then flew up to the rooftop carpark and it was pouring down.  Several CGs struck around me and just as I parked the car under some hail nets...can you guess???

Yep it hailed, and it was driven by winds of 50-60km/h.  Hailstones were just over pea size (not severe) and despite being under the nets, the wind blew these onto the car at times.  Quite a racket!!  My first hail for a long time - by Brisbane standards.  The hail lasted 3-4mins and soon the rain melted most of it away.

I tried to stay under the hail seeing it was not going to dent the car, but traffic conspired against me.  Instead, I found a number of clearings and took photos of absolutely awesome Cb structure.  I think I took the best part of 2 rolls.  I didn't forget to video that as well.

The last hour or so I took more pics of the awesome Cb structures.  Ahh...I love it!!!!!

Click here or on the above photos to see James' report for this day