SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS LASH SE QLD - JANUARY 27 and 28, 2001

Humidity levels soared in SE QLD on Saturday (Jan 27) and Sunday (Jan 18) as a trough system approached from central Australia.  In an around Brisbane, dew points of between 20c and 25c were a reminded of just how sultry it can be in January/February.

Severe thunderstorms developed on both days.

On Saturday a large storm complex moved off the SE QLD/NE NSW border ranges, moving north at first and then NE towards the southern suburbs of Brisbane.  It spread out into thundery rain as approached, but not before causing tree damage and blackouts in the town of Beaudesert, SW of Brisbane.

Storm chasers Jason Rainforest and Ben Quinn took the following photos from Brisbane during the afternoon.

The first was taken by Jason from Pimpama looking SW  - this cell was actually moving NE away from the main complex of storms at a rate of 75km/h! Which was almost 3 times as fast as most other storms on that day, and all the storms around it at the time.

The second was taken by Ben Quinn from Redcliffe mid afternoon, looking west towards the Esk area.

Click on the above thumbnails to see full size versions

Storm Chaser Anthony Cornelius was out chasing on this day, spotting a possible funnel (first capture below) seen from almost directly under it, and also the same gust front as the one photographed above by Jason Rainforest , but from a different angle.

Click here or on the above stills to go to Anthony's chase report for this day

There are also unconfirmed reports of several tornadoes seen from Toowoomba at approximately 6:30pm in the evening.  Unfortunately there is no more information about this report.

Showers and thunderstorms continued to develop throughout the night in the Darling Downs and Grannite Belt and the Wide Bay and Burnett districts, with an intense electrical storm developing over Dalby just after 11pm.  Click here for a small lightning tracker loop showing this storm (40kb).

On Sunday showers and thunderstorms developed throughout SE QLD, with several severe cells observed on radar.  In the Wide Bay and Burnett district, a broad line of strong activity moved through southern parts during the mid to late afternoon.   Lightning detection images showed this system to be extremely lightning active, which was confirmed by observations from residents around the Murgon - Kilkivan area, who described the storm as "extremely electrically active", "frightening" and "very fierce".  Energex Lightning Tracker showed 1996 Cg's in a 5 minute period at one stage!!!

Click on the above lightning tracker image to see a small loop (95kb). Unfortunately the image showing 1996 whites was not cached properly, but it will be added to the loop as soon as i track it down!

One resident at Cinnibar (approx 40 minutes drive WNW of Gympie) recorded 15mm in 2 minutes from a storm - a rain rate of 450mm/h!  Severe winds and lightning brought down numerous trees in this area.

In southern parts of SE QLD showers and thunderstorms developed from early afternoon onwards - with several strong and lightning active cells.  I managed to catch up with a cell around the Dayboro area early in the afternoon, unfortunately as i approached it began weakening.

Click on the above thumbnails to see full size versions

Anthony Cornelius was out chasing again on this day.  Anthony reported flash flooding south of Laidley, with over 40cm's of water over the road in one area.

Click here or on the above stills to read Anthony's chase report

Radar images during the evening showed a very slow moving storm around this same area, with high rainfall intensities over the area for almost 2 hours! The highest reported fall to date was 78mm (possibly in one hour) near Grandchester.

After seeing activity to the east of Warwick on Sat afternoon and getting light rain overnight, the stage was set for a considerable storm day. Morning High level cloud and very hot and humid weather at the cricket ground was a very promising sign, with many locals saying it was a storm sky. And they were right.

About 10:30am things started to develop. A few Cj's to the immeadiate NE of Warwick and considerable developemnt to the S which was obscured from view. Watching things develop for the next few hours was good. The Development to the South moved to the south east where it would have started light showers at about 11:30am over the next 30 mins the area of precipitation got larger and about 12:15, the first lightning bolt was seen. AND IT WAS HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!! At first the lightning was infrequent to start and all east of us, of the next half hour it started to get more intense.

By 1Pm there was another lightning area in Warwick, less than 1 km away from me, and this moved over putting 3 CG's close to the ground, one of which I saw as I was looking in general direction at time. Perfect Lightning bolt with offshoots of lightning of main shaft. WOW!!!!!!

After moving North of Warwick these storms intensified rapidly with large, strong anvils and rear anvils being produced over the course of 15 mins at this time also (2PM) a line of developement was noted to the SW.

Well not much happened until suddenly, FLASH..... BOOM and the second storm for the day hit us at about 3:15pm. At least 10 CG's hit the town of Warwick but unknown if any damage occured. I saw 10 hit the town as I was frantically working on the computer. This storms lasted about 30 mins and produced in parts about 3 mm of rainfall.

Then the sky stayed overcast with anvils and about 5:30 PM, A THIRD thunder storm moved into Warwick. This one had CG's as well. And the rain absolutely teemed down. At my home i recorded 20 mm with rain rate probably up to 60mm/hr for 5 to 10 minutes. And as i was leaving cricket, only just walked outside and A bolt of lightning came down about 20 metres away from me. Well, that was a thing to be hold. Anyway this storm also had some great lightning, but after it passed about 6:30pm the rain stopped, the sky looked rain and drizzly and so far we've had no more.

A great thunder storm day and hopefully more to follow on the coming days.

A note of interest that Warwicks Jan rainfall has gone from 5 mm to 25 mm in one day.