SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS - JANUARY 21, 2000

Temperatures soured throughout SE QLD in the leadup to this day, reaching 40C in some places! A trough was approaching from the south, and i think everyone was looking forward to a nice afternoon storm to cool things down.  Storms did develop, but the main activity was from around Caboulture northwards, with only isolated activity in southern SE QLD.  Some of the storms north of Brisbane were quite spectacular at times.  A storm during the early afternoon around the Gympie area produced a MASSIVE overshoot, along with anvils at many levels in the atmosphere.  The Tropopause level in Brisbane was 15.7 on the morning soundings - and given the huge overshoots on some of the storms, cloud tops could have been well over 17km.

There were reports of severe weather from these storms, with dozens of large trees down around Kilkivan (roughly 60k's NW of Gympie) trees over the Bruce Highway in the Bundaberg area.  Luckily most storms developed and stayed in largely unpopulated areas.

The following photos were taken of the activity around Brisbane and the eastern Sunshine Coast Hinterland - unfortunately there are no photos of the stronger activity further N and NW.

Anthony Cornelius and Steve Baynham managed to get the following photos of a storm between Brisbane and the Gold Coast mid afternoon.  Anthony's photos are from the eastern suburbs of Brisbane while Steve's photos are from the Gold Coast (looking north towards the storm).