SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS - NOVEMBER 7, 2000

Showers and storms developed in SE QLD again on this day.  Although no reports of hail or severe weather have been received, radar images indicated several possible hailstorms developed throughout the afternoon.

I was chasing SW of Brisbane during the afternoon, and took the following pictures.  My summary is below

A SE change moved through Brisbane the night before, and normally the chance of storms goes out the window when this happens.  However, an upper trough combined with a weak inland trough caused showers and storms developed again, although the most intense activity was mainly confined to inland parts.  Early afternoon radar images showing several heavy showers and one storm reaching 100mm/h+ intensity (indicating hail is possible/likely depending on the atmospheric conditions)  prompted me to drive west, away from the coastal junk, in hope of seeing something.  On my way west i drove through a line of heavy showers, with a hanfull of lightning flashes seen.  This wasn't very photogenic, and i decided to head SW towards an ever darkening sky.  Before long a line of activity was visible (first and second pictures), and soon developed a small rainfoot on the northern end (third picture).  I noticed some interesting lowerings ahead of this rain foot, and decided to get into a better position to photograph them (fourth picture).  Unfortunately, the area i was chasing in has a lot of trees, and it was hard to get pictures of the lowerings developing.  After 10 minutes of observing them through gaps in the trees along the highway, i finally found a decent clearing and took the series of pictures shown below. 

When i first saw this, i thought Gustnado, but in hindsight it was probably just 'a nice lowering.  Whatever it was, it was quite exciting watching it unfold. 

As i drove back to Brisbane, several large cells with nice rain curtains developed.  A picture of one of these is shown below.

Rainfall in the 24 hours to 9am November 8 was generally light to moderate, with some isolated heavy totals.  Some of the highest include Fernfield (Wide Bay and Burnett) with 67mm, Maroochydore (South East Coast) with 64mm, Tewantin (South East Coast) 59mm and Lake Cooroibah (South East Coast) 58mm.