welcome to a new year! may all your forecasts come true in 2012 and you beat your averages!!

One would think 3 weeks in Darwin and you'd see at least one decent storm in the city... well, it's been 2 1/2 weeks and nada! Come on, gotta get at least something before I head back to Canberra, land of the boring wx!

Wrong time of the year to be expecting decent storms though mate. More of a November/early Dec thing. After that it's often monsoon or in between mode. There have been some very intense storms inland if you are willing to chase however...like last night which was nearly my last...

TS

Yeah Lightningstruck ahh I mean Thunderstruck. Sounded like a pretty intense and close experience. Glad your still around to tell the story.

Yeah, was hoping for something "in between," or at least a nice, vigorous monsoonal flow.

What happened last night TS? Looked around for a post but couldn't find anything. A chase went wrong?

huge cell has formed right on us the lightning is going off

Yeah, didn't think my prayers would be answered so quickly. lol Was a very entertaining cell which seemed to grow from nothing. Quite amazing really.

Midnight in Darwin...





















TIMELAPSE http://webcams.bsch.au.com/timelapse.htm...m=darwin_hector

And a load more the cameras don't get

Yer mate big long post about it all on xweather

TS

Wow, I just discovered the xweather forum. Tons of info on there - and awesome stories on chasing storms! Thanks for that!!

Yeah same here, didn't know it existed. Nice!

hi, been a while. we are still trying to deduce what to put up on the mast of the Radio Station for accurate weather, Has to be reliable(long time between getting up the mast) and self powered( well not really can run POE) suggestions?
what we want:
Wind,
Rain,
Humididy,
Temp,
UV.
If anything else please add.

Regards

Jon
Katherine FM

Oh, Movable Webcam would be Grouse....

Moveable webcam may be a tall order if you don't have 240 or at the very last 12v up there. For the weather station though, if you absolutely had to have everything up on the mast... I've never used one of these myself but I do know people with them and they seem happy with them. Davis Vantage Vue - nice compact little unit and completely solar powered. Wireless transmission back to a base station. Link below but shop around for prices

http://shop.davisnet.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=216

How high is your mast? The temp/RH readings that the BoM (and most amateur weather stations) provide are recorded within 2m of the ground level. If you're taking readings from 10-20-30m up, or however high the mast is, your readings will be different (lower)... just something to consider. The ideal setup would be the temp/DP/rain/UV recorded at ground level and the wind at 10m up your mast but I realise that may not be possible. Really the only components that would benefit from height would be the webcam and the wind.

Question for all you Topenders. I have a friend in Berry Springs. When I was there a few weeks back, he was telling me how they had this massive storm overnight (sometime in November) with tons of lightning that lasted for hours. He said the lightning was so ferocious that sparks were flickering in his power / light sockets. Now, I did not know if he was being dramatic or for real? Surely this cannot happen?

But, it must be awesome to experience that sort of electricity in the air.

hi Ben, et al.

yes understand most readings are 1.5-2m off ground, its unsecure to put anything on hte ground, so mast mounted will be the choice. Wind would be up the top of the mast, everything else, should be about 1/2way or so.

Regards

Jon

I just noticed this weird disc on the national radar. It's in the NT so I figured I should post it in this thread. It looks like quite a rain event. There must be some weird clouds up there.

Darwin cbd is having a good downpour now quite heavy so much for the dry spell and another good shower storm appears to be on its way going by the radar yay.

first couple of lines wernt to active but now a proper one is incoming who said WA cyclones where boring

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR632.loop.shtml#skip

http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDD26100.html

Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
Northern Territory

TOP PRIORITY FOR IMMEDIATE BROADCAST


SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING - DARWIN and RURAL AREA
for DAMAGING WIND
For people in the Darwin, Palmerston, Cox Peninsula, Bynoe and parts of the Litchfield Shire areas.


Issued at 7:45 pm Friday, 13 January 2012.


The Bureau of Meteorology warns that, at 7:40 pm, potential severe thunderstorms were detected on weather radar near Humpty Doo and Noonamah.


These thunderstorms are moving towards the west.


They are forecast to affect Darwin City, the Northern Suburbs and Palmerston by 8:10 pm and Dundee Beach, Belyuen and Mandorah by 8:40 pm.


Damaging winds are likely.


The Northern Territory Emergency Service advises that people should:
* secure loose outside objects;
* avoid remaining in the open when storms threaten.


The next warning is due to be issued by 8:45 pm.


Warnings are also available through TV and Radio broadcasts, the Bureau's website at www.bom.gov.au or call 1300 659 214. The Bureau and Northern Territory Emergency Service would appreciate warnings being broadcast regularly.

having a another good radar breakout now already had rain around lunchtime

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR633.loop.shtml#skip

http://www.oscilmet.com.au/?fuseaction=l...=0&dateFinish=0

Darwin catches a dry break
Ben Domensino, Tuesday January 17, 2012 - 16:24 EDT

Darwin has experienced its longest January dry spell in 53 years after a particularly parched start to the new year.

As of 9am CST on Tuesday morning, Darwin had only recorded 64mm of rain since the beginning of the month, with just six days recording rainfall. This is a meager 15% of the rain Darwin normally sees in January, which is usually the wettest month of the year.

The dry start to 2012 has included nine days in a row without a single drop of rain at Darwin Airport. This dry spell, which ran from Thursday 5th to Friday 13th, ranks as the airport's longest for January since 1959.

Australia's tropics experience the heaviest rain between December and March, driven by moisture feeding into a region of low pressure called the monsoon trough. However, the beginning of 2012 has seen this monsoon trough remain inactive over Darwin, leading to a marked reduction in rainfall so far.

Looking ahead, a return of heavy wet season rainfall is unlikely for Darwin in the near future. Afternoon shower and storm activity is possible most days, but there are no signs in the next week of persistent monsoonal rains.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2012

Hi Cyclocece, great to see you again, their is heaps of towering electrical thunderstorms around atm even if the radar isnt showing much or is broken. Ill try to get a picture of a storm when i go to the shops.

Hey there Breezer,would like to see some photos,been a bit quite up that way.

these are all off darwin cbd in the last hour, it was sprinkling lightly

huge crawler moving in loud booms going to be a cooler start to the day today

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR633.loop.shtml#skip

first big line has formed to the south east

Our webcams still doing the job....

Wow Orebound, I'd forgotten just how bright the stars are in the NT, that webcam pic is a beauty! Loved your pics too Breezer. The radar's showing lots of action there atm, I hope you're all sleeping soundly through the stormy night.

Low to the north east looks ready to develop further in the short term so we should collect gonna be a wet and wild week in Darwin and NW NT with cyclonic development and the king tide.

SEVERE WEATHER WARNING
Heavy Rain, Damaging Winds, Abnormally High Tides and
Large Waves for people in the Darwin-Daly and Arnhem Districts.

Issued at 11:32 am CST Tuesday 24 January 2012

Synoptic Situation:
A strengthening monsoon trough is located near the north coast and at 9:30 am
CST a Tropical Low [998 hPa] was located near latitude 11.3S, longitude 131.5E,
approximately 30 km west of Cape Don, moving west at 5 km/h. The low is expected
to start moving southwards today and move inland over the Top End on Wednesday.

Heavy rain which may lead to flash flooding is likely during today over parts of
the northern Darwin-Daly and Arnhem Districts, particularly near the north
coast, including the Tiwi Islands and the Cobourg Peninsula. Heavy rain may
extend further south into the Darwin-Daly district on Wednesday. A Flood Threat
Advice for the Darwin-Daly and Arnhem Districts is also current.

Monsoonal squalls with winds to 60 km/h and damaging wind gusts to 90 km/h are
expected over the northern Darwin-Daly and Arnhem Districts during today and
Wednesday.

Abnormally high tides and large waves are expected in coastal areas between Cape
Don and Groote Eylandt from today.

In the 24 hours to 9am 104 mm of rain has fallen at Majestic Orchids.

The Northern Territory Emergency Service advises that people should secure loose outside objects and seek shelter when the conditions deteriorate. Driving conditions may be hazardous - avoid flooded roads and watercourses. Abnormally
high tides could cause minor flooding at the coast.

The next warning is due to be issued by 5:00 pm Tuesday[i][/i]

It appears that system to the NE of Darwin is really stating to ramp up. Any local thoughts on what is likely to happen.

I understand that it should continue to move west and then take a SE track to the GOC! What are others thoughts please.

Yeh Tom very squally and teeming with torrential rain here now. The Low looks to have passed and may even be south west of the city but is a bit hard to pick up on radar.. either way looks like its gonna be a very wet night with reports of vegetation damage already. Darwin has had gusts of 80km hr and 155mm plus so far.

City up to 222mm - not bad seeing as it didn't really start until mid afternoon

Gusting to 92kmhr at darwin.

Well it rained lightly pretty much all day in darwin and seems like it will continue overnight atleast, hopefully we start to see some more low pressure organisation in this trough hanging around.