So that is the warned cell, Eddy??

No, the warned cell was further west or well to the right of the first pic, infact i have a pic. looking SW

This was also in its infancy stage taken at about 7.40pm long before it was warned, i had moved from this sand dune as it was to dangerous with the lightning, lightning was dropping out of the most unlikely clouds tonight.

DETAILED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
for LARGE HAILSTONES and FLASH FLOODING

For people in parts of the
Greater Newcastle,
Maitland/Cessnock and
Central Coast areas.

Issued at 9:54 pm Monday, 13 February 2012.

The Bureau of Meteorology warns that, at 9:55 pm, severe thunderstorms were detected on weather radar near Mannering Park, Nords Wharf and Catherine Hill Bay.

These thunderstorms are moving towards the northeast.

They are forecast to affect Belmont, Swansea and Lake Macquarie by 10:25 pm and Newcastle City, Charlestown and Wallsend by 10:55 pm.

Large hailstones, very heavy rainfall and flash flooding are likely.

The State Emergency Service advises that people should:
* Move your car under cover.
* Keep clear of creeks and storm drains.
* Don't walk, ride your bike or drive through flood water.
* If you are trapped by flash flooding, seek refuge in the highest available place and ring 000 if you need rescue.
* Unplug computers and appliances.
* Avoid using the phone during the storm.
* Stay indoors away from windows, and keep children and pets indoors as well.
* For emergency help in floods and storms, ring the SES (NSW and ACT) on 132 500.

The next warning is due to be issued by 10:55 pm.

A more general severe thunderstorm warning is also current for the Northern Rivers and parts of the Mid North Coast, Hunter and Northern Tablelands districts.

Warnings are also available through TV and Radio broadcasts, the Bureau's website at www.bom.gov.au or call 1300 659 218. The Bureau and State Emergency Service would appreciate warnings being broadcast regularly.

there was a waterspout off the coast of stockton tonight

http://www.theherald.com.au/news/local/n...ch/2454109.aspx

Chased with Shane today, went up to Laurieton, firstly getting onto that Forster cell, that was probably the most organised storm of the day we saw. The corepunch yielded some winds around 60km/h, very heavy rain and hail maybe up to 2cm, surprised to hear reports of 20c piece size from Tuncurry. The storm had, what appeared from our angle, to have a nice dark shelfy on the front of it. Got some footage of this. Due to lack of views, no pics.. We then got the cell near Kew which had a very nice green guster on it and it looked quite good at one point, and we really should have pulled over for a shot or two, however, I was guilty of trying to get to the lookout at Laurieton for photos.. by which state it was on top of us, so no pics.. Then got onto that Dungog cell later in the evening, definitely not a supercell, almost structureless, however, a LOT of lightning with some great CG's with lightning almost constant at one point. And.. again, no pics.. cos of rain. I missed one massive stacatto between frames.. wish I could have gotten it. All in all a fun day though!

Nice showers here on the coast this morning - woke up to a pretty heavy rain-rate. Will have to check out the webcam when I get to work, see if anything interesting came out of it.

There was isolated but heavy falls on the Northern Beaches this morning, moving through Sydney from South to North. Torrential to nothing in seconds as i drove through it..Like a sponge being wrung out.
I guess the Central Coast might be next in line.

Been a dark gloomy morning here (Artarmon), although no rain until about 10 mins ago. We now have steady, moderately heavy rain. Looks very localised on the radar. RTA cameras show that it's sunny out West and in souhern Sydney.

It's amazing how many times it's fine and sunny in Oatley and hosing down in the CBD or north shore, quite often Hurstville is the boundary of the coastal weather. A shower in the Shire atm though which may strike my suburb.

In the North, the boundary for coastal weather seems to be around Ryde. I used to drive to work in Parramatta. It was quite common for it to be bucketing down when I left Artarmon, clearing around Gladesville / Ryde and sunny with dry roads in Parramatta.

Another common thing I notice when driving from the Eastern Suburbs to the Central Coast when we have South or SE winds. It will often be sunny when I leave the Bronte area, cloudy on the North Shore, overcast with showers on the F3 and often sunny as I approach the coast near The Entrance. This would be an orogrphic effect.

Anyway, the rain stopped here just as I made my previous post. It's brightened up a bit with a some blue patches.

Decent views around the place, lots of nice puffy Cu. Don't like our chances for the afternoon though.

It's been a hapless system for Canberra, really just the dregs. We've been influenced by south easterlies for the past 4 days, which has stifled any development despite there being so much grunt in the uppers.

We did get a taste of what the hunter has been getting of late, when late yesterday avo the winds swung to ne for 30mins forming a convergence line just east of Canberra, and then a couple cells exploded with rock hard up draughts. I managed steal away an early finish to work and popped out to have a look near Sutton. The ripe conditions didn't last long though, by the time i got to the cell it was starting to lose it's edge, then totally fell apart when you guessed it, se winds fired in once again at around 20-30knots.

I did get some small hail from the anvil, and every now and then a positive strike would fire down to keep me on edge. I pulled up on a dirt road to watch the cell for a few seconds, then somewhere very very close with a out-of-no-where cg hit something very close to my car...... that certainly put the fire in the belly:) Just glad i wasn't out of the car.. .the poor roos scattered all over the place.

I've got knee surgery this thursday, so chasing might have to wait till next summer, snow chasing will have to do in the meantime.

Hi all. New member here. I don't know much when it comes to technical terms re weather and meteorology but I do love to keep an eye on the skies and check out any passing storms.

As I am from the Camden/narellan area, yesterday I tracked ahead of one of the NE moving storms part way up the northern road from Cobbity to Bringelly.
What a beautiful storm it was. Unfortunately I didn't have my good camera on hand and only managed to get a couple of poor quality shots from my iPhone but I will gladly share them with you anyway.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sy...i-1226270236064

Some footage of the tornado/landspout.

Hi Greg, sorry to hear about the knee surgery. Snow chasing still sounds good!

You seem like a knowledgeable guy so i thought i'd pick your brain in regards the Sydney basin, more exactly, the CBD and coastal region of the basin. It might not be a place you're too familiar with but i'm interested in any theory at this point.
Before i start i'd like to clarify this is in no way a 'whinge' or 'complaint' about the Sydney basin, i've actually been quite surprised by this storm season and it has made me realise that decent storms still occur here (more than once a season!).
I'm also well aware of the standard weather features that stifle storms in the area, i'm just puzzled by a certain trait in Sydney.
That is: 8 or 9 times out of 10 any storm approaching the CBD or coast of Sydney will break up or weaken considerably while, with the conditions being NEAR IDENTICAL just to the South and North, storms will not only survive but even become severe. You could almost draw an imaginary circle around central Sydney and watch as they break apart.
Only if conditions are 100% perfect will a solid storm live to see the coast, if conditions are even a tad out, they won't.
My question to you (or anyone else)is why, with the coast less than 100 km's in either direction getting storms will the Sydney coast more often than not miss out when it looks set to get hit? Is it just a random occurence, am i and other coastal folk just losing our minds or is there a scientific reason? Many a person must've noticed it a thousand times.
If i can understand it better i'd be a a happier man!
PS. It's not about chasing either, it's a discussion topic about this region and i'm talking about storms already within the basin so not including the 'Range' effect.
Thanks!

Great photos Lauren, the iPhone did it justice, I imagine it would've been pretty bloody impressive on your good camera

It's a good question OT, and one that can only be answered as being in the 'right place at the right time'. Although you could say that the conditions were identical further down the coast, it would only have to be slightly off in terms of wind direction at the surface, temperature, moisture at the various levels, wind speed, anvil shadows.... the list is really endless, not to mention topographical features!

The real key is convergence when the juice is there for storms, i.e. moist ne winds meeting say, cooler drier winds from the sw - the point being that when you get 2 or 3 different winds with different properties meeting in an area they create a boundary line. Storms like to follow or sit in the 'sweet spot' where these opposing winds collide. It's a great set up if you get the winds i just mentioned, then a strong nw jet at the 500 level casting the anvil away to the se - which leaves the nw edge of the storm to be heated unabated in the avo sun...... this all happened for a short 20min window yesterday just ne of Canberra just as i described it, but it didn't last long.

Also, quite often a boundary will form on a sea-breeze front in the avo, however the SBF can kink, not being just a straight line due to topography, so perhaps that is what has been happening with Sydney? Perhaps someone observed wind directions yesterday that can give these details to you.

Canberra has a similar type of problem, in that it's a basin.... although we have mountains pretty much all around us, the main blocking feature is the Brindabella range to our west. So it's either storms will fire along the mountains, or they develop int he valley corridor to our south moving up towards us, or they'll move off the mountains down towards us, which is when they become outflow dominant. The Bredbo storm that i got on the 20th Jan was a triple point, or 3 winds sources in one area, so the storm just sat stationary and became a supercell in a valley. Interesting case.

Okay, need some help with something myself.......

I just got off the phone with channel 10, asking for someone to do an interview regarding the past few days, along with some of your storm footage if you have any quality stuff. They are looking to do the interview this avo... I've left messages to some of my ASWA contacts in the Sydney metro, however have only left messages. So here's your chance to be seen and have the opportunity to talk about your passion, severe weather!!!!
Please PM asap, time is of the essence.... i need to call Jess back as soon as i can.

What a load of crap that article is! It says that the waterspouts create new problems but does not elaborate on what specific problems. Then the 'mini' word is used. Rubbish.

Hey did anyone see the BoM's Sydney forecast today? The forecast for Thursday does not have a precipitation icon! Haven't seen that for a long time.

Thanks for taking the time to respond Greg, it is much appreciated and they are all great points and things that i will look out for in the future when trying to predict storms in the area (as best as i can).

I also researched and even read on WZ about the 'Urban Effect' which can hinder storm development but also aid in the development of storms in very select circumstances. There might be some merit in that one. Probably a debate for another time.

In regards Ch10 - that sounds unreal but apart from working and not being sure if i could even make it i have ZERO evidence of any storm action since i was working Saturday, at a family do on Sunday, worked yesterday and the storms fled the Sydney scene by the afternoon. Hence my question.
Maybe 6DBTH is interested? He always has some mad footage!
Thanks again Greg.