Gympie • Sat 16 Dec 2006
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Wow, what a
day - an action packed one for
several reasons.
The models
suggested the W and NW of
Brisbane were the hot spots. By
midday stuff was already firing.
I figured I
was too late for the small cells
to the north so I decided to try
and intercept the SW cell by
heading W out towards Toowoomba.
We stopped around Marburg for
some food and a look. There was a
nice updraft visible quite close,
but no precip or base features
(which indicate good organisation
and possible severe conditions).
However, it
didn't take long for some light
precip to arrive, and I thought I
could just make out some base
features in the distance.
With no
gustfront I really wanted to stay
ahead of this cell to hopefully
watch one develop. It was
tracking NE so we swung back to
the Esk turnoff then headed
north(ish) to Esk. We stopped at
Wivenhoe Dam for another look:
Anvils were
now visible from the cells that
were building to the N. This is
facing almost straight up at our
own anvil:
And this is
the reason we're on level 4 water
restrictions... this is the dam
overflow!
We pushed
on towards Esk but found a good
view beforehand so we stopped
again, managing to catch some
daytime lightning.
This storm
was now starting to take on a
strong green colour, indicating
hail.
It was time
to go and staying ahead of this
storm was now going to be a
struggle. I just hoped it wasn't
moving too fast.
Whatever
speed it was doing, it was too
fast for us. With the storm
tracking NE and our road heading
in a NNW direction, we never
really stood much of a chance
unless we'd left a lot earlier.
With the ominous storm looming, I
seriously considered bowing out
and turning around, not wanting
to risk the hail or unknown winds
causing who-knows how much damage
to our car and putting us at
risk. Ultimately, though we kept
going!
Just
outside of Esk, the green-eyed
monster hit us.
The
following image shows a rise of
condensation like a cone on it's
side, rotating up into the
gustfront - from the point of the
cone on the bottom just left of
centre, to the wide end in the
top right hand corner. I've
illustrated the rotation in the
second image below.
 
In
hindsight (and to my limited
knowledge) there may have been a
chance of a gustnado (weaker
tornado protruding from the
gustfront), but not likely a
tornado considering the lack of a
wall cloud, unless it was
rain-wrapped (but I don't have
the knowledge to say for sure) -
but the structure and base
features never seemed severe
enough to me. HOWEVER, this
rotation was making me rather
nervous as I'd never seen
anything like it before!
Michelle
was clever enough to switch her
digicam onto video for some
footage. She was pointing her cam
slightly to the right towards the
general turbulence under the
gustfront, so the rotation is
difficult to discern on the left
hand side at the start of the
clip. A small funnel (which I
didn't even see at the time!) is
visible to the right near the end
of the clip.
Rain was
just starting at this stage, but
shortly after, we got very heavy
rain and strong winds.
 
We drove
through Esk and the rain slowed
as we started to get back in
front of the storm. (We later
learned of roof damage to houses
in Esk and Toogoolawah, just to
the N.)
 
Managing to
get well clear of the rain we
stopped again briefly for some
pics as a weak gustfront was now
visible.
We were now
coming up to a T-intersection on
the highway and we had to decide
whether to turn left (W) or right
(E). Either way it wouldn't be
long before the storm would
side-swipe us. I figured the
storm would less dangerous to the
west, but I can't remember why.
Perhaps it's just that going west
would provide us with an earlier
opportunity to start heading
north again when we got to
Yarraman. In any case, I also
thought that even if the storm
was to hit us again, there may be
another chance of outrunning it
again.
Anyway, we
turned left and took off for
Yarraman as the storm closed in
from the south:
Later, I
was thankful we didn't turn
right:
Just before
Blackbutt, it caught us with more
torrential rain and this time
some tiny hail.
 
Michelle
also got some footage:
Damage was
already apparent:
Around
Nanango, I was about to witness
another first. As we drove, the
rain thinned out a bit and
visibility got better. Lightning
was landing around us with some
fabulous cracks and booms of
thunder. A close one hit within
100 metres, putting a concerned
look on Michelle's face and a
grin on mine. Then a little
further up the road one landed
just to our left (probably 20
metres away) very clearly hitting
a tree causing the main trunk to
instantaneously combust and glow
bright orange. The silvery white
of the main strike was brilliant
at this close distance, but the
orange glow was incredible and
certainly something neither
Michelle or I had ever seen this
close. Luckily, Michelle also
witnessed it so we could share
the awesome moment together!
It's a pity
we didn't get a picture as I
would do anything to see it again
in slow motion. The flash was so
quick that it, and the orange
glow, was gone in an instant.
We stopped
the car to try and take shots,
and unbelievably I saw another
one at probably 50 metres to my
right! No picture though.
We tried to
keep up with the lightning,
figuring that we probably
wouldn't make it back in front of
the storm. We saw some more
awesome CGs and anvil crawlers as
we drove through Goomeri, then E
towards Gympie.
After
having driven about 480kms, we
decided to spend the night in
Gympie to avoid the 160km drive
home.
Lightning
was still visible but becoming
less frequent as the sky
darkened.
We finally
called it a day at around 8:30pm
and went and had some dinner. In
town, large areas had lost power
and the unusual darkness was
quite eerie.
The next
morning on our way back home it
didn't take long to hear about
the damage in Cooroy near Noosa.
Cooroy damage pics next page
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