2016 Storm Season
Brisbane and SE Qld Squall line 12 Nov 2016.
Saturday 12 November was always going to produce some action but how much was always the question. There was the typical hype from some pundits leading up to this event but it was always going to be quick and dirty. The models were all agreeing on the deep surface trough that would engulf southern Queensland and parts of NSW bringing storms with strong winds and hail to varying degrees of intensity.
The weak cap holding convection in place saw storms break out before lunch time around the Goondiwindi area which quickly formed a squall line stretching from that location to the north, the strong mid to upper level winds from the west got the line moving fast and storms speeds were in excess of 80kph in some cases leaving chasers in a losing situation when storms fired twenty km or more behind them.
This was the experience of chasers Mike Keene and Chris Adams on a two day chase to the NW slopes and plains attempted to run down the supercell that dusted up Merriwa in the upper Hunter Valley. Illawarra chaser Michael Thompson changed tactics and target to the Liverpool Plains, capturing a couple of nice storms but still having a hard time due to the speeds but the luxury of more open and flat views and roads. The main catch of the day was a storm with LP supercell structure split from a storm, the left mover of the two went on to drop large hail up to ten cm in Narrabri and Qirindi. You can check his footage out on the following link and I recommend subscribing to his channel, it never disappoints. OZThunder - You Tube
Being one of those days, I left my chase to the point where the line was just west of Warwick Qld, it was a gamble and driving out I was in two minds as to whether to head up towards Gatton or stick to plains round Kalbar. I chose the latter.
No sooner had I gotten within five k's of Kalbar I was confronted with a large precipitation curtain and lightning but nowhere stopping on the Cunningham Highway. Turning onto the Kalbar connection road a quick run to the Kalbar Peaks crossing intersection and it was on. I was confronted with a lovely base backed up with a massive precipitation core that was strobing and daround me were solid bolts and staccato lightning dropping within a kilometer or less of where I was set up. These images are frames from the video footage.
Not long after this the rain band rolled over, noticing the lightning was dropping further to the east and this was my mistake, I took a north easterly road option trying to find a clearspot out of the rain but got steamrolled. Realising the mistake after checking the radar I pushed north and caught up with the back end of the storm at Harrisville but it crossed the highway and moved into the suburbs. At this point with nothing coming from the west it was done and dusted. A second line came out of the Darling downs around 9pm near Millmerran but was doomed once it hit the ranges and entered the Brisbane valley after the main line had drained the atmosphere of any energy earlier.
