Went for a 250k deviation on the way home from Melbourne and found some brilliant storm action between Woodend and Ballan from about 1400 to 1800hrs, all storms were very slow movers with virtually no speed shear, however some of the stronger cells were developing good backbuilding tendencies. Also a very interesting pyrocumulonimbus near Trentham together with a brief funnel on another cell. The best though was a remarkable development at around 1630 to 1730 between Bacchus Marsh and Ballan, this was the closest thing I have seen to a supercell since last year's TDU chase. This magnificent storm developed a rotating main updraft which persisted for almost 30 minutes ( most on video) all backlit by the setting sun. |
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Cjs - Greendale Victoria
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Glaciating Cjs - Greendale Victoria
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Northern end of the Greendale Cj line - this updraft became the main storm later on. |
| Images below are of a strong Cb near Ballan, suspected to have possibly reached supercell status. | ||
 The Greendale Cb near Ballan.
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 The Cj line prior to developing into the Ballan storm. The updraft pulse on the left was always present and eventually became the stronger Ballan storm. |
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1645AEST |
1700AEST |
1705AEST |
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Techno stuff..... The mid levels were cold: -18c at 500hpa and -47 at 300hpa. Although there was virtually no speed shear, there appears to have been some directional shear, especially between 700hpa and 500hpa (from a visual perspective) A weak surface trough was in the vicinity of central Victoria at around 1500hrs there was good low to mid level moisture loading. |
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| Current Victorian Weather | Image Capture: Minolta 505si, 100ASA, Kodak film | April Forecast Outlook, Discussion & Report page |
