| Geelong Storms
19/5/99 |
| There are certain problems with me encountering thunderstorms in the early morning - one is the state of my brain, the other is cows! ......... what have cows got to do with thunderstorms? |
|
| The forecast issued on the 18th May 1999 was for the possibility of thundery showers for the 19th. A weakening cold front was advancing across south eastern South Australia and was expected to reach Central Victoria early on the 19th May. Although thunderstorms are not frequent at this time of year, I have seen the occasional activity often associated with pre frontal middle level instability. |
|
| My home duties require me
to organise my two boisterous 6 and 8 year old boys for school - but this is another story
in itself. So when they started bouncing on my bed at 7am, I was already in robotic mode,
and headed downstairs to make breakfast for them. "What will it be kids - toast or toast?" While the boys set to arguing over the playstation, I glanced out of the kitchen window and there before me was the most fantastic altocumulus castellanus glowing - a brilliant mixture of orange, yellow and white, and a classic smooth almost black base. I raced upstairs to get a better view. There was no organised line, just a scattering of large patchy altocumulus but some were showing serious grunt with one or two starting to glaciate. |
|
| Within two minutes I was out the back door with my Canon, followed by two rather amused boys thinking that their dad looked rather strange jogging around the back yard in his pjs with a couple of cameras slung over his shoulder. After taking several frames I returned inside, switched the am radio on and listened for lightning discharge static ....... all was quiet. |
|
| Not much more happened
until about 8.30 am when the am radio suddenly crackled to life - a very close discharge
and not long after, a very deep rumbling. Again I was off out the back door. My home backs onto a cattle farm and over the past 5 years we have taken to feeding some of the cows old fruit. Now cows have a pretty good memory for sweet tucker, and when the local cocky lets them into the paddock at the rear of our home, they virtually stampede to our back fence. So when I barrelled across the backyard with my collie-cross barking at my ankles, I was confronted by about 55 cows waiting for their goodies. There was another rumble off to my northwest, and I could see what was a rather small but compact Alto Cb about 5 kms away. |
|
| Confronted with a herd of
bovines I staggered to a halt - but what would a dedicated storm chaser do in my
position???? I squeezed through the barbed wire fence and headed up Leopold Hill followed closely by some very frantic but rather playful cows. The whole lot of us headed up to a vantage point about 250 metres away. Surrounded by cows, I pointed the camera and got some very nice very late season Cbs moving across Geelong and Leopold. |
|
Photos taken from Yarra Boulevard, Kew - J ONeill (ASWA archive) |
| By 8.50am the main cell was almost overhead with several very close cgs and that telltale loud crack of a very close strike!!!!! The storm was very small and compact. I rang Jane ONeill from the top of the hill for some radar returns - she was very surprised to find that the only storms at that time in the whole state were over Leopold, and promptly disappeared out of the office to take some photos from the top of the hill in Kew. |
Radar courtesy of Bureau of Meteorology With all of this excitement I completely forgot about taking the boys to school. They were soon yelling and waving at me from the back door. I finally hauled myself away from the hill and headed back to my backyard - oddly, I was followed by all the cows walking behind me in single file (I wonder why).................................
Clyve Herbert (ASWA Victoria) - Leopold ......... happy chasing!! |
