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Storm Event, South Australia 18th and 19th of November 2003. Page 1

In the run up to the 18th and 19th of November 2003 the computer models were predicting awesome conditions for storm formation.  The AVN model had consistently shown CAPE of 2000+ and LI's of -2 to -5 each day for about 7 days prior to the event.  A large mass of tropical air was moving down over South Australia at the same time and with moisture levels at unheard of magnitudes ( DP's of 18 to 20 degrees Celsius) things were looking even better.  Add in a trough for a trigger and all the ingredients were there.  The even actually ended up being a bit bittersweet though, this is because while there was some good storms and lightning it was all quite ugly (maybe not photogenic is a better description) and for the conditions the storms for the most part were not as spectacular or as widespread or as long lived as expected.  However the reasons for the letdown became clear after the event and this event provided a good lesson in storm forecasting for South Australia and South Australians.  

An explanation of why the system wasnt as good as anticipated can be found at the bottom of the gallery on the last page for this system.  Now, on to some pics! 

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 The first lightning on the 18th was being generated from the Kimba supercell. This storm was pumping out some awesome lightning but the best of it was during the daylight hours when it was too bright to take photographs.  There was quite a number of cloud to ground strikes ( CG's) from this storm and commonly the CG's would trigger a cascade of lightning which would spread up from the base of the storm where the CG was, up through the main cell (from the cloud base to anvil level) and then there would be a chain of lightning all through the mammatus underneath the anvil.  This style of  lightning is similar to what I have seen (in documentaries) in lightning coming from the tornadic cells in the US.  The storm weakened considerably as it was getting dark enough to take photos and the lightning grew infrequent.  There was still some spectacular lightning after dark but even this was hard to photograph due to the roaring outflow winds and odd bursts of rain.

The photo above shows some weak clout to cloud  lightning illuminating the cloud and a weak cloud to ground strike in the distance. The vertical streaks on the image are lens flare caused by having rain drops on the lens.

A photo of some knotted CC lightning from the remnants of the Kimba supercell.