Storm Spotters Australia

USA Tornado Facts
About 1,000 tornadoes hit the United States every year.

Most of these touchdowns in America’s Plains states the area affectingly known as Tornado Alley, which is generally considered to be Oklahoma, Kansas, the Texas Panhandle, Nebraska, eastern South Dakota, and eastern Colorado. Tornadoes, however, can occur almost anywhere in the United States, including west of the Rockies and east of the Appalachians.

Super cell tornadoes are most likely to occur between 3:00pm and 9:00pm in the afternoon/evening.

As the storm season is all but over now, it is time for us to get in to our other passion during the off season which is some landscape photography. I recently had the opportunity to head out on a shoot and here is one of the photos I was able to capture of a "fern bridge" in the Kangaroo Valley area.

The landspout looks like a slender tornado over land, but is not associated with an organised rotating cloud, does not form below a wall cloud and is generally not intense enough to do much damage. The mechanism which forms a landspout is similar to the waterspout: relatively cool air passing over hot ground produces updraughts and cumulus clouds. Random swirls can be caught up in an updraught and so tighten up into a funnel which is made visible by raised dust, rather than by condensation of moisture.

Research reveals evidence of ‘thunderstorm asthma’ in Canberra

THURSDAY 1 OCTOBER 2015

RESEARCH REVEALS EVIDENCE OF ‘THUNDERSTORM ASTHMA’ IN CANBERRA

Research by The Australian National University (ANU) into pollen in Canberra has provided the first evidence that the region is prone to a phenomenon known as ‘thunderstorm asthma’.

The findings come from research collected through the Canberra Pollen app, which begins its second year of delivering daily counts and forecasts of pollen levels to users from 1 October.

A 5:50 minute compilation of an epic lightning show from a fantastic complex of storms on the Southern Tablelands south of Braidwood on the 24/01/15.

It was my first time using a new camera, so I have to work on a few setting for next time but it was such a spectacular event and sure will be one to remember.

Music used under licence:
Track 1 - Where You Begin (Eliot Pister)
Track 2 - Road To Hell (Eliot Pister)

Myself and Chris had a great chase to Braidwood on Saturday. Here's a 70 second video covering the highlights from the day including greenage,and incredible frequent lightning. Michael Keene.
Here's a short 1 minute video covering a fantastic thunderstorm near Braidwood 2 days ago. The contrast and greenage made for a spectacular scene!! The lightning was powerful and frequent and quite close as well. I hope you enjoy the video!! :)

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=870352366341494

Myself and Chris had a good chase today.

Our target was Braidwood NSW. We baked in the hot sun as storms fired all around us except for our area, Despite this we kept our patience and finally jumped onto a developing storm just south of town.

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NSW
SES Assistance: 132 500
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As the sun slips above the horizon I notice a lone Pelican enjoying the first sun-rays of the day at Shoalhaven Heads in NSW. That moment a song came to mind....

When you walk through the storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
There's a golden sky
Walk on, through the wind
Walk on, through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone

Adelaide hills bush fire 2015
Video: Tony Salvatore (youtube)

09/01/15 - Here is a little sample video some of the bolts captured on our chase today.

Best viewed in HD

08/01/2015
Today's chase proved rewarding but made for a long afternoon. I set off earlier in the afternoon after the storms which formed on the highlands near Taralga/Goulburn/Crookwell moving ESE towards the coast. I was able to capture a couple of bolts on video near Bundanoon on sunset, I made a little mistake and tried changing position a little closer to the storm but my efforts were stuffed by trees! During this small amount of time the storm decided to throw down some Epic CG's and then start to weaken as it moved off in to no man's land.