I woke up around 8am to static on the radio and thunder in the distance! A front approaching from the south west had formed what looked like a squall line on the satpic (below). The top of it just brushed past my house with thunder every minute or so. Just a brief heavy shower at my place. Winds were gusting at times to 50km/h. Behind the front there was an impressive looking cold pool that seemed to form overnight. There was quite unstable air moving in from the west, and the latest LI's had -4 for the SE SA coast, which is very unstable for this time of year. It all suggested a fun day was coming.
10am Sat-Pic and radar loop of squall line.
The system deepened very quickly as the day progressed with pressures quite low (Hamilton 996 hPa). By 11am some heavy showers were developing on radar to my west and by noon thunder could be heard approaching. As the storm approached Cgs were evident and increased in number until they were almost every few seconds. Initially there was only heavy rain but hail to 1cm then began to fall. A very impressive storm for the middle of winter - summer would've been proud of it.
1pm Sat-pic and Radar loop
The best was yet to come however as soon after 3pm, it began to get very dark to the west again. Unfortunately Mt Gambier radar was offline at the time, so it was hard to tell if it was more than a heavy shower. Soon found out as it got closer. There wasn't as much lightning initially as there was in the previous storm, but as it neared a greenish tinge was clearly evident in the clouds. (not as evident in the photo though - 1st on the right below) Soon enough the hail started to pound down, gradually increasing in size to 2cm, and covering at least 50% of the ground. The lightning then increased dramatically as the storm intensified with several flangs nearby. The main storm probably lasted about 5mins but it continued to pour with rain for a few more minutes afterwards.
4pm Sat-pic and lightning tracker
Piles of hail were still evident in places outside later that night at 9pm! Another storm with quite a bit of lightning brushed past Coleraine at about 10pm with strong winds, and then another squall with heavy rain and probably the strongest winds for the day hit at midnight. By 9am the next morning we had recorded 19mm of rain.
