Waterspout Observed over Durban 24/03/2012

On the 24 March 2012 a waterspout was observed along the Durban coast by a number of residents.

I was alerted by the SAWDOS on the reports and today saw their article on the waterspout.

Waterspouts are not an uncommon occurrence in KwaZulu-Natal, and I can recall two other reported events over the last few years.

Formation:
A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex (usually appearing as a funnel-shaped cloud) that occurs over a body of water and is connected to a cumuliform cloud. In the common form, it is a non-supercell tornado over water.
While it is often weaker than most of its land counterparts, stronger versions spawned by mesocyclones do occur. Waterspouts do not suck up water; the water seen in the main funnel cloud is actually water droplets formed by condensation.

Waterspouts have a five-part life cycle: formation of a dark spot on the water surface, spiral pattern on the water surface, formation of a spray ring, development of the visible condensation funnel, and ultimately decay (Wikipedia, 2012 and SAWDOS, 2012)

The waterspout observed over the Durbsn coastline this past weekend does not appear to be extremely intense, although there have been waterspouts in various other countries reported to reach EF3 level intensity

If the photos on this blog are yours please email me your details and I will cite them as such!

Recent Pietermaritzburg Storms

Well since my last post things have really shaken up! Since Wednesday we have had 3 storms rolling over Pietermaritzburg!

The first storm was Wednesday evening and I managed to catch some decent lightning shots!

Saturday evening's storm was more of a rain storm and dumped a fair amount of rain on us.

This evening an intense storm came over Pietermaritzburg and while I tries to get some photos the rain was just to intense and I gave up! We experienced and incredible amount of lightning and at two stages I witnessed powerful CG lightning no more than 100m in front of me!

In other news fellow storm chaser and computer genius ZerkerX (follow him on Twitter) has decided to bring his website back online. Further details will be provided once I know more!

I should be posting more often now that I have the mobile app for my blog, so keep checking in.

You can follow me on Twitter and on facebook!

Here are some photos of Wednesday night's lightning!

General Update

Now that we are officially in autumn I think its time for a general update on the weather. the 2011/2012 season ended poorly with the most exciting storms occuring in the Indian Ocean. While South Africa did experience a lot of flooding and heavy rainfall due to the various systems I cant say that it was successful for me in any way. I did manage to expereince some of the outer bands of outflow from Tropical Cyclone Irina here in Pietermaritzburg though along the coast the impact was much more devastating.

With winter around the corner we can start expecting some strong cold fronts coming our way in a few weeks time. I hope this winter season brings more snow events as the 2011 season did, only this year I wish to experience them...

In other news the controversial Weather Bill is still being discussed. I am not sure when we will hear about the new developments but I can say that this year and maybe next year will be landmarks for South Africa's weather community. I know of plans to approach SAWS to initiate a "SKYWARN" program or something similar in South Africa although I do not want to comment further. Email me for more details and I will forward you to the relative persons involved.

I hope once winter sets in that I will be able to capture some decent photos. I am currently looking at getting a new video camera, so if you know anything about video cameras give me a shout.

Here are a couple of images from the 2011's winter season

2011-2012 Storm Season

The 2011-2012 storm season started off with a bang with a number of tornadoes being reported. Unofrtunately as summer proceeded the number of supercell storms decreased. The season so far has not been my best. While I did manage to see some great storms it was nothing like the 2010-2011 season as La Nina was not as intense this year.

I am hoping to spread out throughout the year and see some more extreme weather. As SAStorms no longer exosts you can expect this blog to once again become active, although I wont have as much time to spend on storm reports or general forecasting. Below are some of my favourite shots from the current season.

Horseshoe Vortex, Pietermaritzburg 02/11/2011

On Wednesday around lunch time I went outside and to my amazement I saw a horseshoe vortex. I had never seen one before Wednesday and I have never heard of anyone one in South Africa before. Needless to say I rushed to take a photo of it.

Horseshoe vortices are one of the more bizarre and rare cloud forms. They can form if there is a lot of vorticity (a measure of rotation) in the air. Shallow cumulus is ideal for the formation of horseshoe-vortices, although the vortices are rare nevertheless. The vortices form when the small cumulus updraft interacts with the surrounding air and forms a dipole vortex; if the cumulus is small it will dissipate quicker than the spinning vortex so the leftover vortex is seen at the top of the cumulus. The vortex stays visible longer since the vortex interacts (mixes) less well with the ambient air

UPDATE ON BLOG

From now on I will not be posting any weather forecasts or storm reports on this blog. I have taken over the forecasting and storm report blog on SAStorms, to view the forecasts and reports pease visit the website at http://www.sastorms.co.za/
This site will still be used to showcase my various weather photography and storm chases. Now and again you may find a forecast or report for a specific area on this site though most of my wotrk will be done for SAStorms

Severe Weather Possible tomorrow and throughout the weekend

Severe weather is again likely starting tomorrow and throughout most of the weekend. A strong easterly wave trough has come down from the North East and will be making its way into the country overnight! This seems to be the start to the normal summer rainfall pattern as more and more of these troughs are likely to descend upon us from now.
The areas most affected by the trough are the North Eastern parts of the country (Mpumalanga and Limpop) with Gauteng and KZN being affected.

Looking at the 00Z GFS run the models are showing the following scenario:
Lifted index at 12z looks great, with areas of -6 in the NE parts of the country, with a band of -4 and -2 over GP and KZN while the 15z forecast shows a larger area of -6 with a large area of -4 stretching into KZN too.
CAPE for tomorrow seems to follow a similar path as the Lifted Index forecast with the highest CAPE (12z) values around 2400 in MPL with the rest of the relevant areas expected to recieve around 1200- 2000.
The 15z forecast again is much like the LI forecast, CAPE seems to intensify over the areas.
The wind profiles at 12Z seem to show some good shear, both speed shear and directional shear. Midlevel shear is good ranging from about 18 m/s (35kts)around the N and NE parts to about 27m/s (52kts) in KZN  Surface winds seems low though which may hinder storm development. The wind profiles seem to staay the same throughout the afternoon.

Friday looks like a good day, especially for KZN. There is enough instability to spark some intense storms just south of Pietermaritzburg. The mid and upper-level winds for this event arent as strong as the past two events so storm speed is likely to be slower.
Im hoping to be able to go out and get some good photos of any development should it occur here in PMB,. So far the season has been a total flop for me in terms of photography.

Please make sure you read the disclaimer!

Severe Weather 19/10/2011

As predicted yesterday turned out to be active day! Severe storms started firing up along the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal border around midday, with the most notable being a storm that started in Winterton, going through Escourt, past Greytown and further towards the coast, intensifying as it moved along. At one point the storm was a left mover, which made me think it may have been showing supercellular characteristics for a short while. The storm is reported to have dropped golfball sized hail in Escourt. As the storm progressed on its path it deverloped a bow-echo, indicating strong winds!

Up north storm initiation took a little while longer to get started, but once it did the storms turned severe fast! Most notable was a storm just to the NNW of Krugersdorp which had a core of about 80dBz, something not often seen this early in the season!

Unfortunatelythe storms did leave a few people without homes for the night in a small town in KZN, again a reminder of the power of these storms!

The dryline has progressed further east, leaving only a small area of storms possible in the Limpopo province for today and will likely be out of the country by tomorrow!

It has been a hectic two days, my only regret is that I did not have the free time and resources to chase this outbreak! The season is still young and I have a feeling we are in for a lot more severe weather to come!