18th-19th November 2003

The anticipation surrounding this event was enormous. Most models were pointing to significant storms lasting over several days. Even the BOM were getting excited by the sounds of their forecasts. By Monday night (17th Nov) local TV news services were even leading the news with the possible storms. Channel Nine even mentioned the possibility of tornados! Certainly the possibility was there of severe storms - ingredients seemed to be perfect. There was a large amount of low-level moisture and instability, tropical heat and humidity, an upper low over NW WA which was bringing in middle level moisture, and shear seemed to be right. Other things also tended to point to severe storms. Up to the day before the event CAPE was up to 3000 over central SA and LI's were -8 to -10!!! Unfortunately, by the 18th this had been toned down somewhat but still looked promising for some severe storms.

Tuesday 18th November began with fairly overcast skies from decayed storms that were out on the West Coast of SA the day before. Temps were expected to reach the low 30's and it was beginning to get quite humid. By late morning some cumulus began to develop along the ranges so I made the decision to head through the hills to see what develops.
Convection continued to fire off the Cu as I headed to the other side of the hills. Just on the other side of Mt Pleasant I stopped on the ridge of the hills overlooking the plains to the east. From here I had a great view of the now towering cumulus to most directions. It seemed only a matter of time before these grew into mature storms.

After grabbing some lunch down on the plains in Cambrai, I started heading towards Sedan and then Swan Reach. A phone call to Lennie who was chasing with others further to my north confirmed that several Cu was starting to look ominous further east so we decided to meet up at Swan Reach. As I got closer, rain shafts were starting to appear from a couple of bases. The others hadn't arrived in Swan reach yet so I parked myself on the Loxton Road waiting for it all to fire up. Unfortunatley they just didn't seem to want to go that extra step. Watched as the rain shafts headed SE away from me and continued to watch as Cu grew to Tcu and then did nothing.

By now it was mid-afternoon and we were getting worried that nothing was going to happen at all. We all decided to meet back up at Blanchetown where more Tcu was developing to the NW. We stationed ourselves at the Roadhouse for a good hour or so watching and waiting for something to happen. By about 4pm it started to look good with some bases looking quite turbulent and unstable. Again though, they just didn't want to take that extra step.

Phone calls back to Adelaide gave us information that a STW was out for the Greater Adelaide area which confused us greatly as there wasn't much back in that direction. Anyhow we did start moving back that way, getting to Truro where, looking behind us, it looked as though it may be about to go off back towards Loxton. We continued through to Kapunda and then Freeling where we met the others and Andrew who had come up after work in Adelaide. Lennie and I had evening commitments back in Adelaide so we had to head home. On the way we saw it finally go off to the east with a beast going up probably near Swan Reach. We later found out that the others went back that way after also seeing it go up.

I finished Table Tennis at about 10pm later that night and headed straight home to check the radar and get updates of what was happening. Found out that there was a storm approaching from the NW/Port Wakefield area but this wasn't very lighting active. There was also a conglomerate of storms in the Clare/Burra region heading SE towards the Riverland. This was the action that the others were still chasing out near Morgan. I decided to start heading in that direction in the hope to at least catch the edge of it.

Very soon while driving along the Gawler Bypass, lightning was visible every second in the distance!! I was stepping on the gas as I headed up the Sturt Highway and by the time I got to Truro it was actually getting quite close. A phone call to Greg who was chasing with the others on the other side of the storm confirmed it was a monster. They had a guster coming straight for them. Pretty soon after, a flash of lighting lit up the sky well enough to show a huge guster to my NNE. Some awesome structure was evident - it was just a pity it was night and I couldn't take photos to show off it's beauty. The frequent lighting gave me tantalising glimpses of this beast as it headed in a slow SE direction.

I continued to head eastwards but pretty soon realised I was in a bit of trouble. I was trying to out-run it to Blanchetown but outflow winds were already buffeting the car badly and several flangs were giving me the heebie-jeebies! I was quite worried about large hail and possible other stuff hidden out there that could cause me trouble. Thankfully I managed to get under cover at the Blanchetown roadhouse just as the main guster hit. The winds were amazing - would have to be a constant 80km/h+ for a good 5 mins, as the torrential rain and a small amount of small hail tumbled down.
After the main storm had passed I continued to watch the lightning to the east as it moved away. Did take some video footage but the lightning was all rain-wrapped and CC's so wasn't that great.
The others joined me by about 1.30am after their excitement and we all shared our experiences before heading back to Adelaide. On the way back a nice light show was evident to the south as a large storm complex off the southern coast was lighting up the cloud tops.

Wednesday 19th November was always going to go off. It was just a matter of where and when. Unfortunately I was stuck at work all day so couldn't chase but others were able to.
Convection again started quite early but this time developed very quickly over the Barossa with a severe storm already by 2pm which then headed through the Murraylands.
By mid to late arvo storms were firing on Eyre and Yorke peninsulas and headed in Adelaide's direction. First storms hit soon after 4.30pm in the northern suburbs and then spread throughout the metro area. At work I could hear the rumbles of thunder and torrential rain falling. It was absolute heartache to go through after my bust chase during the day before. Finished work at 5.30pm after the storm had passed there but was still causing problems in the Southern suburbs. An area of Onkaparinga Hills, Morphett Vale, and nearby suburbs copped the worst of it, dumping hail up to 3cm.
Some storms continued to fire just to the NE up Blanchetown way which was chased by a couple of ASWA members but I decided not to because it was all moving away and I'd struggle to catch them. The SE of the state copped the storms bad later in the evening with damaging winds mainly the problem.

These four photos below were taken by my brother Peter, at his home at McLaren Vale. The photos are of the storm to affect the southern suburbs with 3cm hail.

And the final four photos below were taken by Steve Klink, also of the storms to affect the southern suburbs.