Severe Thunderstorms with devastating tornadoes over Eastern Qld
November 29, 1992
storm report
Every now and then, The south-eastern quarter of Queensland tends to experience an outbreak of severe thunderstorms. Similar days include November 5, 1995, December 10, 1999 and more recently November 27, 2006. The following is my personal recollection of weather events (and included BoM findings) on the incredible day of 29-11-92.
I was woken early by a very loud electrical storm near 5:30am. Taking a look outside, I noticed that it was nearly finished, but another storm was evident directly to the west with brilliant CC and CG lightning. As it moved over, lightning hit the nearby ground in all directions, with simultaneous claps of thunder. With CG strikes coming down at the rate of one in every five seconds, I was forced to go inside despite the fact that it was a relatively dry storm. After 20 minutes or so, it cleared to a sunny but hot and humid morning with scattered weakening towering cumuli over the inland.
The forecast was for an afternoon thunderstorm ahead of a late afternoon SE wind change. By late morning however I was very disappointed because a full overcast had developed over us. I didn't know that by 11:30am storms were developing over the inland >100km NW of us, near Esk. Just after midday a Severe Thunderstorm Warning was issued between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, giving me quite a surprise. Living in the Brisbane southern suburbs, I was told not to expect anything, but that changed when hailstones started to fall at the Brisbane Cricket Ground (the 'Gabba), where a Test Match was being played between Australia and the West Indies. Unfortunately the cricket wasn't on local TV, but the radio commentators told us the story, with hail up to golf ball size falling. The ground staff covering the pitch were given helmets to reduce any injury and the spectators had to move undercover. At my place, a gust front had appeared to the NW, and soon after hail up to 3.5cm in diameter started falling. Most stones were unusual in shape. Some were jagged balls, while others were 2cm long and 0.5cm wide and some oval shaped. The SE wind change followed the storm, but an hour later an unusual very high based storm bought more hail, this time only 1cm diameter before moving on. No rain fell from this storm, and it lasted only 2 minutes. The first hailstorm was most intense to our NW, where blankets of golf ball hail covered lawns and caused car damage, but no strong winds were recorded. Later I found out that the hailstorms we experienced were actually weak compared to the other storms that occurred during the afternoon.
The storm that was situated just east of Esk at 12:40pm split soon after, with the southern half (the right mover) affecting Brisbane and the northern half (the left mover) affecting the Maroochydore area on the Sunshine Coast. This hailstorm was very severe, with 8-10cm diameter hail and severe wind squalls. This definite supercell storm damaged 80 houses which had their roofs punctured by the hail, capsized five catamarans and damaged thirty light aircraft at the airport. Fourteen very distressed people who were swimming at the surf beach were rescued also and hundreds of cars were damaged. Home video of the phenomenal hailstorm was captured as the giant hail pummeled the area.
At 1pm an eastward moving storm was first detected on radar about 100km west of the Mt Kanighan radar, and split into two ten minutes later. The southern storm, moving in an ESE direction was unusual that although it had a very large hail area, no damage was reported as it tracked through the Gympie area. The northern storm, moving in an ENE direction was to become the first tornadic storm of the day, and radar displayed the characteristic 'hook' indicative of a supercell thunderstorm. At 2:30pm the storm moved over the Oakhurst area, where an F3 tornado occurred. The tornado luckily moved over a sparsely populated area and only destroyed one house and severely damage several others, while three cattle had to be put down. A pine forest in the path of the tornado was flattened like a huge lawn mower had moved over, leaving a wall of trees untouched on either side. A resident who saw the tornado said: "it was like ten freight trains all at once; this big spiral of rubbish, leaves, bits of tin flying around everywhere…" Again, this storm produced tennis ball size hail, smashing hundreds of windows after being driven by severe winds. Eyewitness account --->
The next severe thunderstorm to develop over Eastern Qld was even more severe. A cell was first detected SW of Mt Perry at 2:20pm, but unlike the earlier storms, it did not split. As the storm moved ENE it moved through the Bucca and Bullyard areas inland of Bundaberg producing 8-10cm hail, damaging downdraughts and a violent F4 tornado. The Kolan-Bucca areas were hardest hit by the tornado, with 9 houses being extensively damaged or destroyed. Twenty cattle were killed or later put down due to serious injuries.
Quoting from a report titled: "Severe Thunderstorms and Tornadoes in Southeast Queensland" compiled by Bryan Davies and Sue Oates of the Severe Weather Section in the Brisbane Bureau of Meteorology, an eye witness, Mr Peter McLellan offered the following evidence of the severe winds:
1/ Stones embedded in trees;
2/ 16-20cm sapling approximately 4-5m long driven through 5 walls of a house;
3/ Picture frame embedded in opposite wall;
4/ Fridge blown away and never found;
5/ 3 tonne truck body blown or carried 300 metres.
Weather Bureau investigators rated the tornado at least an F4 on the Fujita-scale because of the way it obliterated brick houses and carried away debris.
The final and northern-most severe storm to develop on this day first appeared on radar just after 3pm and moved through the Gladstone area after 3:30pm. The golf ball size hail that accompanied the storm caused extensive damage to crops but only minimal damage to residential properties.
On average, every year 3-5 tornadoes are reported over Queensland, but of course because of our low-density population many more are not. They are most likely to occur over SE districts, but it isn't rare for a tornado to accompany a tropical cyclone crossing the coast over Northern Districts. Luckily although several residents were inside their houses when destroyed on this day back in 1992, none were seriously injured or killed. One day our luck will run out and a high population area will be hit by a severe tornado.
I would like to thank the Severe Weather Section , of the Brisbane Weather Bureau for providing the very useful information on these severe storms.
the great bucca f4 tornado
The violent tornado at maturity
The tornado starts roping out. Old or possibly additional debris cloud (or maybe just scud) to the right
Eyewitness Account of the F3 tornado just north of Maryborough after passing near Oakhurst, by Karen Andersen. "The weather on the Sunday was like none I have ever experienced before, and it still sends shivers down my spine every time a storm develops near here, particularly a severe one. During the day, the wind gusts were tremendous; around 35-40knots. I watched the weather developing all day and by around 12:30 a very strange-looking storm had developed to the west. As I was traveling home from Toogom on the coast north of us (near Hervey Bay) I had a very good view of the storm and could see very clearly the rotation in the clouds. I wish I had known what I know now about storms so I could have taken more notice. Anyway, the storm arrived very quickly and struck us at around 2:15 - 2:30. The thunder and lightning was continuous throughout the storm's entirety. The hail began pretty much with the storm's arrival and was pretty large, between golf and tennis ball size. The rain was extremely heavy, too. Even as the storm sat overhead we could still see the rotation in the clouds. After about 15 minutes of watching the storm, all of a sudden the rain, hail and lightning ceased. We thought the storm had passed for a few seconds, but we could still hear thunder. The "thunder" kept getting louder and louder until we realized that it wasn't thunder - we thought a jet was about to crash into our house. My brother ran out into the yard to take a look and saw, over the tree tops and our house, a huge grey mass of swirling cloud and leaves and debris. Realizing what it was, he screamed "F---! It's a tornado! Get inside!!!" Within ten seconds it was here. The sky was filled with leaves, wood, branches, iron and bits and pieces from our neighbours' houses. In 8 seconds it had unleashed its fury and we watched it lifting from the ground as it moved east over the paddocks to the back of our estate. Once again, the sky was clear.
The house to our right and the one directly across the road from it copped the worst damage. The neighbours next door found their wooden boat, about 28ft, had been picked up and smashed into a million pieces at the back of their house on the railway line. They watched the twister pick up their van, carry it for about 20 metres around 6 metres off the ground, then drop it suddenly, smashing the windows when it landed. We had damage to 48 trees on our 2& a half acre block, the tops twisted off them. They looked like God had reached down with a giant pencil sharpener and sharpened them to a point. Debris was everywhere - we had bits of metal and window frames hanging in our trees, even sheets from the neighbours' bed across the road. They are still where the tornado left them. Our flyscreens were slashed from the flying debris - we were lucky that that was all. The neighbours' houses had some major damage; windows and doors bowed out and shattered under the pressure, roofing was lost, and so was metal guttering. Furniture, bedding, belongings and the like were scattered along the street, particularly from the house across the road which is high blocked. Another of our neighbours had been driving up the highway at the time that the twister crossed it. She saw a huge fireball move across the highway as it passed through the local "Action Park" race track, bringing down power lines. In all, everything was a mess. We even had the cops here at the top of the road blocking off the constant stream of sight seers tripping down the road.
The following week, my Dad, brother and I went for a drive to Oakhurst where the twister first touched down. The trees were all about a metre high, sharpened like pencils, completely debarked. The ground was devoid of all grass, even the topsoil, yet small stones and rocks remained. There was just nothing - it was completely gone. We thought the tornado was an F4 at this point and weakened as it reached our estate. We also went for a drive into the state Forestry, Wongi State Forestry. The pine trees were flattened in some areas, broken off and all lying on the ground, but in some other spots they were bent over with their tops almost touching the ground, still growing and still rooted to the ground. They were like this for miles. A ranger was in the fire tower about 5-10kms from where the twister passed through and he said he laid on the floor because it was swaying so much. THAT must have been terrifying. We also saw a flattened brick house that a young guy my age from school was injured in. We just couldn't believe the amount of damage. It was horrific."
The images of the Bucca tornado are located on BSCH
