Perth Lightning and Storm Photos

Being situated on the coast Perth Australia receives much of it's weather from the Indian Ocean. This funnel cloud was one of four I observed in one day off the coast at Scarborough Beach in Perth's northern suburbs as a line of showers approached from the west. The funnel clouds occurred in the middle of winter, produced by a line of towering cumulus congestus as a line of showers approached the coast from the west.

This was a winter severe thunderstorm associated with a strong cold front. The storm approached Perth's northern suburbs from the west, imbedded in a line of heavy showers. The storm didn't produce much lightning and no hail, just heavy rain. Imagine my surprise then when the rain cleared to reveal this wall cloud at the storms back end. The storm moved off to the east without producing any damage.

Significant gust fronts are most common during summer when the temperature contrast between the storm's cold outflow and the warm air it forces up combine to produce those ominous low hanging clouds ahead of the rain. What made this gust front remarkable is that it occurred on a cold winter day when temperature did not exceed 15ºC! In this case the storm outflow was very cold, causing the temperature to plummet some 5 degrees as it moved through.