Queensland hail storm injures mother and baby trapped in car 
 
 Updated 
 
 A Kingaroy mother thought her baby was going to die when they were pelted by hail after becoming trapped in her car during the supercell thunderstorms that wreaked havoc across Queensland's South Burnett region. 
 
 Key points: Fiona Simpson shielded her baby daughter from hail after it smashed car windows 
 
 She's been left with significant bruising after being pelted by hail 
 
 Her grandmother, also in the car, spent the night in hospital after being injured 
 
 Fiona Simpson, 23, was driving from Nanango on the D'Aguilar Highway to her home with her 78-year-old grandmother and 4-month-old daughter when the rain started to roll in. 
 
 Ms Simpson said she had not heard the warnings but knew she needed to pull her car over when the rain started getting heavy. 
 
 "I wasn't driving very fast because I couldn't see very well… I couldn't see in front of me, I couldn't even see the line on the road." 
 
 She said the next thing she heard was a large bang. 
 
 "All this rain starts coming in, and the back window where my daughter was was just open ... it's gone," she said. 
 
 GRAPHIC WARNING: This story contains confronting images 
 
 "It was so scary but there was no time to be afraid … It just all happened so fast." 
 
 The quick-thinking mother leapt into the back of her car and acted as a human shield for her baby. 
 
 "I jumped over the back seat, over her car seat, holding my body over hers," she said. 
 
 "I looked down and I could see she was screaming but I couldn't even hear her, that's how loud it was." 
 
 After another window smashed in the front of the car Ms Simpson moved to try and help her grandmother but both women were pelted with large hail stones. 
 
 Once the storm cell passed Ms Simpson drove her badly damaged car to a nearby home and screamed for help before the residents called an ambulance. 
 
 Ms Simpson said once paramedics arrived she went into shock and her whole body felt "numb". 
 
 "It wasn't until I got in the ambulance that I realised that if I didn't do that she [her baby] could have been seriously hurt or killed, anything could have happened," she said. 
 
 Her grandmother spent the night in Kingaroy hospital after most of the skin from her left arm was shredded while the other was left "completely black" from bruising. 
 
 Ms Simpson had significant bruising to most of her body but her daughter had small "bumps" on her. 
 
 Despite the terrifying ordeal the mother said she would not hesitate to do the same thing again. 
 
 "I'm just a mum — you do anything you can to protect your child no matter what, even at your own expense and I would do it again," she said. 
 
 "At the end of the day all that matters is that we're alive … a car can be replaced and bruises can heal and we're just all safe right now. 
 
 "If you know there is a storm coming just wait it out. We did the right thing, there's nothing else we could have done. I just can't believe hail could have done that." 
 
 Emergency Services Minister Craig Crawford said there had been more than 330 SES callouts overnight, with the number expected to climb throughout the day. 
 
 Widespread storms, destructive winds and large hail hit areas across the South Burnett to the Sunshine Coast with a tornado hitting Tansey, north-west of Murgon, shortly after 3pm. 
 
 Roofs were ripped from homes and sheds, orchards decimated and livestock took fright after the supercell storm tore through the area. 
 
 Close to 10,000 properties struck by the storm remain without power this morning. 
 
 Topics: weather, people, human-interest, storm-event, storm-disaster, disasters-and-accidents, nanango-4615, maroochydore-4558, qld, australia, brisbane-4000, bundaberg-4670, kingaroy-4610 
 
 First posted ||||| Mother who shielded baby from hail stones during supercell storm in line for bravery award 
 
 Updated 
 
 A young mother recommended for a bravery award after she used her body to shield her infant daughter from hail stones which broke in through the window of their car during a supercell thunderstorm says she's shocked by the gesture. 
 
 When asked during a press conference on Sunday, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she would recommend the 23-year-old for the honour. 
 
 Prime Minister Scott Morrison also praised the mother's actions, saying he thinks "she's one of the bravest people I've read of lately". 
 
 Ms Simpson was driving from Nanango on the D'Aguilar Highway to her home on Thursday with her 78-year-old grandmother and 4-month-old daughter when the rain started to roll in. 
 
 She said she had not heard the warnings but knew she needed to pull her car over when the rain started getting heavy. 
 
 The window beside her daughter was shattered by the weather, showering the young girl with hail. 
 
 The quick-thinking mother leapt into the back of her car and acted as a human shield for her baby. 
 
 GRAPHIC WARNING: This story contains confronting images 
 
 After another window smashed in the front of the car Ms Simpson moved to try and help her grandmother but both women were pelted with large hail stones. 
 
 The experience left the young mother with significant bruising to most of her body. Her daughter had small "bumps" on her. 
 
 Her grandmother was admitted to hospital after most of the skin from her left arm was shredded while the other was left "completely black" from bruising. 
 
 She's since been released. 
 
 Speaking to ABC News, Ms Simpson said she didn't even know about the Premier's intentions until she was contacted by her local newspaper for comment. 
 
 "I was shocked … I didn't expect it that's for sure," Ms Simpson said. 
 
 "I wouldn't have thought anyone like that would know about little old me." 
 
 She said since her story was made public on Friday she's been inundated with hundreds of messages of support from around the world. 
 
 "I've tried to reply to most of them but every time I clear through my messages 50 more pop up," she said. 
 
 "People are offering to help, offering to send me ointments and creams, offering to buy me a massage, a few insurance companies have offered to replace my car. 
 
 "There's people from Norway, America, Canada, and a lot of people across Australia. There's a few ones in language I don't know. I honestly can't believe how quick it went around, I'm very shocked. 
 
 "A lot of people have been telling me their stories about accidents they've had … I didn't expect any of it to be honest." 
 
 Topics: community-and-society, human-interest, weather, brisbane-4000, qld, kingaroy-4610 
 
 First posted ||||| Posted by WW Forecast Team on Thu, 11/10/2018 - 19:57 
 
 Filed in: 
 
 Supercell thunderstorms lashed southeast Queensland on Thursday, prompting the Bureau of Meteorology to issue warnings for tornadoes and giant hail. 
 
 A low pressure trough interacting with warm, moisture-laden air a very unstable atmosphere caused intense storms to develop in southeast Queensland on Thursday. Two of the storms became rotating supercell thunderstorms, causing very large hail, destructive winds and a tornado. 
 
 Image: Radar showing the supercell thunderstorm that caused a reported tornado on Thursday afternoon. 
 
 According to the Bureau, tennis ball sized hail measuring up to 7cm was reported at Kumbia around midday, while hailstones raining from 3-5cm were also found on the ground near Gympie, Proston and Murgon. In a warning issued at 3:25pm EST, there were details of a tornado reported near Tansey, to the northwest of Murgon. 
 
 The intense supercells caused widespread damage to properties and vegetation in the lower Wide Bay and Burnett District. 
 
 Visit http://www.weatherzone.com.au/warnings.jsp for the latest warnings. 
 
 - Story by Ben Domensino, Weatherzone.com.au ||||| Queensland storm clean-up: Schoolboy injured 'head to toe' after being hit by falling tree 
 
 Updated 
 
 An 11-year-old schoolboy remains is in a critical condition after a tree fell and trapped him at a property near Kingaroy, where a massive clean-up continues after a tornado and severe thunderstorms wreaked havoc on Thursday. 
 
 Key points: Residents describe their fear as "monster" storm causes flash flooding, rips off roofs 
 
 SES crews have been called to hundreds of incidents 
 
 Horses have been injured by the hail, while crops have sustained damage 
 
 Emergency workers said bystanders used a four-wheel-drive to move the tree off the child before paramedics arrived at the scene near Coolabunia just after 11:00am on Friday. 
 
 It is understood his family was present at the time of the accident. 
 
 Queensland Ambulance said the boy suffered "multiple serious injuries from head to toe, including head, neck, chest, abdomen, pelvis and lower limbs". 
 
 The boy was been flown to the Queensland Children's Hospital after being treated at the scene. 
 
 QAS senior operations supervisor Stephen Johns said moving the tree quickly was critical in saving the boy. 
 
 "[They] have done a tremendous job under the circumstances to ensure the tree was removed from the patient to protect him from any further injury." 
 
 Mr Johns warned others clearing their properties to be wary of dangers underneath debris. 
 
 Storm 'was a monster that's for sure' 
 
 Roofs were ripped from homes and sheds, orchards decimated and livestock took fright after the supercell storm tore through the area on Thursday. 
 
 Emergency Services Minister Craig Crawford said there had been more than 360 SES callouts, with the number expected to climb. 
 
 "We are very experienced in dealing with these sorts of emergencies — the most important thing is that we haven't had loss of life," he said. 
 
 Mr Crawford said crews would spend the day assessing the damage to homes and essential services, ahead of more rain forecast later in the day. 
 
 Queensland Dairy Farmers Organisation president Brian Tessmann lost the roof off his home at Coolabunia, south of Kingaroy. 
 
 "Within about 15 seconds of that, the roof came off and it was quite bedlam from there trying to hold doors shut and water coming through the ceiling and things flying through the air," Mr Tessman said. 
 
 "I saw it leaving through the window as it went in a couple of large pieces." 
 
 Shar Stolberg from Wolvi, north-west of Noosa, said she had "never been so scared in [her] life". 
 
 "Flash flooding in my creeks and couldn't almost get out after the storm to pick my kid up from school." 
 
 "She was a monster that's for sure." 
 
 Gympie resident Chris Evans said it was the worst hailstorm he's ever experienced. 
 
 "If you stand right beside a jet engine at full revs that's how loud it was." 
 
 Close to 10,000 properties struck by the storm remain without power this morning as crews find power poles "snapped like matchsticks" by the violent weather. 
 
 Danny Donald from Energex said crews were finding more powerlines and poles down as they travelled through the storm-ravaged areas. 
 
 "The damage is so severe on parts of this network — I'm talking poles down, and a lot of wires still down," he said. 
 
 "There will be some customers going into the weekend without power. 
 
 Animals lost and injured 
 
 As well as his house, Brian Tessman's dairy has also been severely damaged and his cows cannot be found. 
 
 "It stripped the roof off the majority of the dairy — the newest part of the dairy — and in doing so has taken electric cables and things with it out of the bails so there's quite a bit of work to do there," he said. 
 
 "I certainly hope that Ergon has the power back on by the time we've got the bails in a state to operate. 
 
 "We will go to generators if they haven't, but at this stage our big concern is getting it fit to operate, and a similar thing with the house." 
 
 The Nanango Veterinary Surgery was called out to treat injured livestock, including a horse hit in the eye with hail at Coolabunia. 
 
 "We will have a vet out at Booie [this] morning stitching up some poor horses who've been injured," the vet surgery wrote on social media. 
 
 "This poor guy at Coolabunia is covered in welts from the hail and has corneal ulceration from hail hitting his eyes." 
 
 'It knocks you down': Farmer 
 
 Further west the storm caused $2 million damage to Teresa Francis's Devine Fruit orchard in the Kumbia district. 
 
 "It started with small hail and then Mother Nature unleashed her fury on us and we started to get the bigger hail with a lot of wind," she said. 
 
 "It has damaged pretty much all the fruit on our farm — maybe 95 per cent of this crop. 
 
 "We've got one block under new hail netting and hopefully it will be OK. 
 
 "Our avocado trees have been hit as well and they were out in flower due to be picked next year." 
 
 Another farm belonging to Devine Fruit farm was hit by wild weather on Boxing Day last year. 
 
 "It knocks you down — I have stopped crying but there is worse things that can happen — we're all still OK," Ms Francis said. 
 
 "We're all still healthy and we'll just get back into it and do a clean up and see what we've got left and go from there." 
 
 Melon farmer Terry O'Leary said he was planting a crop of watermelons when the storm rolled in near Chinchilla. 
 
 "It intensified pretty quickly and by the time it got here it was, well, biblical would be the only way you could describe it," he said. 
 
 "We couldn't see or hear anything ... it was pretty brutal." 
 
 Mr O'Leary said his melon crops had been "completely written off", but a neighbouring farm a kilometre away was untouched by the hail. 
 
 Kim Lewis, the owner of Cooloola Berries at Wolvi said the impact on the farm was devastating with up to 900kg of blueberries worth about $20,000 stripped. 
 
 "The strawberries themselves were just macerated and the plants are all broken and flat." 
 
 Topics: storm-event, weather, storm-disaster, disasters-and-accidents, brisbane-4000, qld, australia, tansey-4601, coolabunia-4610, maryborough-4650, gin-gin-4671, kingaroy-4610, gayndah-4625, bundaberg-4670, maroochydore-4558 
 
 First posted ||||| Have you ever looked at the sky on a May or June day and seen a very tall storm cloud that has an anvil that stretches as far east as you can see? If so, chances are you have probably seen a supercell thunderstorm (Figure 1). On the thunderstorm spectrum, supercells are the least common type of thunderstorm, but they have a high propensity to produce severe weather, including damaging winds, very large hail, and sometimes weak to violent tornadoes. What makes a supercell unique from all other thunderstorm types is that it contains a deep and persistent rotating updraft called a mesocyclone. If the environment is favorable, supercell thunderstorms can last for several hours. 
 
 Figure 1. Supercell near Groom, TX on June 18, 2010 viewed from the NWS Amarillo office. Courtesy of Chris Nuttall. What ingredients are needed for the development of supercells? Although supercells require some degree of buoyancy, moderate to strong speed and directional wind shear between the surface and about 20,000 feet is the most critical factor. Wind shear not only creates the mesocyclone, but it also allows the storm to be tilted, which is important for maintaining a separate updraft and downdraft region. A separate updraft and downdraft allows the supercell to be long-lived because it reduces the likelihood that too much rain-cooled, stable air from the downdraft region will be ingested into the updraft, causing the storm to weaken. Supercells are most common in the central part of the United States, but they can occur in other regions of the country and other parts of the world. There are also a variety of supercell types, including classic, high precipitation, low precipitation, and even miniature. Classic supercells (Figure 2) are tough to precisely define. Nonetheless, these supercells typically exhibit a textbook appearance on radar and in the field for spotters. Radar features may include the presence of a hook echo, a weak echo region (WER), a bounded weak echo region (BWER), and a V-notch. Low-level storm features are visually identified by a well-defined wall cloud, a rain free base, a rear flank downdraft, and distinctly separate updraft and downdraft regions. Classic supercells are most com-monly found in the Great Plains of the United States and can be relatively isolated. High precipitation (HP) supercells (Figure 3) are less isolated than their classic counterparts and often form in environments with a high degree of atmospheric moisture and weak mid-level storm-relative winds. As a result, the updraft tends to become rain-wrapped, which makes it difficult to identify low-level storm features, including wall clouds and tornadoes. Low precipitation (LP) supercells (Figure 4) form in environments with low atmospheric moisture content and strong mid-level storm-relative winds. LP supercells usually don’t produce much precipitation, but what precipitation they do produce is usually in the form of very large hail. Since these supercells form in an environment with low atmospheric moisture, they are not uncommon in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles. Miniature supercells are smaller versions of classic supercells, they typically form in the cool season, and they are characterized by weak to moderate buoyancy that is confined to a relatively small vertical depth below 20,000 feet above ground level. Figure 2. Top view and radar depiction of a classic supercell. Figure 3. Top view and radar depiction of a high precipitation supercell. Figure 4. Top view and radar depiction of a low precipitation supercell. It can be difficult to characterize the type of a supercell because it will likely evolve from one type to another during its life cycle. For example, a supercell may initially form as a LP supercell on the Caprock, but by the time it moves off the Caprock, it may transition to a classic supercell. Regardless of the supercell types, the processes responsible for supercell formation are the same for every location.
– An Australian mother who shielded her daughter from hail during a storm last week has now been nominated for a bravery award, ABC Australia reports. "She's one of the bravest people I've read of lately," said Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a press conference Sunday at which Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she would recommend Fiona Simpson for the award. Simpson, 23, was driving home Thursday with her 4-month-old daughter and 78-year-old grandmother when it started raining. As the rain started to come down harder, she pulled over. Then, it started to hail—and the hail shattered the window next to the infant. That's when Simpson decided to act as a human shield for the baby, shielding the girl with her own body and later trying to also help her grandmother when hail broke the front window of the car. The trio was caught in a "supercell thunderstorm," a rare type of storm featuring a "persistent rotating updraft called a mesocyclone," per Weather.gov. It caused giant hail and a tornado, per WeatherWatch; ABC has pictures of the Queensland havoc. Simpson and her grandmother both suffered significant bruising, and the skin on one of the grandmother's arms was shredded. The infant, though, just ended up with some small bumps, though Simpson says she was screaming in terror during the incident "but I couldn't even hear her, it was just so loud." Simpson says she's been overwhelmed with supportive messages since her story made headlines: "People are offering to help, offering to send me ointments and creams, offering to buy me a massage, a few insurance companies have offered to replace my car." (This mom saved a pregnant mom and her toddler from drowning.)