Gday All,
Rodney Wallbridge and I decided to make the journey over the border in anticipation of a quality lightshow. Our target was the Warwick area so we headed off around 2.30pm. At this stage can I say that the road between Legume and Woodenbong is quite possibly one of the most ordinary I've been on. It is so bumpy and rough Rod and I felt like a couple of those wobbly dogs you see on the rear parcel shelf of cars, such was the way our heads were rolling on our shoulders from that horrendous rd. Any way back to the report.
On the way there was some struggling convection but things would turn for the better later on.
We met up with Julian and his partner Jodie in Warwick and played the waiting game. We decided to have an early bite to eat and wait for the main show to start. After knocking down some KFC (chasers choice I've been led to believe) we strolled outside to see a nice little cell to the east, so we decided to investigate. It was quite a high based cell but did drop a few CGs and did appear to have some scud under the main updraft at times.
Another high based cell started to kick off to our south as well which was quite photogenic in the setting sun
As soon as the sun had gone behind the clouds we could make out a line of storms to our west. We decided to make our way to an estate near the lookout over Warwick and wait for the line to approach. We didn't have to wait long as once the light started to fail distant CGs became visible. This is what we were waiting for. A quick consultation of the radar showed there was lots activity so all we had to do was wait for it to come to us. Once the line got a bit closer we got the cameras out and tried our luck. This was the best of mine with plenty landing just out of frame (typical)
Not long after this some flashing to the north of us caught our attention from new development, so we turned our cams in this direction to try and capture some of the quality stacattos that were happening. Unfortunately at this stage the wind came up very strong, whether it was outflow from the earlier storm or inflow into this new storm I couldn't tell but it certainly intensified this new cell into something to behold. The wind was so strong that it was difficult to get a decent shot, with the tripod shaking around continually. The structure of the new cell was breathtaking with a very nice guster which looked to be scraping the hilltops. I tried to capture the scene as best as I could but the wind was making things next to impossible to get a quality image. Heres the best I could do.
Hopefully Rod or Julian got a better shot than this as it was truly spectacular to witness. Not long after this the rain started so we decided to make our way to the cars and consider our options. Julian let us know that the cell was making its way towards Lismore so we decided to call it a night and head home in anticipation of catching up to it and getting some more pics.
Thankfully we didn't catch up with it because the road home was constantly littered with leaf debris and small branches. As we made our way towards Woodenbong the size of branches lying on the sides of the road increased in size until inevitably we came across the very thing we didn't want to see.......a group of 5 trees were lying the full width of the Mt Lindesay Hwy about 5km west of Woodenbong blocking our way home. I'm sure glad we didn't catch up with the cell as it would have been a very scary, if not bloody dangerous area to have been in as it is heavily forested and the prospect of a tree landing on Rods car wasn't my cup of tea.
Heres a pic of the scene sorry about quality it was still raining moderately as you can see.
We had a semi in front of us who told us that he had called someone about the HWY being blocked, but an 1 1/2 hrs later no-one had turned up. So Rod got on the phone to the SES after hrs officer and had someone organised to get up and clean up the road. Finally after 2hrs the road was passable and we were on our way. The next 30kms were a slow grind as we had to constantly keep our eyes peeled for more trees. Thankfully the council had already been out and cleaned up. The size of some of the trees cleared to the side of the road was incredible. It must have really roared through that area.
We finally got back to Lismore at 3.30am......13hrs after we started the chase. I was very exhausted, I couldn't imagine how Rod felt, it was a Herculean effort and I can't thank him enough for getting me home safe and sound.
In all a pretty satisfying day although I didn't get as many quality photos as I would have liked but thats the nature of chasing. It was great to meet and chase with Julian, I 'm sure we'll cross paths again.
Anyway thats it (sorry if its a bit long winded),
Hope you enjoy,
Cheers Jason
