Hi all,
Just with regard to the supercell noted above, I did hear some unconfirmed reports of hail up to 7cm.
On another note, I had my first chase of the season on Saturday. A weak surface trough sat through the Wide Bay district of SE QLD and was there long enough to drag some shallow moisture inland and kick off some storms. A little upper trough helped the situation with -14 to -15C at 500mb moving into the area.
I headed N from Brisbane and was in Gympie by early afternoon but it looked too dry with the trough seemingly sitting right over/just N of town. So I headed N to Maryborough and from there I headed west towards some showers which had popped up on radar. I got as far W as Aramara before I could see what looked to be possibly the crummiest anvil I have ever seen off to my WSW. Road options are limited in this area but I headed further W before taking the Bauple - Woolooga Rd south for about 10-15km to near Gigoomgan or thereabouts where i stayed for the next hour listening to the Cats smash Port Adelaide in the footy and watching as this cell grew (ever so slowly). There was infrequent thunder the whole time but it wasn't until it hit the sea breeze that it actually started to look like a storm. It developed a nice little base and pushed out a weak guster but the most intense part was passing just to my S. I could see another cell to the SW of this one so I decided to core punch this cell and position myself for the next cell (starting to edge closer to home too...). I encountered some nice heavy rain and some gusty winds but nothing too special.
After I got through this cell, the next cell was starting to look quite good. The tops were very low (28,000ft at a guess) and the bases were realtively high (5-6k ft) but it had nice structure and looked like it would hang about for a while. I got some photos of the structure as the sun set and then headed S to get closer to it for some lightning photos. Again the roads and trees dictate where you can and can't stop for pics but I eventually found somewhere to stop when I was about 2km from the storm...I snapped on the 10-22mm wide angle and started shooting 1.5-2 second exposures and this cell just UNLEASHED right in front of me. Every 20-30 seconds a CG would explode out in front of the storm and land somewhere between 1 and 3km away from me (the pics look further as they were taken at 10mm...hehe). This little show lasted about 10 minutes - long enough for me to bag a few nice photos with enough daylight left to get some structure as well as the lightning. I was going to head S to the Kilkivan - Gympie road and head east to get in front of this cell but it went ENE and I ended up sitting to its SW as it moved off towards Tiaro (as others have mentioned). When the anvil rain stopped, I managed to score a few crawlers out of the back end.
A phone call to Anthony C/Dave S (who were also chasing) had us focusing on the new cells developing to the W of Goomeri. After some deliberation, I booted it back to the west in the hope I could find a clearing near Kilkivan before the storm got there. The twisty roads in that area are crazy for trying to keep your bearings but I managed to get into Kilkivan before the storm - just. I set up for lightning and managed to score some very nice CG's hitting the hills which sit about 1-2km W of town before the precip started - it was only light but it was annoying enough to have to stop taking pics. As luck had it yesterday, this cell weakened and moved off to the E and the rain cleared off just as the next cell in the line moved closer to Kilkivan. I ended up staying in the same spot for over half an hour taking lightning pics and listening to the deep cracks of thunder. Eventually one cell got going enough to mow over the town but not before blasting the hills with more CG's. I was feeling quite vulnerable standing in the middle of a footy oval next to two power poles...even more so when a CG hit the hills but pushed out a branch which landed in the town about 800m from me causing a spectacular green glow and taking out the town's power (there is a photo of this...hehe). Just as I was packing it in, Anthony/Dave turned up and we stayed there for another few minutes before trying to get east of the cells. We had some trouble doing this as they moved just N of the east-west aligned road so we were enveloped in precip. We had about 2 minutes at one location where it wasn't raining and there was only 1 more CG from this cell and it was quite nice.
We noticed more cells developing along the trough to the W and NW but it was starting to get late and we decided to call it a night. A quick stop in Gympie to re-fuel before heading back down the Bruce Hwy to Brisbane (~650km).
Overall, quite a successful chase. My first real chase of the 2007/08 season. I was a little worried earlier on when I was watching that one lone storm which was barely even that but true to form, patience and faith in ones forecast paid off.
Pics here…
http://macca.bsch.au.com/gallery/album20Macca
(There are also some other pics from the Sunshine Coast flood event from August on my 2007/08 gallery if anyone is interested).
