Rodney Wallbridge, Dave Ellem and I left for the Northern Tablelands about 10.45am. We weren't expecting any early development and that was certainly the case with the first decent updrafts not until 2pm near Glen Innes.
This cell formed to the SW of Glen Innes while another storm formed just west of Dorrigo.
We moved to about 15ks NE of Glen Innes and watched a severe storm approach. Lightning was not particularly frequent but the updrafts and overall structure were very powerful looking.
A gustfront developed and spread N-NW, kicking up new cells to the west.
We escaped this area just in time as gale force outflow winds from the SE hit. It was unusual for us to witness a storm with most of its base close to ground level (terrain is about 1200m here) !
We stopped again at Deepwater as activity became widespread.
Very strong SE winds spread across the entire stretch between Glen Innes and Tenterfield, many braches were brought down and some large trees as well. The surge of SE'ers kicked up cells everywhere and it was certainly a dash to save the Rav 4 from what appeared to be hail shafts. At this stage it was a worry if the whole area would just become clouded in but the chase continued west along the Bruxner Highway from Tenterfield.
Storm after storm shot up along the boundary. We mostly kept just ahead of it all and eventually made it completely out of the SE influence near Bonshaw.
Activity had largely died off at this stage, but CJs were persisting to the SW and W. Just on evening a couple of storms got going near Texas and provided us with an awesome lightning show until about 9pm.
It was a very rewarding, long and excited Northern Tablelands chase day ! 800km covered though we almost didn't make it home - fuel had been knocked out at Tenterfield due to the storms. We just made it back to the next 24 hour fuel at Casino with about 1 litre of fuel remaining !!!
Cheers, Michael
