I chased storms on both the 2nd and 3rd of January.
Day 1 was a particlary frustrating day for me as opposed to Lightning Chaser who scored some epic CGs near Bathurst. We both planned on targeting the Bathurst/Oberon general area but decided to go in seperate cars( we commenly do this now to get more footage) .Unfortunately I left an hour later than Lightning Chaser,and as a result the Southern Highlands storms distracted me. The highlands storms weren't too shabby at all. The first one was very weak with bad contrast but it dropped out some clear air cgs. The next couple of storms around Bowral/ Mittagong we're much better storms, but with the southerly nearby they were never going to last long. The southern cell around Moss Vale contained a nice RFB which rapidly gave way to torrential rain and small hail. The frustating thing was the lack of CGs at the front of the storm, nearly all of them were embedded in the rain or behind the storm. The storm rolled over top of me,so I attempted to reposition to Mittagong for the northern storm( another drak red/black cored storm) Driving in the core of the Moss Vale storm was quite fun with torrential rain and small hail, 1 to maybe 2cms.During the core punch, I took a corner too quickly,and nearly spun off the road. I saw some nice CGs whilst driving through Mittagong,but it was becoming obvious that the storm was decaying rapidly. I pushed further north to Picton, where I witnessed a decent little pulse storm 20kms to my west. Unfortunately the storm decayed, but it did produce non-stop anvil thunder over my head(which was nice to listen to)and a few pulsing CGs, though too far for decent footage.
With the southerly chasing me, I decided to push onto Penrith where I waited for a good half hour or so, hoping the line of storms south of Katoomba would make it to me. At about this stage, I rang Lightning Chaser who was scoring some brilliant pulsing bolts near Bathurst at the time. I got impatient and decided to drive towards the Blue Mountains storms.What I didnt anticipate was a full blown scud fest which lasted until Lithgow. This mean't that I saw nothing,and this left me very frustrated. I pushed towards Mudgee where I witnessed heaps of very distant CGs to my east from Pearsons lookout(way to far away for video). I got a nice sunset however, but not much else. A fairly frustrating chase day. 3/10 Went back to Bathurst for the night.
Day 2- A lightning active storm near Lake Cargeligo saw us both on the road early. We left Bathurst at 7am,and checked the internet/models in Orange at 8am. The storms to the west were looking quite handy, however it was only early in the day. Wanting a good road option to the Mudgee/Gulgong area we decided to head north to Wellington where we stayed for all morning and into the afternoon. Watching the storms fire to the south was quite painful considering we were in the exact area just hours earlier,however we had to stick with our target area.
A second storm at middayish around Orange looked particulary nice,and another juicy storm was evident to our southeast towards Bathurst.Meanwhile the sky in our area was very primed for storms with heaps of blue sky and castellanus about.We had to remind ourselves that it was only 1pm which is still early. 2pm came and still nothing around wellington. Another storm was developing to our southwest(yet again)near Cumnock. I was confident I could intercept a storm if I went south,so thats what I did. I got to within 20kms of the storm,but the road took me away from it. I made it down to Molong and realised I was making a horrible mistake. Here I had a decent storm to me east with CGs but it was rapidly moving away from me. Meanwhile the sky above me and too my west was looking crook all of a sudden. I realised the trough was directly overhead,and moving to my northeast.There was no way I was giving up on the chase,so I booted it back to Wellington at 120clicks.
The sky at last began to look interesting around Wellington with the cap breaking at last,however I wanted to push east to Gulgong. About 20kms northeast of Wellington I noticed a rapidly developing base to my west,so I backtracked to almost Wellington again. This storm was slapping out the occasional clear air CG with nice booms. I met up with Lightning Chaser again and a drove down a road which takes you to a town 30kms southeast of Wellington.About half way down the road,we noticed that the Wellington storm was beginning to look real intersting with a lovely base and some rotation. This was the beginnings of the Gulgong/Dunedoo storms. Unfortnately this storm was moving into an inconvenient area for us,so we aborted. Considering there was decent shear about we had no chance of getting it( we would've had to backtrack 15kms west to Wellington,and then back east again) Another severe storm was developing just 10kms to our south,so we intercepted that. This storm contained some lovely greenage,and was chucking plenty of cgs. I decided to push in close to the storm,hoping for some flangs. I got some nice cgs 2-3kms on video but not the elusive flang that i've been after. This storm produced torrential rain,flash flooding,and some hail to 2-3cms. Unfortunately it was decaying,so we gave up on it,and headed back to Wellington. Here we came across a very rapidly devloping base.In almost no time,it went from base to full on deluge. We pushed eastwards to keep ahead of it,briefly pulling over to film at times. Some nice cgs at times,but a fairly ordinary storm.
20kms from Gulgong,we came across a tree which had completely blocked the road. I was happy to wait,as a truck was already clearing it,however Lightning Chaser headed back to Wellingon. In no time,the road was clear so I headed south towards Mudgee. Here I noticed more continuous thunder to my west.A brilliant shelf cloud was coming into into view about 20kms to the west above some hills,and some brilliant CGs were throwing out ahead of it. Another storm to my south was also dropping CGs,mostly clear airs which were hitting 3kms to my east!!!!
Eventually the best part of the storm was heading towards the Gulgong area,so I repositioned to that area encountering a nice barrage of a dozen or so CGs 2-3kms away.This storm decayed rapidly,leaving a spectacular sunset in its wake.
Whilst, I missed the best storm of the day,im happy with todays chase.Heaps of great lightning to keep me happy,and some good structure at times as well. 7/10.
Thunderstorms- Wellington, inland NSW
