The chase yesterday was a rush job as I was supposed to be home looking after the kids... But around 1pm radar showed some development near Glen Innes and I just took off estimating I would have 2 hours to get to the target if those cells kept going and the shear forecast was about right. GFS had undercooked the instability on the northern part of the Northern Tablelands though.
The drive from my place to Tenterfield normally takes 2 hours, so the 1 hour 50 mins was good going. I stopped for fuel and then noticed the bloody vibration through the steering was back. Had only just had the wheels balanced and aligned on Thursday after I noticed a problem on Wednesday evening. Grrrrrrrr, I pressed on even though it seemed worse than the other day.
Headed straight south down the New England Highway as the severe storm came into view properly - I had caught glimpses of it in the distance during the drive up the Divide. It really did appear to be a very powerful storm. I wasn't sure of side roads here, but sort of knew there were some roads east of the highway before I would get to Bolvia Hill and too many trees. Sandy Flat was the location where I took the pics of the base. A local stopped to check if I was ok, so asked him what the road was like to the east .... "you can go 8ks east with mainly just open paddocks, then it goes north but into trees".
I headed east and soon encountered strong outflow, a little rain and then sporadic hail 1cm to 2cm diameter. The cell had just beaten me and was passing north of the dirt road I was on. I measured some stones then caught a glimpse into the northern valley - it was white with hail ! The road then took me right into the hail swathe where the cover of mainly 3-4cm stones was impressive. I don't recall seeing so much hail cover from large hail before, actually I haven't seen this much with small hail either. I measured some stones at almost 5cm. I moved a bit further north where the hail fog and snow effect was magic.
All the while deep booms of thunder echoed through the area from the hailstorm, and also another storm to the SW.
After I had the hail fun, I headed back north to Tenterfield to keep out of the rain and see if the next cell would be any good.
The cell I had been on intensified again just NE of town but it was moving into inaccessible country and I was still worried about the car problem.
Larger view:
http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/photos/2007021009.jpgI waited back in town briefly and thought I may get the NRMA to check it as I could not see anything wrong with the tyres. Mobile phones dead - no signal ! great - maybe the tower had been disabled by the storm. So much for getting it checked. Used a payphone but it went to the local's mobile answering machine. Really useful. Just as well the car wasn't completely stuffed.
I decided to keep going to the next potential target as I had expected more storms to persist from the Inverell direction into the evening. I ended up about 50ks west of Tenterfield on the Bruxner Highway. I was hoping the mobile phone tower was ok down this way and just as well it was - so I could at least phone home and let Al know what was going on
The vibration in the front of the car had become very bad now so I took my fourth look at the front right - major bulge in the tyre surface - not sure why I could not detect it previously - and no wonder it was bad. Changed it and was right after that !! I suspect this was the cause of the problem I went into get fixed on Thursday - not happy Jan !
Cells developed into the evening providing some lightning opportunities though nothing was really close. The main one developed west of Texas and moved east just north of me. I tried a few locations near Glenlyon Dam and then back along the Bruxner. Several big anvil crawlers occurred and interesting roll and shelf cloud structures on the southern side of the storm were lit up.
Larger view:
http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/photos/2007021010.jpg
Larger view:
http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/photos/2007021011.jpg
Larger view:
http://australiasevereweather.com/temp/forum/photos/2007021012.jpgMichael
