Thanks to everyone for showing such fabulous pictures. And Michael Bath I want to thank you for taking the time to save and display indepth analysis so often, really appreciate it.
A bit (fairly) dissapointed about the outcome for our chase to NT's on sunday (Although you all know what severe SDS can make you do for a storm). But Phil, Ben and I headed up early on sunday morning to hopefully beat the NT storms (that we knew would develop, but they developed a tad too early). We got to GI about 2pm and saw some unstable looking convection of the sorts to our west, we could have probably made our way into NE NSW, but with no garuntee that we would make the storms (We most likely would have been driving all arvo to get infront of them so we decided not to). So we were hoping something would develop to our west or ontop of us and we would chase it east, but unfortunately... such is life, nothing developed.
. Unfortunately by this time we had no chance what so ever to get the stuff even in QLD, so we decided to get a motel in GI for the night and hope for something tomorrow. But as I was keeping an eye on radar, we noticed some decent storm/s out near Goondiwindi moving east towards Tenterfield, so we decided to take a drive a bit north (of course after we sat in the local RSL and had some beautiful meals and watched the elderly dance) but unfortunately all seemed too far away for any photos (More like flashes just illuminating the sky). (We were hoping for stuff to develop more to our west). After about 1hr of watching distance lightning we got back to our Motel by about 10pm. At this stage we were all in sleep mode because of our long drive and minimal sleep the night before, but I was so desperate for some storm action I stayed awake for another 2hrs watching the radar. To my suprise stuff went up to our west and let out some bright and powerful but infrequent flashes, too infrequent to photograph and I feel asleep by 12am (I had in the back of my mind that I definitely needed some sleep for the driving tomorrow),only to be woken up by a flang at 1.30am, which was a rather pleasant surprise then another load boom about 2 mins after. These two unfamiliar occurences made me peer out the window for a while hoping that it was becoming more frequent, but to my disappointment we seemed to have received the only two strike in the region within quick succession, back to sleep it was... in hope tomorrow would produce something good.
I woke up about 7am to people next door making loud noises to fellow family members, it was probably about time I got up anyway. Eventually Phil and Ben got up too. by about 7.40am we were all up, and to our annoyance it turns out the close strike that knocked out the power very briefly lastnight fried the modem, so no internet for us... except what we had on Phil's mobile (Which was highly useful). We noticed storms already forming out west and heading for southern part of the plains, so off we set to Narrabri after a quick petrol stop in GI. It was nice to go over Mount Kaputar NP, magnificent views NE and west of the NP, abosutely stunning. As we came over the NP we began to notice decent updrafts to our W and SW, we knew they would be heading SE so we headed for Boggabri, which did give up options east.(although I was wanting to stay out of the cloud and on the NW edge, it made more sense to make our way a bit further south because we did have to get back that night). Just out of boggabri on the road south towards Gunnedah we met a high base guster that had such a lovely and enjoyable cloud feature (Anyone know a name for it?).
After this we made our way further into Gunnedah and had lunched and watch the storms (which were by then very weak) move over. I knew more would form, but I was hoping they would form soon, and that they did. It start to really perk up with lightning and orange echoes on Moree radar for Narrabri and Boggabri area about 1.50pm so we decided to make our way a bit further north again to have a much better perspective of all the storms, as we did we watched a cell near boggabri take its time but eventually the base began to lower as scud was getting sucked up. We noticed a lowering pop out of the base after rapid up motion from the scud.
This base feature then became rainwrapped (or what happened that way from the angle we had) so we decided to go north and then east to get another view of the base. So off we went into and through Boggabri then east on the road towards Manilla. to be greeted by a big rain curtain coming our way with slight green tinge.
Not long after I scored a daytime CG, which I was stoked about.
We then went a bit further east and then decided to core punch and get through to the other side to see if anything was behind it. We were greeted by very torrential rain (We were on an unsealed road at the time, which was getting quite slushy and slippery) and even some decent hits of hail (I reckon some tinks would have been stones to about 1cm, but most pee or slightly bigger). After this we noticed not much was happening and decided to make our way a bit further south, by this time most of the rain was covering the whole general area, which is great news for that area!
Hope the pictures aren't too big
All in all not the best of chases, but fun to get out nonetheless. I have to admit Sunday was quite disappointing, especially to find a very large HP which hit a couple of hundred km's to our north east, but as I have said to a couple of people, you have to draw the line somewhere otherwise you'll keep going further and further. haha (Which I will probably do on some chases this season when I get back from Canada).
Off to Canada on October 5th and coming back for January, hoping for some big outbreaks in January in NSW. I'll definitely be there haha. (Going to make the most of January and early feb before I begin college).
P.S. Jimmy, I have decided weather is to stay my hobby rather than my job (I need a balance somewhere). Chasing, the best hobby one could have. (I am not sure if you recall MB, yourself and I discussing it in October last year sometime on the NR's). Take care all!
