Severe storms developed first near and in Sydney and passed through the Northern Suburbs followed be cells through the Central Coast. Later storms raced through the Hunter Valley with some strong winds associated with them. Warnings for hail were concentrated mostly to the storms nearer the Central Coast and Sydney with strong wind damage! Hail to 2cm was reported at Dural.
This was the initial storms that went through Sydney. Once I got to near Gosford, there was no turning back due to a bad traffic accident piling up traffic!
The storm on the Central Coast was looking great early on with flat base and organised shelf cloud – very intense but you can see from the latter photographs the disorganised shelf began to dominate.
Was good to see us all spread out everywhere , I saw this storm behind me,but the change was on my tail and pushed it further north to intercept the savage cell just before dungog
I added the video here in this storm report.
I was chasing in this area as well but few photos to show. I attach a single photo I took at Minmi only after I attempted to take the new Hunter Valley Expressway and discovered that it was still not open. Instead I had to pass through Minmi. However that turn proved helpful as I was able to take a small number of photos of the storms to the south including this one attached.
I then went to Maitland where I waited to see what was occurring to the west. I received a call from Jimmy who suggested that I head to Nelson Bay region.
I had no hesitation and I was ready to move quickly especially with a storm closing in, I was making good headway at the speed limit adjacent to the storm. Roadworks near Nelson Bay really slowed me down. Apparently it appears that a new arterial road is being built to link Nelson Bay with other towns so anyone chasing in this area – be mindful of the road works in progress.
With the storm crossing the coast, it intensified and developed some form of a base. I could see the eastern side of it slowly disappearing behind rain curtains but I kept going and held close to the core. Some strong cloud to ground lightning occurred close to me and high winds were evident.
Just outside Nelson Bay itself, I had to let the developing core go as it became clear I was running out of land and needed a boat to continue the chase. Overall I thought I did a good job keeping up with the intensifying storm despite the road works and traffic snarls.
I returned to Hexam and eventually met up with Jimmy at Mac Donalds. I now know that Hexam has two Mc Donalds outlets and not one but it was good to share the storys of the day.