While on the New South Wales South Coast at Batemans Bay, I had the opportunity to witness a narrow line of showers and thunderstorms form along the edge of the coastal ranges inland from the coast during Monday.
The showers were developing approximately 20 km inland from the coast between 10 am and 3 pm. The cooler east to north east wind and coastal sea breezes assisted their development along the coastal ranges.
These were convective in nature and were dropping their heaviest rainfall within the hills and forests of the coastal ranges generally within areas where there is no road access.
The photos shown were taken at Batemans Bay all looking west.
The country is not suitable for storm chasing but for 5 hours, they did provide an interesting backdrop to the western sky.
Thunderstorms formed, matured then went into rapid decline.
After 3 pm Monday afternoon, the storm activity waned.
The photos show the storms at their peak around 2 pm. More thunderstorms developed inland away from the coastal fringe during Monday producing considerable rainfall for those areas underneath these.
It is known that Braidwood received 46 mm from showers on Sunday night and another 21 mm from showers and storms during Monday.
It is known that a thunderstorm cell developed around Braidwood Sunday evening but during my observation, I only ever saw 1 lightning flash emanating from this cloud.
Thunderstorm clouds were also observed across the Brindabella Ranges and the Snowy Mountains south west of Canberra between 11 am and 2 pm during Tuesday but while visible from Canberra, they remained wholly within inaccessible areas of the ranges and most had weakened after 3 pm.
