Yesterday I had a successful but at times frustrating chase to Gloucester.
I checked the models at Taree library this morning (9:30am) and made the decision to head westwards. I found a good view 10kms west of Taree and sat there for 20minutes or so. I moved further westwards as I had the feeling the ranges would see the majority of action. Almost at Gloucester I got a phonecall from Lightning Chaser, he mentioned about the impressive storm over Dungog which was 50kms to my south. Unfortunately it was one of those days where you can't even make out a storm thats reasonably closeby.There was simply too much low cloud. I was dissapointed about missing out, but the air felt primed for more storms. I found a respectable vantage point 10kms east of Gloucester and waited.
A storm came into view behind the hills,and a solid RFB began to show itself (below)
Unfortunately for me this base decided to stay put ,over no mans land( about 20kms to my north). Desparate to get closer I hunted around for roads that would take me closer to the storm. Unable to find a road I had to settle with distant glimpses of the structure including some lovely inflow features (see below) At this stage the anvil thunder was almost constant, but no CGs to be seen. Warm inflow was on my back, gusting up to 30km/h.
For a good hour or so the storm refused to move any closer and this became extremely frustrating. At times the structure had supercell appearances to it,but quite often the most interesting part of the storm was blocked behind hills.
Eventually the storm moved into a useful range for me. Just after I took the photo below, some lovely CGs battered the country side just 3kms to my west. The booms were very loud and echoed off the surrounding mountains. A couple of CGs struck beside me about 1.5-2kms away,but there was no way I was getting in the car. Unfortunately the rain forced me into the car.CGs were still coming down reasonably close by, but the storm was outflow dominated and rapidly weakening, to such an extent that I only got moderate rainfall and 50km/h winds. I'm conviced large hail would've fallen at the storms peak.
Heres a 2 minute clip from yesterdays action.
| Severe storm- Gloucester- November 1 2010 | |