Update: Click for more of the impressive and insane lightning show!
After spending the night in Cooma, I targeted the region near Nibbitabel with the intention of leaving the escarpment if required. After awaiting some time, the second cell of the day developed right over Nibbitabel itself! After giving chase and intercepting heavy rain and tiny hail to pea size, I decided to get back onto the main road. A couple of storms had developed and were moving east followed by another set of cells northwest of Bombala. These were also moving east. Thus after a few pictures, I made my way down shooting pictures whenever possible. And then it was not until I got into the Bega valley before I was able to see storms again. Storms had literally exploded! The southern cell was rapidly moving towards Eden. The other cell remained just north of Bega. It was weakening. Then the waiting game. Finally I realised that the weakened cell had several towers developing nearby on its flanking line and so I made a dash towards Bega and north. Finally as I approached Cobargo, I could see what appeared to be a right moving structure of the explosive storm. but it was a little further north I got to finally see the inflow band and hard towers of what appeared to be a spectacular low precipitation cell left mover!
The storm had powerful and explosive side sheared anvil! This was time-lapsed and after about 10 to 15 minutes began to weaken. I then made my way for another storm approaching Bodalla knowing that it had limited time-span. In the meanwhile, the region southwest of Bega valley exploded and so I made the journey from Narooma towards Bega. Again near Cobargo, I concentrated on several cells moving off the range. A few then exploded under the rick moisture and became lightning active. This lightning activity took me all the way to Bateman's Bay with several stops for lightning footage and photography.
That is an excellent report Jimmy,and almost matches my Chase day. Fantastic photos and structure!!!
I also stayed in Cooma that night,and I also had the intention of waiting around Nimmatabel, however I jumped onto the coast a lot later than you! This allowed me to view your Cobargo storm from a different angle ( see photo)
I also got lured towards Bombala,and then even further south as a couple of very nice storms were tracking along the Victorian border, and I was able to intercept these. I was lucky to find a break in the pine forest, and timelapsed the storm for half an hour(see second photo). As I started watching a lovely base bulit on the northern flank of the original storm,and actually appeared to contain some rotation. This become the dominant cell, and whilst it rapidly became outflow dominant the greenage was absolutely incredible,and the CGs looked fantastic. The storm also developed a ground scraping lowering however it most likely developed from a freshly developed rain/hail shaft and was non suspicious.
Following this, I noticed a line of boiling updrafts almost on top of me. This would become the line that moved towards Bega/ Eden. I was out of mobile coverage at the time however chaser instinct set in,and told me I had to get northeast as quickly as possible. Back in Bombala, the whole line exploded to my east with boiling updrafts and nice cgs. I then made the call to race to the coast via Bemboka then Bega. Just east of Bemboka I was able to capture some lovely bolts on video as I was just 5-10kms from the back end of the line. From here I decided to race north, in attempt to get ahead of the whole back buliding line, unfortunately I was half an hour too late as storms kept developing in from of me. The result was a drive from Bega to Batemans Bay pretty much entirely in heavy rain with raining Cgs!!!!!!
Hi Michael Keene, thanks for the pictures. Is the storm with the overshoot the LP storm that I got? The other base seems to be one of the other storms in the same area later during the evening? Correct?
Hi Michael Keene, thanks for the pictures. Is the storm with the overshoot the LP storm that I got? The other base seems to be one of the other storms in the same area later during the evening? Correct?
Hi Michael Keene, thanks for the pictures. Is the storm with the overshoot the LP storm that I got? The other base seems to be one of the other storms in the same area later during the evening? Correct?