If I had a dollar for every CG I saw...

Sunday September 21 2008

For the first time in what felt like ages, I had a whole day free to chase any storms that were to be had in the region. I headed out after a rather beasty looking storm W of Casino, however it become outflow dominant and turned from a vicious looking monster into something more garden variety before it really got close to my position. Eager to not waste the trip, I drove a fair way NW of Kyogle trying to find the core. Gradually the rain got heavier, the wind got stronger, and the CGs closer, then....bang! I punched into the hail core where masses of hail up to about 3cm in diameter were pelting down. It dropped enough hail to leave the road white in some places, and it looked really eerie with the hail fog. After this I headed back home, thinking the day’s events were over.

      

About 6pm I ducked out to visit some friends in Wollongbar and while driving noticed some very puny looking storms on the horizon. But to my great surprise, these cells were popping CGs out of them left, right and centre. After leaving my friends place I refuelled in town and then headed to a favourite spot at Tregeagle with good views to the W. To say the display was phenomenal is an understatement. I don’t think I have ever seen so many CGs in one storm before. About 10 minutes after arriving, a massive blast of outflow came through which made keeping the camera still very difficult, but I still managed to get some nice shots. Below are a couple of samples, but I have setup a special gallery with the full set of photos here.

        

Consolation Prize

Saturday September 20 2008

What a scorcher for September! Over 30C and plenty of humidity as well. While conditions were well and truly primed for severe storms, the focus today was on one of my other great passions – raising awareness of the plight faced by Burma’s refugees and internally displaced people. The 2008 Run For Relief (www.run4relief.org.au) was a fantastic day and a resounding success. It also meant that I was unable to chase the rather impressive hailstorms which went through western parts of the Northern Rivers. But I was so stoked when some amazingly weak looking storm wandered by just south of my place and started dropping cloud-to-ground lightning bolts right on dusk! How cool is that! I managed to score a couple of bolts on camera, with the pick of the bunch below. It was such a nice way to end such a great and very busy/tiring day.

   

The sounds of spring

Friday September 12 2008

Who would have thought the first storm chase for spring would be a long lived severe storm! A storm which developed much earlier in the afternoon south of Grafton finally meandered its way up towards Ballina during the evening. Encouraged by an impressive radar signature, frequent lightning and nice rounded base features, I shot down to near Meerschaum Vale to try my hand at some lightning photos, having been a bit out of practice after about a year without great lightning opportunities.

Sadly, when I arrived, the storm wasn’t particularly co-operative and started to weaken out. The rounded base gusted out and only one or two CGs were spotted. However, another small base started to form as the storm moved quite close by, and it proceeded to drop a nice assortment of CGs. Ah, to hear the sounds of spring – crickets, the sound of strong NE inflow blowing through the trees and the deafening cracks of thunder as lightning hits close by! It was such a nice experience, and has made me even more hungry for more!

            

Rare late autumn storm

Saturday May 17 2008

It has been the weirdest year of weather... my camera has all but gathered dust over the last year with basically no interesting skies to photograph since December 2006, bar a few weeks in October last year. So you can imagine how bizarre it was to have my first storm chase for 2008 in mid May! A rather impressive cold change was going to bring the first dusting of snow to the Northern Tablelands later in the night, but not before unseasonably warm and humid weather ahead of the change led to the development of some spring-quality storms.

I watched some nice development from home during the afternoon but nothing seemed to be lasting long. I decided not to head out till radar showed a line of storms heading towards Evans Head begin to intensify as they reached the coast. I shot south as quick as possible, rather stoked to see a nice shelf cloud developing. I realised at Broadwater there was no hope of getting to Evans for an intercept, so I stopped at the beach at Broadwater for some shots of the storm heading out to sea. The scene was quite beautiful and the storm must have been reasonably intense, with quite a few CGs popping out the back of the cell as it headed seawards. Talk about a long time between drinks!

      

2008

2007

2006

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