Wednesday September 27th 2006

Being late September it's just about time to start seeing some serious storm action and with some good instability and decent shear, today looked like it might deliver. One problem though - way too much moisture! Storms were firing everywhere in the Northern Rivers, but a cell SE of Lismore producing heaps of thunder tempted me to go out S of Alstonville for a closer look, despite the gray, rainy looking scene. I was treated to a gustfront, but it was pretty ill defined and didn't last too long. The cell was active enough to drop a CG not too far behind me when I was out of the car taking a photo - a bright flash from behind followed closely by a frightening crack made me jump right back in the car. A bit scary, but it was starting to feel like the storm season had arrived (normally my first scary lightning strike occurs in October/November!).

The line of cells pushed through the area dumping some extremely heavy rain as they went by. I arrived back home around 1.30pm and watched as another line of cells developed W of me and slowly rolled in. Again, a bit of a gustfront developed, but nothing really special. It was certainly very active with thunder, but I saw no CGs from this cell. It dumped some more heavy rain as it passed through, but not much else. Today could have been great if the mid and upper levels were drier, which is a tad ironic to say in September, given it's traditionally the driest month of the year here!

Full size photos available in Dave's Gallery on:
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