Thursday November 2nd 2006

As with yesterday, storms had not been forecast by the Bureau, and the forecast models also suggested there wasn't much chance of a storm. However the sky during the day looked quite good for storms, and it didn't lie! Weak cells developed as expected along the ranges in the western parts of the Northern Rivers and bubbled away most of the afternoon. However as one of these weak storms hit the strong NE winds along the sea breeze front, it rapidly developed into a severe storm. I got caught off guard and ended up racing out the door quickly to go see what was happening. This is how it looked at various stops on my journey to the area Ruthven area.

The cell was quite high topped, producing a heap of anvil cloud, along with some nice CGs and eventually, a nice wall cloud region. With strong NE winds feeding into it, a moisture haze resulted, and it kept contrast quite poor. Coupled with a hill that was blocking my view of the base, my perspective wasn't as good as I would have liked. The cell looked pretty organised for some time, though it soon began a rapid collapse around the same time the strong NE winds feeding into it seemed to ease. I met up briefly with Michael who was at a better location, and he got some great photos and video of the whole structure. I had to get home quickly after meeting up as it was 6pm and I was supposed to be cooking dinner!

Full size photos available in Dave's Gallery on:
Page 69

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