Monday January 8th

What an ordinary summer! It's been cooler than it should be (only a handful of days over 30C), with less humidity than is usual during summer (only a few days with DPs of 20C+) and of course there's only been 2 storm chases all summer so far. Talk about a waste of summer! Things were to improve a little this day, with temps forecast in the mid 30s and DPs likely to hit the 20C mark (still waiting for those 23C DP storm days though!). With the lack of moisture still continuing, storms were unlikely to be very impressive, and this was certainly the case during the mid afternoon, with high based, low topped cells littering the skies. A severe storm warning was issued for the Northern Rivers for large hail and damaging winds, but in the end nothing on radar looked that intense for more than 2 frames. Around 5.30pm I noticed that two weak cells seemed to be heading towards my location - one moving in from the WNW and the other from the WSW. I went out the back for a look and spotted a nice shelf cloud moving in from the WSW. I assumed this cell was sitting on the southerly change that was forecast to move through during the afternoon/evening.

As the cells merged, quite heavy precipitation began to dump down around from the S to W to N of the sky, and the clouds above took on a green appearance. A few CGs dropped ahead of the rain curtain nearby and several flashes occurred overhead. The sky looked very turbulent just prior to the rain beginning at my location. As the shelf cloud moved over our house, huge, and I mean HUGE drops of rain began to fell, and within 30 seconds, the rain became torrential, with a rain rate of 156mm/hr registering on my AWS. Southerly winds blasted through too, adding to the stormy scene. The storm dumped 16mm before moving away to the E. With the southerly change now through, the sky remained filled with stratus cloud, and showers persisted right through the night.

Full size photos available in Dave's Gallery soon.

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