I'd had my eye on this day for a few days, a nice front was due, with a strong Jet. The only real problem was moisture. I wanted to stay as close as possible to the trough, as that is where activity would pop up if any did. After lots of ooooing and aaaaaing and wondering where I should go (maybe out west to Bathurst), I stuck to my original target area of Goulburn/Yass. AVN showed a tounge of higher RH pushing into this area. LI was around -2 to -3. Matt Pearce told me that DP's were still OK inland and that there were storms in the NSW/VIC border mid morning. High cloud concerned me, but I had the day off and had nothing to lose, and I was desperate to go on the first long chase of the season :)

Anyway enough technical stuff, you propably want to know what happened!

On my way down to GLB James Harris msg'd me saying an STA was out for the Riverina, which raised my hopes a bit. DP's were around 17 in Sydney, but as I got closer to GLB they decreased, to 10C. I had some lunch and went to the local lookout.(GREAT 360degree views!) A stayed there for 40 minutes or so, a strong NW was blowing (constant gusts to 30-35 knots), and high cloud was now overhead. James called me again, and suggested I go west towards Yass, I could hear constant static on AM and he said that there was a storm in Canberra.

I headed for Yass. The drive from Goulburn to Yass is just awesome, great views on either side of the road. I took a turnoff near Gunning that headed towards Gundaroo and eventually Queanbeyan. Just before i made this turnoff I saw my first CG of the day to the south. After about 20km or so I saw another CG and pulled over. A few nice dark RFB's, a largish looking storm towards Canberra, and lots of virga showers to my NW/W/SW. I could hear the odd rumble of thunder, and a saw a couple of CG's comming out of the LP bases. The storms were flying along but new development kept growing to the west. As each dark base passed over, I would get a couple of large drops, and lots of close CG's in fields around me (i was on a slight elevated ridge) but not enough rain to wet the ground!. This continued for a good 20-30 minutes as each base went over. It looked like heavy rain was falling down towards Canberra, and a clearing edge could be seen to the west. I decided to head back to GLB and follow the system NE back to Sydney.

Just as I was about to leave, a dog walked up the road out of the middle of nowhere!, i closed the door and thought "this poor dog might get fried". He had a sniff around the car then went on his way. I was almost back at the turnoff to GLB when the last of the low precip cells was passing over. I pulled over and watched more CG's. As I turned my head to look out the window, a CG hit and it appearred to be on the road right infront of where i pulled off.! My eyes were playing tricks on me though. it was about 2-3 seconds before i heard thunder. A few seconds later, another CG hit. This one hit *JUST* behind me somewhere in a field, it made a loud "SNAP" then "BOOOOOOM". I got the sound on video which everyone can hear at the next ASWA meeting :) Clear skies were no overhead, and as i got back towards GLB it all seemed to be weakening. Refuelled, and drove back to Sydney to a nice red sunset, and dissipating cumulus and dead anvils.

A good day, 550KM round trip. An interesting thing, was after the storms cleared near GLB, the temp was nice and cool, close to 20 maybe. But as I got into Sydney around 8pm, it was 28! which showed the front had not yet passed through.

Big thanks to James Harris, Daniel Weatherhead, Matt Pearce and Jimmyfor updates on what was happening around the place.