March looked set to continue its fine form of Severe Storms in NSW with Thursday March 20 looking like a great set up. Instability was widespread along a trough aligned SE to NW progged to move quickly through NE NSW throughout the afternoon. Wind Shear was looking fantastic with 20 - 30 knots in the lower levels with 50 knots in the mid levels and a jet of around 70 knots in the upper levels. Directional Shear was pretty much non Existent so the chance was there that the event could turn into a squall line later in the afternoon.

I left Sydney around 9am heading towards Gloucester. Mid level cloud was clearing towards the East as I arrived into Gloucester. With the late start to daytime heating of the surface I would have to wait to around 2pm before the first storms fired up towards The Upper Hunter.

I decided to head back down Buckets way towards Raymond Terrace to get a good vantage area of the cells forming in the region. There was rapid development along the SE/NW trough line however no one particular cell stood out amongst the others. A few storms went up to the South and East of me ahead of the trough however these quickly moved out to sea. My main interest was on a rather long looking dark horizon that was moving quickly towards me. Lightning was increasing to my west and it became apparent that these storms were heading very quickly in my direction. Upon stopping the car just East of Dungong the Main cell to my west started to show a shelf cloud feature. The further east it moved the larger the Shelf cloud grew. I realised at this point that I needed to head North to stay in front of the line.

Driving up Buckets Way towards Gloucester isn't exactly NSW's most award winning road with its narrow lanes, winding sections, poor surface condition etc so naturally trying to stay ahead of a developing squall line proved to be a huge challenge for me. At times the shelf cloud would move over the top of me and the car was buffeted by Gale force outflow and driving rain however slowly but surely I pushed further ahead of the main line.

Stopping around 30kms south of Gloucester I was greeted by some amazing cloud formations. Looking above my position the shelf cloud had passed to the East of me and all that could be seen was some amazing "turbulent" spiral cloud structure. Certainly some of the most amazing cloud patterns and features I had ever witnessed. to my NW the squall line was getting larger to the horizon, time to push on towards Gloucester where the road headed East to Taree.

After just making it through Gloucester with a dark blackish/greenish hail/precip core about to hit the town the road turned from a N direction to a E direction. Still travelling at 100km/h the outflow winds were catching up and still buffeting the car whilst twigs and small branches fell around the car. The horizon in my rear view mirror was one filled with black which every couple of seconds was being lit up by constant Cg's. Certainly a very eerie sight !

I made it to Nabiac on the Pacific Highway and was greeted by a spectaculour horizon stretching Shelf Cloud advancing across the Hilly terrain towards me. The sun was setting behind the line which gave it a beautiful Golden orangey glow. As the coast was not far away and the sun had now set

I knew it was time for me to find a position to enjoy the light show and get some dinner. I ended up stopping in a small coastal town of North Haven and watched as the line advanced across the top of me with some fantastic CC lightning and the odd CG. Certainly some amazing cloud structure and a great chase.