OCT 15 2003

The models had been showing that all the ingredients for the first real storm outbreak of the new season was about to occur. After watching storms firing up on the convergance line in NW NSW, SW QLD on the Tuesday, we knew that things should be ok for chasing up there the next day.

AVN had a broad area of Instability pushing through from Borken Hill spreading SE to Wagga and NE to Bourke later in the day. The convergance line ran through SW QLD from West of Cunnamulla to W of Bourke moving on slowly East during the afternoon. Although there was plenty pf moisture being dragged in from the tropics for the mid to high levels, the lower levels were a tad dry with DP's across the target area of 6 to 12c. The day had the potential for strong wind (microbursts) and possibility of hail thanks to the dryness of the air in the upper levels.

I left a sunny Sydney at 530am aiming to be at Bourke by around 1pm. Around Mudgee I came across the first of what were many lines of mid level cu running North to South as far as the eye could see. High cloud was also increasing as a result of the front pushing through from SA. Around Dubbo the cloud started thickening up and showers and embedded cells formed all the way Nygan. From Nygan up to Bourke the rain stopped and the clearing edge of the cloud band appeared.

Upon entering Bourke I was greeted with a rapid rise in Temp going from 21c 40kms south of Bourke to 29c in Bourke itself. 2 weakish storm's had formed to the north and northwest of Bourke however they was nothing to write home about. Time to hit the local IGA and pick up some lunch.

Well the lunch break proved to be the trick with both cells to the N and NW looking remarkably bigger and certainly darker across the horizon. I headed North from Bourke around 20kms or so and set my self up to watch the light show occuring on the NW horizon. The storms were certainly still a fair distance away however they were getting closer and further dark bases were forming to the NE of them . Cg's were pulsing out of the cells at a rate 20 seconds. Not a bad start to the day.

Cells continued to develop north to north east of the older cells which worked out perfectly for me as the road to Barringun headed directly north. Throughout the afternoon I slowly pushed my way over the QLD border watching numerous Rain Free Bases form in front with some strong CG's hitting the road in front.

One particular storm just to my north dropped a very dark rain curtain onto the ground below. The Rain foot from this downburst was very strong and around 5 minutes later a detached roll cloud had formed from the ouotflow right next to the storm. A great example of how outflow can create a chain reaction for other clouds.

I meet up with Anthony Cornelius who was chasing from Brisbane just south of Cunnamulla where we sat until the sun set watching lightning explode alround us. Shortly after sunset the outflow from the large complex of storms to our south hit the town with gusts around 20 - 30 knots creating havoc with the dust. However this was just what the doctor ordered as the outflow pushing out from the main cluster managed to get some further development around Cunnamulla itself. The lightning show went well into the night finally finishing around Midnight with heavy rain setting in.

OCT 16 2003

Pretty much a similar set up to the day before with the trough sitting just north of Cunnamulla and west of Charleville. We left Cunnamulla early and headed to Charleville where we hooked up to the net in the local library and checked out the latest run of models and observations. Large Cu fields had developed all over the SW QLD sky however nothing much was taking off. We grabbed some lunch and headed out to the Airport and waited, and Waited , and waited. Finally the cap started to break and weakish storms developed to the SW, W and NW of Charleville. to the distant north we could make out somme monster updraughts with fantastic structure , the QLD BOM had apprantly put out a warning for these storms around the Longreach region and from what we could see we could understand why.

We pushed north and watched a couple of weak cells develope to our W, sporadic lightning and some heavy rain was all that we received from these. Towards 5pm the trough line was becoming more distinct to the eye. We could see a line of strong looking storms had developed to the SW of us over Charleville, behind them was clear air. We moved down to Charleville and found a great field that had had all the trees knocked down around it ( a storm chasers paradise) and watched the back end of the cells put out constant pulsing CG's and CC's that ripped across the line. The sun set shortly after lighting up the back end a beautiful orange golden glow. A perfect end to a great 2 day chase. We found out later that night that 40 - 50 knot gusts had been recorded in Charleville thanks to that line of storms.