TDU - Day 1
Friday 13 December

Sydney to Moree

The day started early for Matt and Dann as both left there place for mine in St Ives. Around 11am we were all packed and ready to go . The journey today took us up the F3 through to the New England Hwy to Willolw Tree before turning off onto the highway to Gunnedah, Narrabri and Moree. Nothing to reoirt as today was a driving day getting us in place for tomorrow. However there was a sighting of a small dust devil and a Ribbit from Matt Smith.

Tomorrow we are headed towards Goondiwindi.

james

TDU - Day 2
Saturday 14 December

Moree to Morvan to Roma

We left Moree, heading for St George at about 10am, after glancing at AVN which had pushed the main area of LI's northwest. After missing the turnoff (James' fault) , and finding the correct road, we were on our way. We encounted a couple of dust devils, a truck that knocked the aerial off my car (road train travelling about 140km/h), a couple of live roos, and a couple of hundred dead ones.

We stopped at Surat, and surveyed the sky. The LI's were at their best from Surat north, and Anthony Cornelius had already messaged us, telling of 2 great lines forming west of Mitchell and Charlieville. So, we escaped the bubbling CJ's of Surat and headed for the dark bases of Western QLD.

We approached rain just after Mitchell--a couple of nice CG's accompanyed this, but it was mostly rain. We kept going west, with visions of a a big clearing and a hostile second line of lightning active storms. Instead we recieved perpetual heavy rain. We turned back just after Morvan, driving in moderate rain for about 90 minutes. We stated to get glimpses of something interesting to the east. Just after Mitchell, we encounted a very nice storm indeed, which had formed on the edge of the cloudband and area of thundery rain. Storms were popping up right along this boundary, obviously feeding on the moisture with was being pumped in by the 15kt NE, and the outflow from the 500km line of storms to the west.

We followed this storm to Roma, with the thundery rain disappating to the west. The isolated storm had weakened somewhat, but several additional storms had popped up on the back end of this storm, and on the now defunct flanking line. We manged to stap some distant CG's and CC's.

All in all a long day. Lots of storms, rain and CG's (everything we were chasing for) but not really any organisation to marvel at or to fully appreciate all these things.

Tommorrow we are headed for Goondiwindi...again.

TDU - Day 3
Sunday15th December

Roma to The Gums to Goondiwindi to Millmerran

After checking the models in our cabin in Roma , we chose a target area to our south around Surat, St George and Goondiwindi. The sky to the east of Roma as well as to the south was filled with acca's with some cumulus near the southern line. The instability was there it was just a matter of waiting for something to develop.

The road south of Roma led us to Surat where after checking the sky and seeing no development a suitable cricket pitch was found and stumps set up by the side of the road. The game lasted around an hour with sixes being hit by all players in every direction.

We left the SCG (Surat Cricket Ground) and moved a little further east in hope of catching any of the development to our NW. Upon reaching The Gums an area of cumulus to our west started to explode with the first anvil sighted soon after.

We headed west from Moonie hoping to get close tothe new cells WNW of Moonie and around Westmar we were greeted with a nice looking storm . We watched this cell for an hour with new development forming on the NE flank spreading the cell more ENE than SE (Steering winds). Cg's , rain foots and some classic mammatus in the anvil that streched to our far SE kept us entertained for a few hours before the cell started to decay and a line of storms to our SW took our notice.

Heading South from Moonie we were all impressed at the size of some of the updraughts as well as the structure. To the north west outflow could be seen kicking dust out kms in front of the rain curtain. We ended up stopping west of Goondi and meeting up with Anthony Cornelious and Jason Rainforest. No sooner had we stopped , outflow hit the area with huge dust plumes being sent high into the sky and onto the group of chasers . Wind gusts were estimated at 90km/h .The sky had turned dark with CG's dropping to our west. Rain started to fall and so we moved to the NE whilst meeting up with Matthew Pearce.

The strong outflow had moved further NE than we thought. 15kms NE of Goondiwindi and we were still receiving wind gusts of around 70km/h. New cells were forming to our south so we headed further NE in the hope of getting a light show later on. Unfortunately it wasnt to be as the cells moved further south than we hoped . We pulled into Millmerran and found a room for the night.

Another long day chasing however, the storms are getting better each day.

Tommorow looks like NE NSW will be the our target area.

TDU - Day 4
Monday16th December

Millmerran to Armidale

The models were all over the place in regards to today. No place really jumped out as being "the place" to be. So we decided just to move south along the New England highway to see what we could see. After stopping for some supplies at Warwick, we noticed some great looking development to our far south. To our east, a field of CJ's was happily bubbling away.

We stopped at Wallangarra and surveyed the view. We decided to keep on moving and try to position ourselves in front of the very nice line to our south.

The storms were moving very slowly, and moving ENE. There were two storms that were the closest for us. One to our ESE and to our WSW. Fresh updrafts on the northern side of the ESE cell made this storm very photogenic. We positioned ourselves around Deepwater in an effort to caputre the underside features of the storm to our WSW. Some very heavy rain was dumping out of the storm, and it wasn't really moving too much at all. This storm would have been situtated around Stannum/Torrington. It produced some nice CG's, but as the storm was moving east out of our reach, we pushed on for some more impressive looking storms to our south.

Once we moved through Glen Innes, we came across an extremely nice multicell. We stopped at Glencoe and moved east along a quaint little farm road, which gave us an impressive view of the this storm gusting out. The outflow from this storm was quite cold, with a windchill of 12C. The entire sky had started to look quite cold--more like a Melbourne sky rather than a Northern Tablelands one.

Our view to this storm became obscured so we found accommodation at Armidale, and had a lovely BBQ for dinner.

A full day of chasing. Great structure, but nothing really severe.

Tomorrow looks okay. But the models are going for some more serious action for Wednesday-Friday. Headed for the lower Northern Tablelands for Tuesday.

TDU - Day 5
Tuesday17th December
Armidale to Merriwa to Coolah to Mullaley to Gunnedah

560kms

The day started out not holding much promise. We were expecting Darwin type storms today in the high instability-low shear enviroment that this trough was producing. We were shooting for the lower parts of the Northern Tablelands, where shear and instability seemed to be the best.

We headed south from Armidale towards Tamworth. There was CJ's and the odd CB on the ranges east of Tamworth, but these were all very dry looking.

Toward the upper parts of the Central Tablelands/ Hunter, some massive updrafts were blowing up. The updrafts were all to our south west and the New England highway was taking us on a more SE track, so we turned right at Scone and headed west to Merriwa.

The storm was looking very big, certainly the biggest of our chase. Static was constant on AM radio and the storm was spitting out constant CG's ahead of the rainshaft.

As we got closer from Merriwa we started to make out some of the great features of this cell. We turned left and found a great viewing spot just outside of Merriwa.

We all got the cameras and tripods out and started taking photographs and video of the great looking shelf cloud at the front of the storm. CG's were pumping out of this large storm, pulsing so many times we could take daytime lightning photographs with ease. We then noticed a lot of dust being kicked up on the outflow. This was to become one of the most spectacular sights we have seen chasing all these years... with the contrasting colours and the very strong outflow blowing dust way ahead of the storm, CG's and the shelf cloud all in the one picture it made for an amazing sight!!!

The storm was severe with wind gusts estimated at 45 knots, blowing small branches down all around the place. As the strong outflow winds engulfed us we made a decision to push on WNW then NW towards Cassilis and Coolah trying to keep ahead of the storm. We ended up following another cell that went up on the outflow to the NW of the orginal storm. This storm put out some great lightning before dissipating.

More storms went up to the NNE of Coolah, near Mullaley, again they formed because of the strong outflow from the original cell near Merriwa. We were about 10km south of Mullaley when we pulled into a farmers paddock and watched the storm put out some awesome crawlers underneath the base. This storm probably was not severe, but it lasted long enough into the evening to give us a lightningshow, the first decent one of the chase.

After dark the cells moved too far away, even though they were putting out some good lightning, we decided to call it a night and drove the 50km or so to Gunnedah where we stayed the night, having vegemite sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches, (as all fast food places were closed by 10pm when we drove into town) and watching Bend It Like Beckam in the motel room till midnight before falling asleep.

TDU - Day 6
Wednesday18th December
Gunnedah to Gulgong to Mudgee to Elong Elong to Dubbo

400kms

After checking the models the night before we were thinking of heading down towards Gulgong for Day 6 . With the Gunnedah library being booked up a quick update from Michael Bath confirmed our thinking and no sooner we were on the road to Gulgong. Wind shear was looking a lot better today as well as a good low level moisture profile providing plenty of fuel for storms that did form. A quick stop at the local supermarket and we headed up to Flirtation Hill in Gulgong giving us 360° views around the area.

Towering Cu could be seen going up to the northeast towards Tamworth however an area of mid level cloud was moving across our area and blocking convection. Time for the trusty cricket set to be brought out.

Three hours later the mid level cloud started to clear to our south and west and convection began. Cells formed to the south of Mudgee however they looked rather weak and uninspiring. A large towering Cu to our west caught our attention and so as it anvilled out we headed off in that direction hoping for some action. Upon reaching the area the cell showed some nice features including a nice inflow area however it died shortly afterwards. Not a good start especially considering it was now 5pm. With nothing much happening and high cloud filling the area we decided upon heading to Dubbo to find accommodation for the night....and thats where it all started.

About 20 kms out of Dubbo a weak cell had formed over the town with new updraughts going up either side of it. After witnessing a couple of closer CG's and a nice rain curtain forming we pulled off the road and set up our equipment next to the developing cells. The southern cell started to increase in size and developed a very large rain free base, CG's increased and so did the size of the cell.

As the cell moved off to the north the back end revealed a fantastic back sheared anvil with the main updraught rotating high above. Time lapse video of the updraught confirmed that the updraught was rotating in an anti clockwise direction.

The cell moved off even further to the north and our attention was turned to a newer cell that had formed to the south of Dubbo. As the cell still had some time before hitting our area we headed into Dubbo booking some accommodation for the night.

After finding and booking our accommodation it became apparant that the cell was propagating NNW and moving quite quickly towards us. We headed west along the Newell Highway finding a vantage point just west of the airport. The sky in front of us was lit up with constant CGs streaking across the sky and hitting areas all over Dubbo. A couple of close calls for two planes landing at the airport however they both managed to avoid being struck by lightning. A couple of strikes in the field next to us and we quickly jumped in the car and headed further west.

Our next vantage point was around 17kms west of Dubbo on the road to Rawsonville. The display that we witnessed was absolutely phenomenal. Close CG strikes, awesome anvil and updraught structure lit up by the lightning and a guest appearance from the moon just above the storm made this the best night ever on a TDU chase.

As the cell passed to the north and the clock hit 1030pm our attention was then turned to the south again as a line of cells stretching from our SE to the SW was lit up every second by lightning. A quick check of radar and lightning tracker seemed to indicate that this was a massive squall line moving north from Parkes/Forbes. We headed south from Dubbo and watched the line advance upon us however around midnight the line started to gust itself out. The shelf cloud stretched from east to west as it passed over us with wind speeds from the outflow hitting around 40 knots. This wind continued as the main rain area moved closer. Around 1230am the line had died down and we decided to call it quits and head back to Dubbo.

A very succesful day especially after we thought all had been lost as the afternoon failed to deliver anything.

TDU - Day 7
Thursday 19th December
Dubbo to Coonabarabran to Mullaley to Mudgee to Muronbong to Mudgee

600kms

We headed out of Dubbo at about 11am, with our target area being the Dubbo, Coonabarabran and Mudgee triangle. North of Dubbo we stopped and played cricket in 35C temperatures.

A line of CJ's began to form to our north, so, somewhat stupidly we chased after them. We headed towards Gilgandra, with a very impressive line of development over our heads. All was looking well, until we realised that the storms were drifting over the Warrumbungles, and our road options around there and Coonabarabran weren't great. We stopped and watched the storm to our NW. It was quite impressive however the northern flank of the storm was dying once it came off the ranges. We kept heading NNE towards Gunnedah whilst storms to our far north were firing away looking very impressive.

We came to Mullaley, and gave up the stuff to the north. We turned toward the south and once again were on our way to distant storms. As we got closer, the structure of the storm became apparent. It looked awesome, with billowing updrafts going up on the NW side and a massive backsheared anvil. However we were too far away. We learned later that this storm dropped hail on Mudgee--quite a feat, considering the high-based nature of the storms.

Smaller, pulsy storms formed north in front of us, and we continued our journey south toward Mudgee. While we were booking in for accomodation, a storm to the SW suddenly became extremely lightning active. We booked in and headed back out.

The storm was letting rip with some great CG's, CC's, and CA's. We headed toward Wellington trying to find a view somewhere along this road. We stopped in a field and captured some great lightning.

The storm began to precipitate on us, so we headed further NW.

The rain from this storm was heavy, but we were travelling on the boundary of this rain area. A little further on the way we stopped again, taking some more shots. A storm to the south, which was the smallest storm of the day started putting out some quite impressive bolts. The structure was also being illuminated nicely.

We got back to the cabin at 12 midnight. The chase had been very frustrating, giving that we were only 150kms to the SE of where we were the night before, but the lightshow we recieved was sensational, and made it all worthwhile.

TDU - Day 8
Friday 19th December
Mudgee to Boggabri to Narrabri to Coonabarabran to Mullaley to Sydney

With Matthew Pearce leaving us for work commitments Sydney, 4 became three. After an update from Anthony, established that north up to Moree was going to be the place to go. The unusual steering wind profile was going to make storms difficult to chase today, but we would give it our best go.

We headed to Boggabri, about 30minutes south of Narribri. We found a lovely little shelter which gave us a nice outlook right around. We stayed there for about 90 minutes watching hundreds of CJ's exploding right around us. TO our NNW on the Northern Tablelands, a massive cluster of storms was exploding. We evaluated this for a chase, but our road options weren't great for that area. We could see storms right around us, but nothing really that grabbed us. Eventually we headed for Narribri. Things were moving NW, so it was very hard percieving how this were forming.

We were none the wiser at Narribri. We considered moving north, but today being our last day, we weren't too excited at the prospect of driving home from QLD. We headed south toward Coonabarabran, on the chasing road from hell. No views, and not many places to stop. About 45 minutes along this horrible route, we noticed that a storm was back building over the road. The storm began to drop some great CG's, and these were getting closer and closer. The rain began to fall quite heavily and the thunder was booming around us. Turning around a sweeping right had corner, we drove into a section of bush which had been badly burnt in the recent fires. Suddnely the rain turned to hail, and before we knew it, the surrounding envrioment was totally transformed; the white hail carpeting the floor of the charcoal bushland and the mist hovering as far as the eye could see. We received about 1 minute of 1-2cm hail. We missed most of it (or drove through it), but we couldn't see anything bigger than 2cm.

At Coonbarabran we loaded the satpic. We noticed that we were in the middle of a low of sorts that had been progged to move over the area at 4pm. The anvils to our north were pointing SE and to our south NW. Sensing that this area could be potentially explosive we headed for Mullaley.

We saw some great development to the far south near MUdgee and to our immediate SW, but nothing that we could reach. We stopped and marvelled at our suurounds, storms firing right around us.

Being withing 4 hours of home we decided that the lovely flats of Mullaley would be where this SSC TDU would end.

7 from 7.
A sensational week of chasing.

Thanks to James, Matt and Matt P for being amazing chase partners and for sharing this fantastic week.