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22nd-25th November 2005

 

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Tuesday 22nd November

 

I spent Monday driving from Adelaide to Nyngan, with the only excitement being a few distant CB anvils to the far NE from Cobar late in the day, and driving through a swarm of locusts west of Broken Hill. After staying overnight in Nyngan, I drove to Gilgandra to check out the forecasts etc at the local internet cafe. By this time (11am) there were already a few Cu forming to the NE, so I headed firstly to Coonabarabran. Some Cu were starting to have some good updrafts to the east so I then moved towards Gunnedah, hanging around there for a while.

 

Picturesque setting with Cu west of  Gunnedah   Tcu developing NE of Gunnedah Cb developing NE of Gunnedah strange Tcu west of Gunnedah

 

another Cb developing to NE  Cb to NE Cb NNE of Gunnedah same Cb NNE of Gunnedah

 

Radar updates from Lennie alerted me to significant development between Narrabri and Moree, so I hightailed it northwards to Narrabri and then out about 20km to get close to the cell near Edgeroi. The cell was putting out the occasional Cg but it had a very nice rain shaft. I stopped the car just east of the town and got some shots as the storm headed over the Kaputar Ranges. 

I moved further north towards Moree (which ended up being a mistake), as it appeared that were stronger Cb's approaching that area. Parked in a parking bay about 10km south of town for an hour or so as the Cb's gradually weakened as the anvil spread out over me. Only the occasional bolt was seen out to the distant west.

rain shaft with Mt Kaputar behind  Storm near Edgeroi same storm the rain shaft at highest intensity

 

another rain shaft and another Cb overshooting anvil to East turbulent sky under anvil near Moree

 

 

Moree radar 3.03pm showing cell development Moree radar 3.43pm cells closest to Narrabri were the ones I photographed. Moree radar 5.13pm showing decaying Cbs near Moree

 

I was thinking that this was going to be a disappointing day as the Moree stuff had collapsed and it didn't look like much else was taking off. About 6pm though, I noticed some new updrafts to the south through the clutter, and a quick check of the radar showed some very strong cells just south of Narrabri.

I hightailed it back southwards, annoyed that I had gone so far north. What a show it was coming into Narrabri!! There was some magnificent structure and Cgs were popping out everywhere! I had to grab some fuel quickly and then went out onto the Gunnedah road. Soon I realised that the storm was actually moving northwards rather than Easterly which was the norm for the day. As a result I had to stop only 5kms out of Narrabri to stay out of the storm. I quickly grabbed some shots, but the lightning was getting too close. A look straight above me led to a couple of swear words as I realised there was massive rotation directly above! I hopped back into the car and soon it was raining heavily. I grabbed a few lightning pics from the car, but it soon started to die a little as the sun had set, and the storm collapsed into a rain band.

 

storms developing sth of Narrabri sun setting on storms to east the edge of the Narrabri storm  getting closer to the Narrabri storm
a close-up of the back edge approaching the storm
just sth of Narrabri a bit bright still for lightning pics but still managed this one... excuse the raindrops on the lens! A couple of nice bolts!

 

Click on the image below for a short video capture of a bolt: Radar image of the Narrabri cell at it's strongest:

 

MSL 4pm Lightning tracker 8.15pm
Sat pic 7.30pm NE NSW Lightning montage 4pm-9pm

 

Green line shows my travel on this day.

 

NEXT DAY - Wednesday 23rd November