Storm Chase 28th January, 2004

Today had a lot of potential with -8.3 LI's, nice wind shear, plenty of moisture and a decent cap which meant things would be latish.

I met up with Anthony at Sunnybank rooftop and we talked for a while waiting for it to get its act together. After about 10 minutes, the storm lowered and had a very nice rfb. CG's were going crazy. Greenage started to develop and Anthony headed off to Morteon to see if he could catch a Gust Front. Mean while, I decided to chase the squall line south of Sunnybank. I could see by this time a very green gust front forming and Cg's were crashing around everywhere!!! I kept driving and soon I could see the rfb of the gust front coming into view which was swirling viciously underneath.

It was spinning anti clock-wise very quickly from underneath and I continued to head into it. All of a sudden the trees bent over and the rain hit driven by almost 100km/h winds. Small tree branches were going everywhere and I had to slow down to 40 because the rain was so heavy. Flangs were going crazy this time and I decided to head north-west along it. Wind gusts were horrendous and the rain was pooring down. Archerfield received a wind gust of 100km/hr during this time. The entire line was moving east at 70km/hr.

After it slowed down a bit I headed for home only to be greeted with hail! it was only pea sized but still hail. That was the best storm I have seen in my area for ages.

More pictures can be found here.

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