24nd December 2002 - Storm Attunga, NSW
Conditions were more marginal in the Tamworth region on the 24th and I didn't hold out hope of anything taking off as the trough was more active to the North and East. At about 4.30pm I was watching the Moree radar and observed a small area of precipitation developing just to the North of Tamworth so I decided to go and take a look.
After driving about 15 minutes North of Tamworth on the Manilla Rd I observed to the NW of the village of Attunga a small single cell thunderstorm developing. I turned off Manilla Rd and headed through Attunga and onto the Lower Somerton Road. About 2km N of Attunga rain started failing and I decided to do a U-turn to get out of it so that I could take some photos. It was about then that a CG dropped in the paddock about 200m from me - probably the closest I've been to a strike. Thinking the better of that, I headed back into Attunga and onto the Manilla Rd to get try and get on the NW side of the storm as there was a lot more clear air on that (inflow) side. Rain fell quite heavily as I travelled N on Manilla Rd, particularly on the Attunga hill (N of Attunga), but dried up once I reached the Klori Road intersection. It was here that that I first observed an interesting lowering (no rotation was observed) at the rear of the storm and a what appeared to be a small flanking line.
To get out of the trees and to get a wider view I then drove to the Somerton Road (turns off Manilla Rd about 15km S of Manilla) which heads back across the Peel Valley in a SW'ly direction bringing me towards the rear of the storm. This is where I got my best photos of the lowering, a rainbow, and some of the spectacular Towering Cumulous development to the NE.
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IR Image 6:35 24 December 2002