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28th December 2005: Tamworth - Uralla Storm Chase

After 5 days in Tamworth of extreme heat and endless blue sky, the 28th held some promise with the passage of a frontal system across Northern NSW.

Just after midday there was a marked increase in humidity at Tamworth and weak convection started to take off. It still seemed too dry to the west, so I thought that the best pickings would probably be to the North-East of Tamworth on the Tablelands. With that in mind I headed North of Tamworth up the New England Highway and then onto the Oxley Highway, towards the big hill East of Walcha Road to see what would pan out.

You tend to know your in the right spot when you run into other chasers. In this case I came round the bend near the turn off to Woolbrook and noted two familar people playing cricket by the site of the road - it was James Harris and Dann Weatherhead. I turned around and went back, joining them in the cricket and some discussion over what we thought would happen. Checking the web it was clear that it was starting to take off, but it was difficult to see any isolated activity, much of it being embeded in the banks of cumulus that where now building up quite rapidly.

After some discussion we decided to head North via Walcha Road, Woolun and Kentucky to the New England Highway. Along the way we passed through some showers and on reaching Woolun spent a bit more time with tennis ball and willow waiting for something to develop.

At around 4pm lightning began to become active to our South-West, and there appeared to be something of a squally line developing. Heading further North-West past Kentucky towards the highway we stopped on the top of hill to take some photos. Pretty soon the wind picked up and rain started and we were back in the cars heading towards Uralla with a few CG's dropping close by in the paddocks around us.

Further up the highway to the North of Thunderbolt's rock, and now seperated from James and Dann, the system broadly took on the features of a squall line, with several embeded cells which developed their own distinct inflow regions. The first of these cells developed just to the North-East of Thunderbolt's rock, this quickly developed a lowered base feature behind which CG's pulsated with considerable frequency (Photos 6-11). Further to the North I took some more photos which show more of the squall line nature that the system showed at times, before heading South back down the highway to Thunderbolt's rock where I waited out part of the system as it passed over dropping heavy rain and small hail.

Driving South again a second cell with a more clearly defined structure and clear air behind it was visible to the West of the highway (Photo 15).

About 30km further South again a third cell became visible through the trees in the vicinity of Banalasta. While driving a bright white white hail shaft was visible to the right (North) of this cells rain free base, lit brilliantly by the sun. Turning off and heading down the road to Banalasta I took some further shots of this cell before heading back to Tamworth. Back in Tamworth a beautiful sunset was observed, topping off quite a good day.