15th January 2006: Boorowa - Crookwell Storm Chase
Sitting in traffic on the afternoon of the 14th, several impressive but none too long lasting cells developed to the North-West of Sydney. All hopes of storms in the Sydney basin where blown away soon after with the arrival of a Southerly change which had blanketed Sydney in grey gloom by the time the Sun went down. Any storms for the 15th were therefore going to be west of the ranges, with the passage of a trough.
Going from the models the best chase area seemed to be in an area North of Yass so headed out on the Hume at around 10am via the new M7. It wasn't until I reached the the Illawara Highway exit that the cloud started to break up and the surface temperate started to increase from 20 degrees to 28. Reaching Goulburn at about 1pm there was visible convection starting to kick off on a line that ran almost parallel with the Hume as it heads West from Goulburn to Yass. I continue on towards Yass, and then with storms now starting to build to the North of the Highway, decided to turn off the highway at Gunning with a view of taking the back roads in the direction of Boorowa to see what would pan out.
Just North of Digby a poorly structure cell came into view (photos 1 and 2) which I took a few photos off. It was heading a direction with very poor roads so gave it a miss and continued on in the direction of Boorowa where it appeared like more cells where developing. About 10km West of Boorowa on the Rye Park - Boorowa Road I drove through a weak cell from which rain was cascading and that was producing occasional CG's. At Boorowa I turned onto the Narrawa Road in the direction of what appeared to be a line of storm cells developing. These turned out to be weak and poorly structured (photo 3), collapsing and re-forming in short order. Several impressive CG's dropped down in paddocks around me.
The system then disolved into a thundery rain complex which at times produced heavy showers and the occasional CC. I continued on the Boorowa - Crookwell Rd (not recommended for your ordinary family sedan) to Crookwell and then on to Sydney. All in all a little disappointing, but a nice drive nonetheless.
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2006:01:15 14:35
Storm Cell North of Digby NSW
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2006:01:15 14:36
Storm Cell North of Digby NSW
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2006:01:15 15:38
Weak Storm Cells which dropped quite a few close CGs at the Frogmore turn off on the Boorowa - Crookwell Rd
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2006:01:15 16:36
Rain Complex from the Boorowa - Crookwell Rd East of Rugby NSW
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2006:01:15 16:50
Rain Complex Boorowa - Crookwell Rd: East of Rugby NSW
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