Michael Thompson's Australian Storm Chase Diary13th March 1999 - Southern Highlands, New South Wales. COPYRIGHT: All photos on this and my other pages are copyright . However use for any non-profit purposes can be had in most instances by simply E Mailing first. Please note that photos have been compressed to aid quicker web viewing. Original prints are of better quality.
Click on photos to see larger image Clocked up some serious kilometres today, thanks to poor decisions, then reversal of chase route. The 13th March 1999 was one of those days that looked great on the models. LI's where moderate at -6 and upper level winds would be strong enough to ensure activity. The upper atmosphere was also a bit colder than normal for March. At 12.30pm I left home for Picton, a tower was already going up NW of Sydney, it had a nice slope indicating that upper winds had hold of the top of it. In contrast there was some very nice congestus over the Southern Highlands, but it was standing tall and straight as it had not reached the heights of the other cell yet. At Picton and a quick call to the Sydney crew to assess the situation, Michael Bath said he could see three towers down my way, all capped with pileus, I could not as I was under the anvil of one, and cirrus was blocking my view of others. I could however see the storm NW of Sydney and it was earlier boiling at the back end, but probably over wilderness. A smaller cumulus was now blocking my view of that storms rear. Compared to the the congestus further south these also appeared higher based.
I waited a
while at Razorback lookout, the earlier congestus
southwards was now forming a decent cell, though
strangely with little rain. The one west from Picton
looked the goods, the north side had developed a dark
rain free base and thunder was almost constant. At 1.30pm
I headed for this cell by taking the road to Nattai and
the Burragorang Valley, this road for the first 15km west
from Picton is great for photos. At the town of ' The
Oaks' I saw what seemed to be a brief funnel, could it be
the same one as the Sydney crew saw. I should of pulled
over and taken a photo, but storm fever had got the
better of me and I had to get that little bit closer, I
then ran into heavy rain.... which continued from The
Oaks to Nattai , and it is pretty lousy chasing territory
with tall forest. The road comes to a dead end at Nattai
overlooking the Warragamba Dam lake, small hail started
to fall. I turned around and headed back to Picton. Once
back out in the open I saw that this storm had anvilled
out, there was very little fresh growth, I was very
surprised at just how quickly things had fallen apart.
Meanwhile the storm to the south now looked like a
monster. I hit the freeway reversing the mornings chase,
I turned off at the Mittagong exit, then took the Bowral
road. Just south of Bowral just after 3pm and I now had a
view of a beautiful storm to the SE, the cumulus was
quite wild looking, folding over on itself and containing
odd accesory clouds, it was easy to imagine rotation, but
I doubt it in hindsight. SUMMARY OF LESSONS - make up
your mind if you want to chase tablelands or coast.
Trying both does not work because of the crappy mountain
passes in the Illawarra.
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