2nd January 2010 - Storm with beautiful structure, Illawarra, NSW

Click any image for much larger size

Storm chasing this day was a gamble. I decided to fight the urge for a chase expedition and a target west of the escarpment. Dewpoints varied from dripping on the coast to desert like only 100 kms to the southwest. It was not a dryline, just thin coastal moisture.

Around mid afternoon storms developed on the eastern ranges just south of me. As expected they were weak and struggled in poor moisture. One storm however did make the transition to the coast near Nowra intensified.

It too my interest and I headed south (a mistake) 

 

At this stage at Bombo Beach the storm was still relatively weak except for torrential rain which hit 5 minutes after this image was taken. I took me 20 minutes of driving to outrun the outflow mess.

At Port Kembla beach  I briefly got ahead of the rainy mess and witnessed a stalling gust front convect upwards.

A video I took shows the chase and cloud structure much better.

 

The storm was not finished and may have even become severe. This cell phone video taken by a non-chaser shows a small tornado on the ground. I have since passed the location and there is tree damage.

 

 

 

 

 

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