02/01/15 Chase - Chris' Summary

Chase Synopsis - 02/01/15
This day proved to be a frustrating and rewarding chase but this was always a risk with little wind shear and no upper level support. Myself and Michael Keene got on the first storm of the day for us which developed west of Goulburn this produced two separate defined little funnel clouds before splitting in to two cells, we decided to go after the strong look cell more to the north west which was heading toward Taralga.

Approximately half way between Taralga and Goulburn we intercepted this cell which put out a couple of CA's (Clear Air CG's) before weakening and becoming a rainy mess. A quick check of the radar and we were off again in pursuit of another cell which had formed just to the West of Crookwell moving in a north western direction towards Golspie (about halfway between Taralga and Crookwell).

This cell produced some nice CA's once again and good solid rumbles with some added small hail falling well ahead of it, we chased this cell for a good 90mins loosing sight of it on occasions due to poor road network options. At time there was some nice greenage colour to the structure.

We followed it west along the Peelwood Rd (this has got to be one of the worst roads in history!!!!!!)

After this we headed further west as this was the best area and most likely to develop further storms. Just south of the Abercrombie Caves we came across what looked like some possible micro burst damaged with trees and branches down. A short time later we were greeted with another fantastic cell which put out some really nice CA's also.

We chased this cell all the way to just west of Blayney were it started too loose strength, On our way back towards Crookwell we scored a little sneaky cell which dumped some fantastic CA's and some other amazing bolts.

Nearing Crookwell we noticed development towards the north west of Yass and hot footed it towards Gunning. We stopped to watch itself development and was able to watch an amazing sunset sadly though this cell did not really produce and decent lightning mainly embedded CC's

A check of the radar revealed development west of Canberra near to Brindabella Ranges. We score a nice distant light show which was quite active for around 40 mins.

It was now time to call it and day and head home. All in all not a bad day with some bonus bolts too ease the frustration of poor road networks and mobile coverage!

Chris.