Thunder
Downunder 2002
November 20-21, 2002 Back to Thunder Downunder 2002 Chase Reports
Well the first day of TDU was coming up and it was quite exciting thinking about it! Only thing is that there were a few things that threw a spanner into the works. I had quite a few back problems during the year and I needed an operation fairly urgently to sort it out (or face possibly being paralysed!) This meant a few tests and appointment, which fell during the time I had taken off work to go on TDU! I was incredibly annoyed at this, but the worst thing I was worried about was letting my chase partner down and needing to be in Brisbane twice during the TDU period for tests etc. But James was a great friend about it and was very understanding, so that was good! In the end, the nature of the troughs were quite favourable with most of the storms being within a day’s drive of Brisbane. We missed out on one big day in southern NSW though which was annoying – the only consolation was that storms were moving so quickly that the chasers that were down there reported that they were extremely difficult to chase! The first week of TDU was looking a bit iffy. It looked like there would be storms, but how good the storms would be would be the main question. We left on Wednesday, we wanted to be in the NW Slopes and Plains for Thursday. The quickest way was to shoot down on the Newell Hwy because it’s 110 all the way. However there was a slight chance of storms along the Northern Tablelands. James and I discussed this and decided that we’d rather take the extra time to detour by 100km or so and get a chance of storms rather than driving in totally clear skies. I left to pick up James in the morning and we were out of his driveway by 9.30am. We got to Glen Innes at around 1.30pm (2.30pm local time). We decided to visit the Celtic lookout and had some fun looking at the Celtic stones and seeing what each stone was for.
We also visited the Celtic store, although it was a little disappointing (there wasn’t much in it). Above there were good views generally. We saw some convection to the south and decided to head towards it. We ducked down the New England by 30km or so and sat there for a bit, there were just a few drops of large rain. We decided to head further south down towards Armidale. On the way down a few storms developed over Armidale and were moving east. We got some very heavy rain and gusty winds – it even brought some flash flooding! But in the end it was just a bit of fun – and after a few rumbles of thunder and some flashes of lightning we decided to keep heading south as it was getting towards the late afternoon and there was no fresh development. We arrived at Tamworth just before sunset, we booked into accommodation and then went to try and get some sunset photos. There was a fair bit of high cloud to the west but it ended up thickening just a little too much to produce anything spectacular (doh!) But we still ended up getting a valuable asset! It was in Tamworth I purchased Mooki – our chase mascot. Originally called “Mr Optomistic” because he was always smiling! Mooki ended up bringing us lots of good luck on TDU!
Day 2, Tamworth – Narrabri It was mostly sunny in the morning but there was a lot of high cloud around which was annoying because the contrast was very bad and it would inhibit convection. Dave Ellem and his father stayed in Coonabarabran the night before, about two hours west of Tamworth. In the middle was Gunnedah, so we suggested that we meet at Gunnedah. We met at the McDonalds in the morning and then went up to the Porcupine Lookout (great lookout!) Although a little difficult to find, the roads and signposts in Gunnedah are somewhat to be desired! I’m sure if you looked closely you could see some sliding skid marks around the corner where the road veers off in some odd direction at an intersection! It was quite hot on top of the lookout, even with the high cloud. We stayed there a couple of hours and waited…and waited…and waited! In the end we decided to go back into town and grab some lunch. McDonalds seemed the best option, partly because it was one of the few places that was airconditioned. We then headed back up to the lookout and waited again. Eventually some CJs developed to our west and southwest. After getting itchy feet we decided to head west on the Oxley Hwy. Most of the development seemed to be on the Warrumbungles. The rain shafts looked quite heavy, but there wasn’t much structure to them unfortunately with moderate instability and weak shear, lots of upper level moisture and relatively dry surface moisture, that was to be expected! We decided that both the cars needed a wash (mine was filthy after going on a wet dirt road the day before!)
So we went through them, expecting mostly heavy rain which is what eventuated. Although there were some CGs which were lovely to watch! We decided to head to Mullaley and then head north to Boggabri and see what happened as the storms were moving slowly north or NNE. They didn’t do much though, remainly most featureless but the odd nice updraft or surface based feature.
Perhaps the highlight were actually the tumbleweeds! I’d never seen them rolling before so that was a novelty.
We decided to head north to Narrabri and stayed the night there. We had some steak at the bowls club, but it seemed more like roadkill! Unfortunately the RSL was closed due to the local high school formal. |
