Amazing Tin Can Bay Guster!

December 09, 2005

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Today was the last official day of TDU – after this the trough really was going to fall apart and it was coming to the end of my allotted holidays.  It was also looking very marginal – quite touch and go!  But still we decided to take our chances around the Sunshine Coast-Gympie area.  There was a lot of dry air pushing in so we wanted stuff to develop early, but that wasn’t going to be!  But by mid-afternoon there were a few weak showers and storms that had developed around the area.  These pulsed up and down and generally weakened, but we were slowly drifting north with them.

Finally one storm seem to have a bit more guts just south of Gympie, but it really was struggling!  

And towards the end it seemed to gust out, we sat on the eastern edge of Gympie where we were pretty much melting.  DPs were in the mid 20s and top temperatures were well into the mid 30s.  We were contemplating whether or not we call it a day then and there and just go home, it was now after 4pm and the entire sky to our west was completely clear.  The storm to the south was still struggling and very weak, but we decided to head east anyway and just keep an eye on it.

It’s amazing how one decision can make or break a chase, had we turned back it would have been a complete bust!  But we decided to take our chances – about 15km out of Gympie the storm started to look a little stronger with a new updraft going up on the edge of it.  And about 20km out of Gympie things were suddenly looking very interesting indeed!  

Much more defined base and outflow region was developing, so we decided we’d continue on towards Tin Can Bay and see what happened.  We got glimpses in the rear-vision mirror of what was rapidly becoming a huge beast – the storm most likely hit the seabreeze front where DPs were creeping up into the high 20s (that’s low 80s in the US!)  And it certainly helped!  I knew a spot where a ferry crosses to Fraser Island.  We couldn’t go to Fraser without a permit, but we could sit and wait for the storm to come across!

It was agonizing seeing a low contrast storm come across when you just knew it was looking great!  But soon enough the sun finally went behind the clouds and revealed a beautiful mothership-like guster!  

It was absolutely spectacular – CGs were striking ahead of the storm, we were getting flangs in the camping area and people were running for shelter as the storm came across!  I was in the water taking photos (mangroves in the way), and one CG struck about 100m away while I was in the water!!  I had never got out of the water so fast – Tony said it looked as if I was walking on water!  I must say I got a huge fright, as you just get caught up in the storm when you’re really appreciating something fantastic!

We were out of land so the storm had to go over us – but its bark was definitely worse than its bite.  Gusts were probably no stronger than 35 knots, although we did see some small trees down as we drove back.  We were trying to come around behind the storm and get some lightning.  Eventually we ended up in Hervey Bay but things had well and truly collapsed then.  We called it a day, had a great dinner to end off TDU and found a place to stay the night!  It was a fantastic TDU storm-wise…a huge collection of different types of storms – and definitely one of the most memorable!