My day started at about 4:00pm, looking at the radar and e-mail's to the list and otherwise not doing much.  Had a bit of a look outside at about 6:00pm and thought it was looking promising, so the decision was made to go for a quick scout around Mooroolbark to see what was about.

Got my stuff together and was out the door at around 7'ish (wasn't in a hurry, didn't really look like it would do much from here) and headed up Manchester Rd.  Pulled over at the horse paddock's near Chirnside park to have a look at the cell over Melbourne and while it looked quite nice, there wasn't much static on AM and it looked like it would just pass with some heavy showers.  So I headed over to Mooroolbark Rd as I had seen a very nice anvil out to the NE which looked like it was over Eildon way.  By the time I got to the Mooroolbark Rd - Maroondah Hwy intersection I could see that the anvil had broken free of it's base and was breaking down, so back to Manchester Rd to shoot a bit of video and go home for dinner.  I ended up getting dinner at about midnight.

By the time I got back to Manchester Rd, the static on AM was constant and that's no exaggeration.  In the first half hour or so, there weren't many CG's or visible CC's/Sheet, but I thought I would stick it out for another half hour or so.  Well, at the end of that half hour I had no intention at all of leaving.  I was watching 3 cells, one to the S of me which was pretty active, one over the CBD which was going off tap and a cell that was forming to the NW over the Sunbury/Tullamarine area.  I was watching anvil crawlers from the cell over Melbourne going across to the anvil of the cell in the south then back over the top of where I was standing, a round trip of approx. 120k/m I would estimate.

The cell to the south and the one over Melbourne seemed to merge into one and then all hell broke loose.  Massive CG's, CC's, almost constant sheet lightning and it lasted for hours.

I had my video camera pointed towards Ringwood almost the whole time as that's where most of the action was and I was not disappointed.  I counted possibly 5 powerflashes that looked like they might have come from the sub-station in Ringwood off Heatherdale Rd, I haven't seen any report's of blackouts or anything, but there were CG's hitting in one particular spot and sending up massive green glows.

The cell then started to move over towards where I was and gave us a few nice close strikes, which would have been fantastic if it wasn't for the power lines I was standing under.

As the main cell that was over Melbourne passed over it gave us a nice heavy shower with some small 3-4mm hail and more anvil crawlers and after it cleared and started moving to the SE, another cell was building in the NW
with lots more lightning.

I was out for about 4 and a half hours all up, all at the same place and saw everything I could have wanted to.

The only problem is that we have probably used up all our static allowance for the next 2 years.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!