Things had been looking good on the various models during the week for Victoria. A trough was pushing down from NSW and an upper level low had developed in the west of the state, creating the necessary upper level winds. The LI's for the afternoon had -2 to -4 in an area near Echuca, which is located on the border approximately 200km north of Melbourne.

After a morning of fairly constant phone calls to/from various ASWA members, I ended up arranging to go with Nick Sykes. We left Melbourne at 1.30pm and made good time going along the Hume, then the Northern Highway to Echuca, getting there around 3.30pm. There was not too much of interest on the way up, although we did see small cumulus at various stages through the haze that was rife until Rochester. However, the sky had cleared to some extent, allowing some heating and it was noticeably warmer north of the divide.

About 60km from Echuca the haze cleared and some promising dark cloud was on the horizon. As we got closer Nick saw a couple of CGs from the cell to the north of Echuca. We rang Jane from there to see what was around. She hadn't looked at a computer for a while so we said we'd ring from Deniliquin when we got there.

It was obvious as soon as we left Moama that we weren't going to go to Deniliquin. The storm had intensified somewhat and there were some powerful CGs. We looked for a road to turnoff on and eventually stopped just outside of town looking north. The storm was not very electrically active to the naked eye but the thunder was rumbling every few seconds so there must have been some CC lightning. There, rain eased off as the storm passed over although at its peak there was a lot of rain coming out of it. There were a few interesting cloud base features but nothing to write home about.

It was at this stage that we saw a second cell intensifying to the NW of our location. The storm which we had been under was glaciating so we headed off on that road to Deniliquin. About 8kms up the road there was a rest area with a good view to the north so we pulled over to watch the next storm.

The CGs from this storm were even more powerful and there were clear hail shafts along the line of the storm as well as a dark sky with some green tinges in places. A lowering occurred on the SW corner of this storm which had us excited for a while, although it was probably a gust front of some description. From our location, it was around 10km away and was no more than 100m off the ground. I decided I wanted to get in front of it, so we headed back to the earlier road by which time the formation had disappeared. After watching this next storm die we headed back into town to ring Jane. She told us that there were good cells right where we were in a line from Echuca to Deniliquin when she last checked. However, due to the fact the storms were pulsing and dying really quickly and how I didn't want to get back too late, we headed off around 6pm, although we stopped again briefly as I'd seen several CGs in the mirror. As we got halfway back there looked to be cells developing to the NW and NE of Melbourne, but nothing eventuated after that.

Nick got home at around 8.30 and myself well after that. A good chase due to the fact nowhere else got any action; we saw a great lowering as well as some great CGs, and the knowledge that north of Elmore the viewing can be magnificent due to the flat land. A frustrating chase due to the pulsing nature of the storms, the haze from Melbourne to Rochester, and the insects that plagued Echuca/Moama.