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   Images courtesy of omni-net |
After a morning of errand running and voting for the good of the nation, I'd settled myself comfortably in the coffee shop at the local shopping complex with breakfast & the paper. A phonecall from Andrew McDonald had me taking quick gulps of hot coffee, paying my bill & flying outside (see webcam images above). Unfortunately I couldn't see a great deal of the activity from where I was & I had a hair appointment in 15 minutes - so I had to be satisfied with retrieving the camera from the car (I had wondered why I'd put it in the car this morning) and taking a few quick shots. While in the hairdressers there'd been an almightly clap of thunder & the lights had dimmed - the storm passing overhead remained the major topic of conversation for a while after that, with me wriggling in my chair just wanting to escape (especially after the comment from a fellow stormchaser about "bloody women & hairdressers" <g>).
Looking SW from Knox Shopping Centre
carpark. After the fastest 'hair service' in the history of the world I was out the door and heading towards the South Eastern Freeway - the 10 minutes that it takes to get there was calculated to give me time to decide whether I was to head east or west. A couple of phonecalls to Andrew McDonald & Clyve Herbert & I decided to head east & try to catch the trough line....I had to run my 'new' engine in anyway and I wanted to put as many kms on it before leaving for the chase in NSW. Clyve (using nothing more than a very knowledgeable eye on the sky) pinpointed the centre of activity as being Sale. I passed through the trough line just before I got to Sale. Firstly there was a band of light rain in the SW airflow & then the wind change from SW back to NW which was sudden & strong...and out into the warmer air with a sky full of congesting cumulus. Another 10 minutes saw me positioned between two cells near Sale with the most active cell to my south. Coming over the top of a rise I saw a rotating updraft directly in front of me, 2 cg's and a hail shaft to my south. Stopped me dead for a few minutes while I videoed & muttered to myself about faith, luck & the Victorian road system (nice wide verges for rolling along slowly while trying to find the best spot for a photo).
Looking east from Sale. Note the
strength of the NW wind.
Looking south east from Sale. . I turned south from Sale and towards the most active of the 2 cells, onto the Loch Sport road,and while talking to Andrew came over a hill and face to face with a solid rain shaft. Mentioned this to Andrew who told me not to venture into it - so I backed into a kind farmer's driveway, videoed and waited for the rain area (40-100mm/hr) to move off the road to the south before continuing on. Found a spot to photograph and video (interestingly called Dead Man's Hill) and enjoyed the rumbling from the south while nearly being blown off my feet by the outflow from the cell behind me (or was it the inflow to the storm in front of me?).
Pedestal lowering on the left &
infeed on the right
Nice pedestal lowering to the SE of
Sale Follwed the southernmost cell down to the coast and watched it pass out into Bass Strait & then turned for home. Andrew forecast where I would run into light rain & strong winds and was only 10kms out (not a bad effort for someone 250kms away with a state road map & the BoM radar!!). He had also performed the same trick on the way out in forecasting the position of the trough!! Total distance travelled and time taken: 525km (1200-1911AEDST) |
 Radar courtesy of the Bureau of Meteorology |
| Meanwhile, in Leopold, as the low pressure system tracked from western Victoria to central Bass Strait, the system generated a NE tracking squall line across the coast, travelling at 60-70kmh & generating a spectacular squall line gust front. It produced 5 minutes of heavy rain before moving off to the NE and was followed by a rather sharp increase in surface pressure. |
Squall line approaching Leopold in
south-central Victoria. Looking SW from Leopold Hill 1434AEDST. |
MSL analysis courtesy of the Bureau of Meteorology |
Satellite photo courtesy of James Cook University |
Things to remember:
Many thanks to the following people for their help in updating me, giving me road directions (heck, who needs a road map when you've got a mobile phone and chase backup!), and saving images for this report: Andrew McDonald (Vic), Clyve Herbert (Vic) & Ben Quinn (Qld). Photos of the chase should be up shortly. |
