Weather and Photography by Jane Gough, Melbourne, Australia
September 10th - 11th 2005 ~ Weekend chase into NSW Riverina and South West Slopes Regions.
David Simpson invited me to join him on his chase, which was to be my first. I was terribly excited (to say the least) except for the 4am start! I won't go into any meteorological or setup details, as these, along with David's images and full report, can be viewed here. I'll just show some of my many images I took over this exciting weekend!
Once we reached our target area of Ganmain (between Narrandera and Junee), we had to sit it out for a few hours and wait for the cap to break Once it had, and convection began to take place, we moved on towards Coolamon and nearer to Junee in search of storms! Being a multicell environment, it was difficult to take any photographs, but we persisted, and made do with what was on offer. Despite hearing static on the radio, I can't remember seeing 1 CG for the remainder of the afternoon.
We decided to book in to Wagga Wagga for the night, but not long after checking in we were back on the road to capture the lightning from development towards the North West. Luckily I decided to stay in the car while David stood only metres away photographing, where he was struck by lightning. Luckily for him, (and me) it wasn't a direct hit, and suffered no ill effects. The dangers of standing on wet ground during a thunderstorm in the vicinity of power lines. David is one lucky fella. We left pretty soon after, as the rain had set in. Back in Wagga, we were treated to flash flooding and close lightning whilst enjoying dinner and re living the 'experience' of the last few hours. Heavy rain and thunder continued well into the evening.
The next morning we left Wagga around 9.30am for the long journey home, hoping to encounter more development on the way. It wasn't long until we stopped to photograph the updrafts, and I spotted my first funnel...albeit rather small! (Middle photo, second line).
We continued on our journey South, encountering small hail showers and large puddles left over from the rains the previous night. We noticed an anvil developing in the distance around the Myrtleford area, but unfortunately, it was getting into unchaseable terrain. We also came across flooding under a rail bridge near Chiltern, and David had to check the depth before driving through it!
We then met up with photographer and chaser Rob Alexander near the Springhurst turnoff from the Hume Fwy, and enjoyed watching and photographing distant storms from this great vantage point....
.....and this gorgeous run down stone farm building along the road a little further!
I arrived home at approximately 7.30pm Sunday evening, exhausted, yet exhilarated!
Many thanks to David for giving me the opportunity to go chasing and photographing with him, and to my Family for letting me escape for the Weekend!! Please have a browse through David's report here.