HUNTER STORM CHASE
From: Lower Hunter, Written by: Grant Burgess
http://www.raymondterrace.hunterweather.com/
I left home
at 1500 & went as far as Maitland. The best activity seemed both N & S
of me most of the time. The stuff to the S fired earlier & produced a
beautiful crisp reasonably thick anvil - what little I could see of it.
The stuff to the N fired later with some interesting base formations &
infrequent lightning. I believe these N storms kicked off from a smallish cell
which broke away from the storms in the S - & probably passed Maitland
somewhere to the W. I began driving E with several stops soon after 1600 &
watched these storms grow & look quite nasty at several stages.
I then turned N & headed toward Seaham straight into the activity,
infrequent CG's were coming down ~10km further N
amongst a decent rain curtain. Only went a little way up the road before
turning back & headed back toward RT.
These cells seemed to build on their S edge & passed over me ~1730 with
some moderate showers & the odd close CG. Little wind with this cell but we
had moderate SSW winds with the build up. I recorded a max gust of 37.8km/h in
RT near the river while here at home recorded a max gust of 49.0km/h around the
same time.