So the day started out with massive convection and a nice cell in NSW around 10am. I managed to get off of work around 11:30, and my target was Colbinabbin to try and intercept the cell that was coming down from NSW.
As I got to the hills SE of Colbinabbin there were already some nice cells firing down the Heathcote way.
As i got over the hills and headed down to Colbinabbin the cell was weakening, but still retained a nice wall cloud and heavy precip core behind.
.
This seemed to die off fairly quickly from what i thought, but as it was it went on to become the first line that hit melbourne this afternoon.
As I left here, I headed to the clear air to my north where I could see some fresh convection. In hindsight, I should have headed to Shepparton to intercept a cell that I could not catch later on... but ah well. After grabbing a bight to eat at Elmore, I headed down the Rushworth road to core punch through a small cell to get to a multicell line that was coming down from swan hill.
The multicell line was behind this. However the road unknowingly turned to dirt. I weighed up my chances and decided to try my luck. This "storm" that was in front of my was dying rapidly...
As it was i hit some recent flash flooding, and decided to turn around there and then. I was not going to risk that at all...
So turning around I saw a huge CB going up in the distance and decided to try my luck at catching it. This was taken at 200mm...
At nearly 200km away, I headed back to Elmore, up to Rochester, and on towards Kyabrahm. A couple of wrong turns, otherwise I may have met it head on... but it was alot of ground to cover. The first initail CB suddenly had a twin, and these 2 were shooting up in clear air like crazy! Rock hard updraughts with certain rotation in them. Hazey skies from abundant moisture made it hard to photograph, but you get the idea.
As I got closer, i could make out 3 levels of rotation on the front cell. Once again, haze made it hard to see, and being over 60km away from it still. This cell dropped mulitple wall clouds from what I saw. The next few pics are taken over 10min...
.
.
.
I decided to turn around and head back to Bendigo as I couldnt catch these storms. As I got back towards Collbinabbin I noticed another like had built up and was lining up Bendigo. As I rushed towards it, I noticed a very nice green tinge, like the last couple of cells. I stopped just NW of Colbinabbin to snap this 12 image Panorama.
Pushing on a little further, I stopped to see if I could catch a bolt with the lightning trigger, but alas the lightning was behind the rain curtain. I had yet to see a single bolt (And never did for that matter, bucket loads of thunder, but not a single bolt.)
I decided to let it pass over me, with another 6image Panorama, and closer look at the main core...
Note the nice rotation in center of picture. I counted 6 of these whilst under the band.
So 400km, 250 pictures, Loads of rain, a couple of nice wall clouds, no CG's, and an insane amount of dead locusts later I pulled into Bendigo.
Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
I live in a world where I dont see to believe, but I believe to see...