At approx 7:30am this morning a tornado tore through parts of Lennox Head causing millions of dollars damage. The culprit being a supercell thunderstorm that developed to the south of Lennox before moving north towards town and then east out to sea. This storm developed thanks to a small scale low pressure system sitting off the coast of Byron Bay providing the perfect combination of instability and shear for Tornadoes to develop.

The first image is courtesy of ABC showing the tornado crossing town with a large amount of debris being thrown up and around the tornado.

The second picture is of some of the damage on the beachfront. Click on the photos in featured Photos on left to enlarge

I have been amazed since moving here not only at the amount of storms they get, but the severity each one seems to gain time and time again. To say this place is a hot spot would be an understatement. It really has everything going for it weather wise.

Yesterday (Monday 29 Dec) I took my 1 year old out for his first storm chase, albeit a mini one for only 2 hours, still a chase is a chase! We watched as a storm moving north of Grafton seemed to be dying whilst a large base behind it built up south west of Casino. The scud features underneath it were brilliant to watch as inflow into the base started to increase at a rapid rate. An inflow tail could be seen extending east towards the warm moist air sitting over Casino ready to act as fuel for the storm. Over the next hour a large HP monster developed and preceeded to move north towards Kyogle. Another Northern Rivers Monster!

It's day's like today why I love chasing in Australia, chasing storms with no one else around in the middle of nowhere! Sure they're not a patch on our US cousins variety however they still pack some punch to get the adrenalin pumping.

Report plus Pics here

A place that seems to throw up the best storms in NSW very regularly but one that none of the SSC'ers have really successfully chased due to the 750km drive from Sydney.

That's all about to change.

In a new dawn for SSC, the tear-away quick from Galston, James,  has made the move with his family to paradise. In case you havent worked it out yet, that piece of paradise is the Northern Rivers.

Keep an eye on SSC over the next few months as reports and photos come through from NE NSW/SE QLD. Below is a nice welcome photo I got last Tuesday night from Mcleans Ridges.

More photos here