Heres some from Rhodes shopping center carpark roof as the storm approached, 1cm hail and some rotation as a clear slot developed and started spinning the base, right near the olympic stadium.

More in the photo gallery, enjoy!

Storms struck Sydney this afternoon and with some very heavy rain fall and some areas getting 2-3cm hail.  James was out chasing this arvo and should have somethings to report soon, stay tuned!!!

A great looking left moving storm moving north ripped though the western suburbs of sydney today, not much damage was reported but it was fantastic structurally with powerful updraughts. The atmosphere was primed and all it needed was a trigger (southerly change coming in earlier than expected!) and plenty of moisture. James and Dann also chase today and should have some more info about this storm from the NW suburbs. It was great fun! plenty of development, some very heavy rain and strong winds as well as 1cm hail. There are more photos in the gallery under 2007 for now.

Storms hit Penrith today producing winds gusting up to 102km/h, which not unusual of course in a storm, but a storm that strong hasn't hit this area with that wind strength for some time. There were many tree branches down, as well as powerlines due to branches falling on them. Also there were pockets of flash flooding around and some property damage. 

Thanks to Jimmy D of australiansevereweather.com who took a couple of images of the storm (click on link image above).  We will get some more pictures up shortly.  

The target area was the Mudgee-Merriwa area today, shear was not very good but the instability was great, with some nice pulse storms expected, and hopefully something slightly more organized would develop. Highlights were 1cm hail just south of Mudgee, a very close clear air CG while driving and a half decent shelf cloud made the chase worthwhile. I struggled to get in front of the shelf cloud unfortunately and missed out on some better photos. The road travelled E or SE for a large section and the storm started to move north not north east and that signalled the end of the case. I got stuck in torrential rain with huge amounts of water on the roads, with plenty of aqua plaining keeping me on edge! all round an ok day, a few pictures in the photo gallery.

The SSC crew have been chasing storms now for just over 10 years, so I thought it appropriate to write a short piece about us, and what we have learned, seen, and experienced. Chasing is dangerous... but the rewards can be stunning.

We are all now in our late 20's, and met in our late teenage years at the early Australian Severe Weather Association meeting's in North Sydney. It's funny what sparks peoples interest in hobby's... some like car's, others like aviation, horses, pet's, art, shopping....we love the weather, not to mention a good storm. 99% of people love a good thunderstorm, and will sit outside on the veranda watching it come across, amazed at the lightning criss crossing the sky, and the colours at sunset. Some people don't like them at all, and stay indoors hoping it will pass quickly. The 3 of us were drawn to the "why and how" side of storms, hence us eventually crossing paths via the internet and the meetings mentioned above in 1996/97.

The early days of chasing....(wow...never thought I'd type those words..must be getting old now....) were really interesting. Looking back, there were only a handful of storm chasers in the country at the time and no body really knew what it was to be a storm chaser. To mention a few names of early chasers in Australia, Michael Bath, Jimmy Deguara, Clyve Herbert, James Chambers, and Michael Thompson. Many of you will know these names and some of the amazing images they have captured over the past 10-20 year's.

The "storm chasing" phenomonon did not get any real publicity until around the late 1990's, when, here and there, after a big storm, the local paper would put in a photo, or interview a chaser or the local "weather enthusiast". Sometimes the odd radio interview would occur after a big storm.

In the late 90's we were relying on the Bureau's old coloured radar scan and hourly (sometimes 2 hourly) satelite pictures. Hand drawn and scanned synoptic charts were on the internet, and lightning tracker was something to we could only dream of. Before the internet got a foothold in mainstream life in the mid 90's, the names mentioned above would follow the charts on the tv, or the newspaper, and what I believe is more critical than any electronic data you may have... they learned to read the sky.

I now get the feeling that this short piece will become quiet long as it dawns on me the depth of the topic I am now writting about!!!

When we were chasing early on, mobile coverage was not the best and only major inland towns had coverage, and internet on the road felt like it was many many years away. This forced us to do one thing... learn how to read the sky (and ring friends in different citys around the country for updates!). It's not easy, and there were plenty of mistakes made early on from bad decision making, and covering many km for not much action and very very marginal conditions for average thunderstorms. This was a huge learning experience for us, and being older I look back and its made the 3 of us the chasers we are today. We all progressed at our own pace in gaining knowledge, gaining idea's and learning from each other, but the most we learned, and still learn, is when we are out in the middle of know where watching the sky.

Alot of people have become interested in storm chasing over the years, but then fly off the radar and you never hear from them again. I guess life takes them in different directions and other things become more important. It's amazing the flood of memorys that comes back from the past 10 years whilst writting this, thinking of some of the fantastic people we have met over the years.... really it has been an experience that has made all our lives more richer and exciting than it could ever have been.

Are storm chasers as good at forecasting as the bureau... well...I would say yes. We don't have the indepth scientific analysis through studying at university, with physics and chemistry degrees... but we have read many things in the internet about the weather, and more importantly, tried to do our own forecasting and learn from our mistakes. Watching the sky in the outback for hours on end gives you a feeling of insignificance, as if we are as small as an ant on a cricket pitch. When you look 360 degrees and you can see for a few hundred km in each direction, you gain an understanding of how weather patterns work, the vast distances they cover, and how they interact with moist or dry air, how a jet stream plays a large part in the life of a storm... you can read about these things all you want, but until you see it working, you can only try to picture it. We can, and it makes us our forecasting that much better.

The first "Thunder Down Under" as it was known storm chasing holiday was in the spring of 1999, we all had our own cars by then and would head out on (what for a few years was) an annual storm chase holiday around late November/early December during peak storm season in Eastern Australia. There would be at times up to 12-15 people on these trips, from all across the country, bought together for the love of the weather, the thrill of the chase, and exploration of this country that you would never otherwise see. At this time of year you have the summer heat approaching, the continent has moisture being pumped in from the ocean into heat troughs, and you still get the odd cold front or upper cold pool moving through the upper atmosphere, before the real heat of December/January kicks in. With these conditions comes lots of instability and thunderstorms.

We have all driven some rediculous distances storm chasing... and continue to do so! Storm chasing distances usually fall into 3 categories.1- A short chase. Usually a local chase around your suburban area, you just happen to be home at the time, or you have commitments and cant go very far that day. 2- Other chases are great fun, usually involve a 2-3 hour drive to a targer area in the morning, then a 2-3 hour drive back home. eg, Sydney - upper hunter valley, or Sydney - Bathurst/Orange. (a 4-6 hour round trip). Then you have the distances only serious storm chasers do. 3- This is what sets many chasers apart. There are only a hand full of people in the country that do the 800-1400km in a day chasing. They are exhausting and you will sometimes sleep on the side of the road on the drive home so you don't fall asleep at the wheel. We have been known to drive a few times a season, into far W and NW NSW to chase storms, and return back home to Sydney later that night. Some people will be amazed to read about this, but hey, it's what we do to get the photos and video that we are proud of, and for others to see. If the setup for severe storms is very good (and if we have the day off work!), good instability, good wind shear, good moisture, then after more research if we feel it is worth the effort, we will leave at 6am in the morning to get to a target area by 1-2pm, driving 6-8 hours, hoping to be in the right area by the time storms explode. We will chase for a few hours until 6-8pm, then head back home, usually another 5-7 hours. (Not to mention going to work the next morning!). These are by far, the hardest drives, but you learn alot. The physical and mental toll is pretty intense. Physically, your up early morning, driving all day and evening, stopping to get petrol and food, or waiting for a cap to break. Mentally, your mind all day is focused on watching the sky (and driving). As we are after storms, it is always humid and sunny, and it is critical to keep fluids and sugar levels up and to have a supply in the car, especially if you break down... headaches sometimes come on and panadol is a must if you are to get home later in the evening. Driving is dangerous in itself, but through storms and heavy rain, flooding, wind, kangaroos at dusk, not to mention flocks of galahs and the dark of night passing many interstate semi trailers with bright lights on country roads, we are usually driving in the worst road conditions you can get. In saying this, driving in these conditions makes you more alert to your surroundings and better able to respond although, your absolutly stuffed when you get home sometime between midnight-3am. The reward though, is seeing storms no one else see's. The reward is having incredible storys, photographs and video footage you can look back on with your mates. The storms bring us together, and the experiences are remembered for a lifetime.

The other single biggest deadly threat is lightning. Touch wood, none of us have been hit by lightning. When it comes to the crunch, all we do is follow clouds that throw out random bolts of hugely powerful sparks that can kill you. The more storms we chase, the higher chance we are of getting hit, compared to the average person who does not chase. Lightning is incredibly beautiful to watch. We have seen crawlers spreading out like spiderwebs underneath the anvil of a storm stretching over 50km long. We have all experienced being in our cars (luckily) and had lightning bolts hit within 10-20 metres of us plenty of times. There is a familiar "snap" sound, like someone snapping a large piece of perpex plastic, followed by the bolt 1/2 a second later. We have seen lightning bolts pulse 10-15 times and last 2-3 seconds which are very powerful. We have seen lightning bolts from the main updraught of storms, stretch out backwards and infront of a storm, and hit 5-10km from the storm itself, in clear air. This makes chasing incredibly dangerous at times. Over the years you learn storm behaviour that can result in different types of lightning behaviour. There are still plenty of close calls we have all had one time or another, and are thankful we decided to get back in our cars when we did, and not 1 minute later. Lightning has become my single biggest fear when chasing... if you take some precautions and don't be foolish, you can minimise the risk substantially. I'm not as selfish as I once was... and wont take risks now i would have 5 years ago, mainly as I have a partner, and she deserves to have me around, and I'll gladly miss the shot of a lifetime, as long as I'm still here to try and get the next one!!!

The sheer power of storms still baffles me. What specific conditions must all come together to make a cloud grow from the size of a small hill, to explode like a mushroom cloud and be 1.5 times the size of mt everest.... hovering in mid air, then start rotating in 20-30 minutes. Think about it... a 747 plane is dwarfed by the size of a storm, it looks like a flea on a dog when it flies in front if it! The sheer powerful winds to hold millions of baseball size hailstones 10km above the ground. A baseball made of solid ice weighs a fair bit... the natural explosive force of a strong updraught to lift millions of hailstones higher and higher... it simply amazes me.

The 3 of us have grown up over the last decade. We have watched each other either renovate, or buy a house, or in Dann's case both! We have seen each other get married (Matt is about to in a couple of month's), and progress in our careers. The next step no doubt for all of us approaching our 30's, is paying off our houses, having kids and starting families. James has already started and is as proud a new father as you would ever see. As the commitments of life take a hold as we get older, no doubt the storm chasing will also have to slow down a bit, and we will have to give up a few days here and there for our loved ones. (as Matt did only last week missing a supercell that dropped 8cm hail (only the second time in 8 years in sydney.... and on a weekend!!!!) 10 minutes from his house as he picked music for his wedding 10 minutes in the other direction and could not chase...Dann missed it due to family xmas commitments in melbourne..... oh the frustration!!). In saying that, James did manage to score the storm luckily!

The technology advancements are nothing short of amazing in the last 7-8 years. It is now possible thanks to the NextG network, to have mobile broadband basically anywhere in Australia (within reason). This has changed things alot on the road, where we can now have up to date lightning tracker, radar, sat pics, AWS obs, forecasts, warnings, model runs, on the road. This is incredibly helpfull in most situations, but sometimes you can have too much information, and forget to just look out at the sky at what is going on.

There are quiet a few people who chase storms now. Philip Basil-Jones, Shane Watson and Ben, all from sydney are a mad bunch of chasers who remind me of the 3 of us when we were there age. I hope they can form life long freindships and are able to chase and grow together as the years pass, as we are.

There are others in other states that communicate mainly from forums such as the one at weatherzone.com.au, or australiasevereweather.com, and some of the people that have been chasing almost, if not longer than us also include Anthony Cornelius, David Sercombe, Jane Oneill, Clyve Herbert, Ben Quinn, Rhett Blanch, Tony Middleton, not to mention Andrew Macdonald (who is basically a 4th ssc'er but lives in Brisbane!)

Also, there are our partners that put up with the 3 of us. It's not easy having husbands that have a hobby that randomly comes around and is dictated by the weather. Often we leave with only a day or two's notice that we will be out for a day chasing. This can sometimes stretch the relationship and often this happens in the Nov/Dec period, as well as February, especially if we have some sort of commitment that has to be changed at the last minute because we want to head out on the road for the day!

When we were single, this was not a problem at all, and we could do what we want, when we wanted, dreaming of the day we would meet a girl who would turn our lives upside down, luckily we have trained our respective halves over the years and they try not to make too many plans around this period. (Though we pay for it in the other 9 months hah!)...hmm I might cop it if she ever reads this hah! Seriously though they do worry about us when we are gone. They call us when its late and talk to us on the road, and they always sleep better knowing we made it home safely, and hope we had a good time. The next day when we are very tired after many hundreds of km driving, only a few hours sleep then a full day at work, they are very understanding and give us time to rest. We love them heaps and thank them for allowing us to go and do what we love doing, without there support it would be very hard.

We have also seen some big big changes in photography and video equipment. James and Dann are the video experts so I cannot comment too much, except we have gone in the past 10 years in a transition from video 8, to hi8, to mini dv, to dvd , to hdd recording with video cameras. Also we have gone from film cameras such as the pentax mz50 and other film canon/nikon film models, to the revolution of the digital slr. These cameras have changed lives and have basically allowed our photography to reach a level that is very satisfying. It will only further improve in the next few years. Each of us now owns a Canon 400D, with mutliple lenses. No doubt upgrades will be in order in the next few years as technology goes nuts!!! I can see something that allows you to transfer video/photos to your computer wirelessly (such as blue tooth in all devices). Anyway we will see what happens!

That just about sums it up. Now we have got our act together (thanks to Dann's genious website work) with a brilliant website, and have honed our creative photo and video skills, we hope we can continue to bring you some of the most spectacular images the natural world has to offer in this part of the world.

It's been very enjoyable to write this and if you are a weather enthusiast or storm chaser like us, I have no doubts you can relate to some of the things above, and If your new to it we hope you consider the dangers associated with such activities. There is much more that could have been added, but maybe that can wait for another 10 years.

Merry Christmas, and have a safe holiday season and great new year in 2008!

Matt Smith