After a stinker of a day, (temps around 39C throughout Sydney) some weak storms developed on the ranges around Bowral and Wollongong and persisted for a few hours in the afternoon. Desperate for some lightning photography after barely any opportunity during the Thunder Down Under 2000 chase, I took a chance and headed down towards Campbelltown, hoping for an opportunity to shoot as the sun set. I headed on the freeway towards Canberra and found a brilliant truck stop where I quickly pulled over and watched. Fantastic view's here to the SE, perfect for watching storms in this area. The sun had pretty much set by the time I arrived, but some AWESOME anvil crawlers just before I got out the car kept my hopes up for a bit of a show. I ended up staying at this location for about an hour, missing plenty as usual (just before or just after you press the shutter or release it) or having bolts strike *just* outside your frame. The 3 best photo's are below and made for a great evening. The storms were weak, but when a bolt did come down it was usually pretty good.

Large storms had developed the last day or 2 in inland NSW due to a trough of low pressure. The trough had slowly moved eastwards and storms were likely. The morning screamed instability with a nice NE'ly, plenty of low level moisture, and large patches of blue sky ahead of the trough. A convergence line ran right down the ranges, and storms were expected throughout. The strength of the wind shear was not too good, but its amazing what can happen regardless! One of the significant features analysed after the event, was that of a mid level jet comming through the area, with a strength around 40 knots from the WSW. This with the 20 knot or so NE at the surface feeding into the storm (60 knots of directional shear), is sufficiant enough for supercells.

Report by Matthew Smith

Today was looking good for storms, a rain band clearing in the morning, to moist humid conditions and increasing temperatures which got into the mid to high 20's in the afternoon. I was expecting storms to take off in the clear air behind the rain band, and all morning since I had been up, there had been a line of showers near wagga, slowly moving NE lagging behind the rain band which must have been the trough line.

I waited until lunch as the line got closer, and saw some weakish congestus on the ranges. I decided to head out west before peak hour traffic hit incase anything got going. I could hear static on AM (1 every 30 seconds or so) and anvil to my far south associated with the band of showers (now storms). I was near Luddenham headed south but Daniel had just got out of Uni and I went to his Fiance's house near Penrith to check up on radar and watch and wait. We were expecting something to take off on the Blue Mountains and at times it looked like it might have, but it just didn't get going. A strong cap and winds swinging NW drying out the place a bit prevented anything from developing. We watched the cells down south on radar, and decided "what the hell" and headed south to see what we could get.

I'd had my eye on this day for a few days, a nice front was due, with a strong Jet. The only real problem was moisture. I wanted to stay as close as possible to the trough, as that is where activity would pop up if any did. After lots of ooooing and aaaaaing and wondering where I should go (maybe out west to Bathurst), I stuck to my original target area of Goulburn/Yass. AVN showed a tounge of higher RH pushing into this area. LI was around -2 to -3. Matt Pearce told me that DP's were still OK inland and that there were storms in the NSW/VIC border mid morning. High cloud concerned me, but I had the day off and had nothing to lose, and I was desperate to go on the first long chase of the season :)