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.

Historical ramblings of the SSC crew and storm chasing in Australia.

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.