20th November 2008 - Hunter Valley and Hawkesbury,  NSW

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Desperate for a chase in yet another dry and moisture starved Spring  myself and Steve  targeted the a Hunter Valley setup today (4 hours distant). The Hunter Valley is renown for turning on storms against the odds. This is partially due to heat build up in the upper Hunter, but also often just slightly better moisture.  

HunterIt took a while for things tp get going, but we were rewarded finally. Here at Branxton we are about to engulfed by strong wind and hail .


Hunter

Hunter

The storm quickly passed with wind and hail, the shear was taking the storms NE well beyond any chance of keeping up given the Aussie roads. We thought the day was over as it was looking very dry and stable back towards  the south, but we were wrong..............


Hunter

Just north of Sydney near the Hawkesbury river an isolated cell quickly built into the sky.

Hawkesbury
We thought for a brief while that we may have been able to intercept the storm, but it moved east of the only road . Note the  mid level funnel cloud. The video below  shoes clear rotation.
Hawkesbury
It was quite an impressive anvil from a relatively small storm.

 

 

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