Granite Belt Pulse Storms

November 14, 2002

Thursday showed some good storm potential on the Granite Belt and through the Northern Tablelands.  LIs were dropping down to –6 to –8 on the Northern Tablelands, getting down to –4 to –6 in the Granite Belt.  The main problem was the lack of shear, so pulse storms were going to be the most likely scenario.  I was quite tired as I didn’t get much sleep last night, so I only wanted to go a very short distance (around 3 hours) from Brisbane.  Perhaps the lesson here that I learnt today, is if you’re going to chase, you may as well do it properly!  I had contemplated staying the night around the Northern Tablelands, and just leaving very early (around 3am) the next morning to get back to Brisbane for work in the morning (6:30am).  But for some reason I decided against it!  Nonetheless, I still got some nice pulse storms.

I left for the Stanthorpe region initially, while driving down to Stanthorpe I noticed some nice CJs developing to my south.  They were developing very quickly and very soon developed into storms.  I went to Stanthorpe, and headed just west of Stanthorpe where I got caught in some very heavy rain.  The storm had a nice flanking line, and some of the rainshafts looked whitish suggesting hail. 

I drifted north a little, and in the end actually came across a very nice rainbow!  I’d never seen such a flat rainbow before, so it was a treat to see it. 

Unfortunately the storm collapsed soon after, so I went north again as the outflow from this storm was developing other cells around it.  I sighted some nice updrafts from some developing storms to the north and watched them for a little while. 

Unfortunately they collapsed too.  I noticed some stronger storms in NSW that seemed to maintain themselves for longer…after much debate (concerned that if I left the Granite Belt region that SE QLD might develop something!) I ended up heading south towards Tenterfield. 

The storm to the south originally looked quite strong, but then weakened when I got closer to it.  I was tempted to head south further and see what it had in it – I wish I did now!  Apparently about another 50km south of Tenterfield there were haildrifts up to several feet!  I’d always wanted to see widespread deep haildrifts, and I was annoyed I didn’t go further south when I had the opportunity to (because I didn’t want to venture any further from Brisbane).  There was also a larger line of storms to the west that I heard about from Michael Bath that would have given a nice lightning show.  Once again after much debate though, I decided to head home (now around 6:30pm), as it would be 3-3.5hrs to get back home from where I was (just E of Tenterfield).

While I did see a few nice pulse storms, I did learn my lesson – I chased with half my heart and only got half the results.  Normally I wouldn’t have thought twice sleeping in the area that night and heading back early.  Certainly something to remember!