This was to be the last chase for the 2005-06 season. Only a couple of days where minor rumbles
occurred after this. Mid afternoon, Cindy, Sam and I headed towards the mountains. Our target area
was the Katoomba to Bathurst region. With CAPE's of up to 1800 and LFTX's around -6 there was
the potential for some good activity.


GFS CAPE and Lifted Index plots for 0300Hrs UTC 18 Feb.


Click on images below for full size pics


These first two pix were taken prior to Katoomba and it was a good sign of the instability.



These next four pix taken NW of Lithgow, on the road to Mudgee. We were just a little late in
getting here to intercept this storm before it passed to the east into inaccessable territory.
We travelled a bit further north before turning off and taking a back road to Bathurst.




From Bathurst we chased another cell that was heading for Katoomba and finally managed to
get in front of it just as we got to the Echo Point lookout (Katoomba). It wasn't a major cell but
it did produce some reasonable CG's over the canyon areas. The sun coming out of the clouds
prior to setting really lit up the Three Sisters rock formation well.




The action died off so it was decided to go for an evening meal. Bad move ... it took ages to be
served in the resturant and I could look out the window and see a big and active cell moving in.
We rushed through the meal when it finally arrived and headed back down to Echo Point. We
set up the cameras, 2 digital stills and a camcorder. It was a good active cell with many CC's
and CG's and some torrential rain. A good end to the day.






copyrite Dave Nelson 2007
Updated 22 Aug 2007