BSCH - Isolated thunderstorm splits in two

ISOLATED THUNDERSTORM SPLITS IN TWO - FEBRUARY 08, 2002

This afternoon, a storm developed just SW of Toowoomba. It was travelling east before in split into two cells after it crossed the Great Divide some 50km west of Beaudesert. The two cells then started travelling in a NNE & SSE directions, veering almost at right angles. The northern half continued towards Brisbane southern suburbs bringing torrential rain and plenty of lightning. The southern half died when it approached th Border Ranges. Steve Baynham was looking forward to the initial storm cos it was heading straight for the Gold Coast. Although we missed any real action, i still caught some interesting photos.

The first photo is not long after the storm split, you can see the two cells on either side of the picture. Residents from Warwick or Toowoomba would've had a beautiful view of it at this time and i am interested if anyone has any. I tracked the northern half up until it crossed the coast at sunset. The last photo is that of a small shower which tracked east after sunset which i was hoping would fire, but didn't do so. Hope you enjoy.

Stay tuned for some top shots from other BSCH storm chasers for this day.

Jason Rainforest was in the thick of it towards Brisbane. Here's how he saw it.
What a great way to get out of hospital! I saw this cell on radar heading in a general NE direction, and knew if I acted reasonably quickly, could intercept it on one of the motorways north of me.

The first two pictures were taken on the Logan Motorway. The storm was quite impressive at this time with plenty of CGs. It looked rather green, so I was expecting hail. A friend of mine and myself positioned ourself in the path of the storm at Logan. We got some nice heavy rain, but no hail, I think we were in the wrong spot.

On the way home we were treated to a rather nice sunset, we stopped at Yatala Pies to have dinner and enjoy the show. The storm was still quite lightning active at this time, I managed to get some funny looks from people because of the comments I was making ;)

The storm died not long after the sky went dark. I saw some interesting high based, very low topped cumulus on the rest of the way home, certainly nothing to expect lightning from, but still, saw three flashes from it. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of it. Overall a very straightforward chase with good results, cheers to that :)

Report by Steve Baynham