A general unstable northerly flow existed over the SE corner of Queensland with a weak upper level trough over the Downs.  Conditions looked favourable for thunderstorms along the Eastern Downs, however we got a little more then we bargained for!

Paul Yole was staying with me for a few days for the QLD ASWA Christmas BBQ, we saw thunderstorms developing to the south of Warwick, and even though I had just come back from 3.5weeks/14,500km of chasing, the temptation to head out again was too great!  Not having a large amount of time, we took the M4 to get onto the M2, and then onto the Cunningham Hwy towards Warwick.  It was extremely hazy, it had been hot and humid for the past couple of days, and today was even worse (or better, depending on how you look at it!)  Static was quite frequent, but it was difficult to see things still.  But we could see some very strong updrafts to the SW, and some nice anvils through the smoke and moisture haze. 

As we passed through Aratula, there was a gusty NE�ly.  In hindsight this was probably the seabreeze � and may have played a part in the explosive development of a thunderstorm to the SW of Maryvale.  We continued over the range � the Old Faithful Telstar, despite a blocked radiator (which we didn�t know at the time) handled the climb without overheating (just!)  As we got across the range and a fairly impressive sight met our eyes!  The storm, while probably not hugely photogenic was impressive to say the least.  It was very large, and had lots of lowerings! 

A line of hills sits just to the south of the Cunningham for a good part of the highway until you get towards Freestone.  I knew of a lookout a few kilometres from coming out of the ranges, and we headed there.  The storm was MASSIVE � static was constant, and the CG�s were very frequent!  Sometimes 2-3 at a time! 

But it came in bursts.  Some very nice thunder too!  We watched as the storm appeared to be moving NNW (which was interesting in itself), there was a reasonable NE flow from our backs while watching the storm � very nice!  A few take tornado-like lowerings were sighted over the ranges too!  We decided to get back onto the highway and try and get on the other side of the storm, not wanting to get left behind it. 

We also observed a possible wall cloud/meso on the NW edge while trying to move around the storm.

By the look of the storm, I told Paul that I thought hail was quite possible, so I wanted to try and get ahead of it and not get slammed in by hail.  We tried to get ahead of it � but to no avail!  We were struck by heavy rain and strong winds � branches were down on the side of the road!  We continued on though!  We went on for several more minutes in heavy rain, we finally started to come out of it when the drops were getting bigger.  Then came the tinks of hail on the roof!  Fortunately the hail remained under 1-1.5cm, so this posed no threat!  Very soon we were out of the storm, and were sitting just near the rainshaft on the outflow.  Very strong updrafts were going up on the NW side of the storm, it was as black as the ace of spades near it!  We watch several more CG�s before deciding to head NNW with it along the New England Hwy.  But again the propagation was so rapid, it would be difficult to get ahead of it.  I was finding it hard to believe this was just one thunderstorm � but it was, amazing!!!  We headed up towards Allora, we got a few heavy bursts of rain, but nothing major yet.  We came into an area of no precipitation � it felt slightly eerie.  Cars coming from the opposite direction were now starting to flash their lights at us.  �Damit � police!� I thought.  I was wrong.  We were sitting very close to the main updraft of the storm.  Only a few large drops of rain were coming down.  Just up ahead a few hundred metres down the road we saw a wall of rain and what appeared to be hail.  I had never seen anything quite like it before! 

We entered the rain and hail core, within seconds WHACK, THUMP, SMACK...WHOA!!!  I quickly pulled over as near golfball sized (3-4cm) horizontal hail was being pelted on my car by ~100km/h winds!  The hail was bouncing several feet off the ground as it hit.  It was a total white-out, couldn't see a thing through the windscreen even though we were stationary!!! 

I quickly pulled out not wanting to crack a windscreen, and again � I had never experienced anything like it, as we drove back out of the rain and hail core within seconds it stopped as we approached the updraft core!!!  I flashed my lights and beeped the horn at traffic coming the other way to warn them about it.  We stopped just near the rain shaft.  The outflow was phenomenal, it was an effort to get the door open!  Probably around 35-40 knots.  We decided to creep a little closer to the rain shaft.  It looked like it had actually gotten closer!  What had actually happened, is that it seems as if the outflow got caught up with the main inflow of the storm, and the storm had begun to collapse on itself.  We experienced more 1cm hail underneath the collapsing updraft.  To our NE though still looked strong, so we decided to try our luck heading NNW again trying to avoid getting struck by any large hail.  We succeeded in doing so!  Not without dodging trees that had been blown over and across the highway, and lots of branches down too in some areas too. 

A quick visit to Allora indicated it had been peppered by large hail to near golf ball size and strong winds that brought down powerlines in the main street!

We continued north along the highway, skirting along the main rainshaft which was now just to the east.  We saw photogenic rainshafts on more showers developing to the west, and we also saw a funnel cloud to the east, but it was very difficult to make out on the video due to the rain on the drivers side window.  However the seabreeze was now coming through the area, and a lot of the convection was being killed off.

We decided to head towards Toowoomba, get something for lunch (at 5pm...), fueled up and watched a nice sunset as we headed back towards home!

The next morning an inspection of my car revealed that hailstorms do help clean the dirt off!  As you can see from the dirt being scraped off.  It also added to my evergrowing hail dent collection on my car!