I woke up to condensation on all of the windows in the house from the AC!  A check of the obs showed that it had remained in the mid 20's all night long with DP's also in the mid 20's.  There was still cloud cover, and it was quite hazy, but with the extra moisture it was still going to be very unstable!  Even if temperatures were only going to reach the mid 30's in inland regions.

I noticed a few CJ's take the extra step to the SW and decided to head towards Rosevale.  I parked just outside of Rosevale and listened to rumbles of thunder, but was somewhat frustrated as all the storms were on the ranges and they were moving at approximately 0.1km/h.  I headed further south, hugging the ranges on the last road that exists before the steep ascent!  I got to the back of Aratula and saw some interesting moist lowerings and CG's, but nothing of huge significance.  

I parked just off the side of the road in an abandoned driveway pointing the video camera towards the storm hoping it'd produce a nice CG - not to happen though, Murphy well and truly having an effect!  But it was somewhat humorous watching (speeding) cars drive by and slam on their breaks thinking I was a cop car.  I was tempted to head further east to some developing updrafts that were very large!  However, there were some other storms that had developed to my west, and with the suggestion of Dr Pearce I decided to head NE around the ranges to try and intercept these cells near Gatton.  I took the usual back & dirt-road short-cut to get towards Grandchester, and eventually Gatton.  The main cell I was trying to intercept was moving faster than everything else, but it still was not moving very quickly so I had a bit of time up my sleeve.

Just outside of Forest Hill (town before Gatton), I stopped and videoed some nice base features on the NE side.  The storm was currently going through Gatton � I�d have to go through the storm first before I could get north of it.  I got some torrential rain, and some nice CG�s within several kilometres, but hardly any winds!  

I eventually got north of it and headed towards Crows Nest, I knew I was going to run into the thick forests soon, but I was hoping I�d be able to find a clearing somewhere.  I was in luck!  About 15-20km north of Gatton I found a side road that looked promising as it headed towards the valley.  Another storm had developed to the west of my original target one, and it was going to pass very close to the valley.  Not having many options, I decided to head for the valley and watch as a fairly nice guster moved over.  It was extremely humid, with DP�s in the mid to high 20�s!  I had the unfortunate thing of both my video camera and SLR fogging up, and I spent five to ten minutes frantically trying to clean out the moisture on the lenses!  (Don�t use the AC when it gets this humid�)  I was finally able to take some footage of a nice banded guster - however it had weakened a bit during the process.  The photos are better as I got the lenses dry well before the video camera.

The main core was still to the west, and it was giving out a CG every 5-10 seconds!  So it was quite impressive to watch!  I ran out of �2WDable� dirt roads (they were getting far too soft), so I had to head back onto sealed roads before the storm moved over.  I went through the edge of the storm and got some moderate rain.  Not much, but it would have been much heavier to my west!

I saw some more storms developing to the SSE of Gatton.  I headed towards Laidley and decided to head further south to Mulgowie to get closer to them.  Just outside of Mulgowie I saw an awesome CG hit between me and the town, it was about 600-700m away.  This was the first time I had ever realised how close <1km strikes are.  As I got to the town 30 seconds later and thought �I�ve already passed where that CG struck!.�  Unfortunately the storms remained featureless, and I got caught up in some torrential rain.  So heavy in fact, I was driving along and there was a small creek that had flowed across the road, however I didn�t see it!  I was probably driving faster then I should have been (70km/h), and I ploughed straight into the creek at 70km/h!  The water was about one and a half foot high over the road.  The damage had already been done though, I had my thermometer sensor ripped off the bottom of my car, lost one of my hubcaps and my number plate was severely bent.  I had stopped to let the breaks dry, and I continued on slowly, but then pulled over to try and work out if there was an alternative route back home.  Unfortunately, there was only one way in and one way out.  With slow moving storms I knew that I could potentially be stuck here all night if I didn�t go back the way I came, and I didn�t have any mobile coverage and the last thing I wanted to do was worry people.  So I did something very stupid, and went through the flooded creek again.  The water had now risen to about two feet (but I didn�t notice this until halfway through the floodway), I could feel the drag of the water on the car and it was a rather unsettling experience!  The water was rushing nearly over the bonnet, but fortunately I was through the deepest part very quickly.  Certainly a lesson learnt each time, and I�ll definitely be much more careful going through heavy rain on deserted country roads in future, in particular if I�ve never gone through the section before!

I drove back home, seeing occasional lightning as the storms died out a little, but the storms over the Mulgowie area still persisted for many more hours!  It was near my parents� farm, and they received 79mm in approximately an hour!

Still, besides the unfortunate experience, I did enjoy the guster and the lightning!