There is much to talk about weather wise. Its been a pretty darned crazy couple of months with all sorts of “action”.
Starting the 6th October. An approaching vigorous cold front prompted the BOM to issue a severe weather warning for damaging winds – to quote a snippet of that warning ” Damaging north to northwesterly winds ahead of the front, averaging 55-65 km/h are likely to develop over the warning area after sunrise on Monday with gusts of 90-110 km/h possible.” I have to be honest at the time I didn’t think too much of that. As the windiest spot I have ever lived, winds gusts approaching 90+ km/h are not overly uncommon. Well, that would prove to be a case of mother nature throwing in something extra special. The day started windy and steadily increased as the day progressed. So far nothing special. Lines of instability and weak showers were moving over the central areas. With these lines “microbursts” (intense localised column of sinking air) were present. One of these to hit the southern burbs and hills was truly savage. I was outside trying to keep my vege garden alive when the wind started to pick up, and pick up, and pick up until it was genuinely scary outside. My 20 metre trees around the house were blowing about like little twigs. The sound was tremendous and how they stayed upright is beyond me. One did give up the fight and with a crack its top blew out, then in the paddock another crack and another tree top gone. These are trees that are accustomed to strong winds and carry light leaf loads because of the regular blasting they endure. This was too much for them. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, still the intensity held and increased even further. The sound I will forever remember, like a jet flying just above my head. For what seemed an eternity this wind roared and sticks, leaves and branches flew horizontally like birds. On checking my weather station the readings were jaw dropping. From 11:04am to 11:19am we received constant wind gusts in excess of 100km/h with a maximum of 121.1km/h. Many of these gusts exceeded 115km/h. This is equivalent to a Category 1 cyclone! It was a new record for me. It wasn’t just us that had been hammered either. In Aberfoyle Park there were plenty of trees down with plenty of roof damage. Strathalbyn and Hindmarsh Island recorded 11km/h, Outer Harbour 106 km/h, Adelaide Airport 109km/h to name just a few. The winds on top of the dry caused a lot of pasture and crop damage.
Talking of dry Until the 27th October (more on this date later) the previous 87 days had given just 53.5mm. The biggest 24 hour fall in time was a tiny 7.25mm. All others were 1mm here and there with the odd 0.5 thrown in. Almost worthless falls for the benefit they provided. This is extraordinary. Even more so when this period averages over 250mm leaving an almost 200mm mm shortfall. That’s 8 inches on the old scale! yes it is DRY. Not since 1914 has it been so bad in the Meadows area. That’s a century.
Speaking of 1914, this is an unconfirmed record but an interesting one. From the 18th to the 22nd the CBD recorded 5 consecutive days over 32 degrees. This has only happened once before in October for Adelaide and it was back in, yes you guessed it, 1914! Interesting I think!
Now quickly for my time is running out, to the 27th October that I mentioned earlier. It actually took place evening the day before, but rain is recorded for the 27th so….. The evening of Sunday the 26th October 2014 saw the most spectacular and lightning intense storm I have seen on the Fleurieu. We are typically a storm free zone but something clicked in the atmosphere and shared the “love” around for once. The entire day was unstable starting with rumbles from mid level attempts at rain and storms. This was pretty lacklustre and about all we normally get. This is where it normally ends. Normally. But mother nature had other ideas. I noticed some pretty severe cells on radar going through their usual corridors over northern Yorke Peninsula. I almost closed the webpage down but a frame refresh revealed a line developing further south! Nah I thought. But… Ok then up to the hill not expecting anything as nothing much usually happens. It would be scenic at least. And scenic it was! Firstly there was an incoming line of daytime bolts. Hard to snap and rarely photogenic from a distance I snapped away with the camera anyway. The sunset though was truly inspiring. A pastel red glow with crepuscular rays to my left while to my right incoming storm cells with lightning. Beautiful!
As the sun set the sky exploded. Multiple flashes per second. BOOM! It was speccy. And moving like a rocket. Not much time to get images before the whole complex was on top of me and far too dangerous to be in the open. I stupidly was up there without my car for shelter (didn’t expect anything so went out unprepared!!) and when a strike came crashing earthwards about 2km from me I decided it was time to BOLT (bad pun). I sprinted camera in tow back to the house with bolts dropping all about me. Man this storm was moving fast! I grabbed the car and raced back to the hill, but when I got there (less than 5 minutes later no less!) the rain started. I call it rain but it was really buckets falling from the sky. No chance of pics now. I sat the camera on the dash and opened the shutter while bolts dropped all around me insanely close. Enough for me, too close on a hilltop in a metal car! So I drove and parked in my hayshed and again sat the cam on the dash. A shot gun BANG and lightning hit the ground on or near the house just 50 metres away from me. This bolt killed my modem, router and one PC! In the image I captured you can see streamers of the bolt between me and the trees just 20 metres distant. The streamers are IN BETWEEN! Could almost reach out and touch them. That’s close!
The storm was past in no time so I followed it to my eastern viewpoint. When I drove in it was bone dry, when I left I needed 4WD to get out! Huge puddles made the fast trip fun. The storm was insanely active and the sky was alive with crawlers as it roared eastwards towards the Victorian border. What a night! In all my years here we have NEVER had rain like this. I know its commonplace (well kind of) pretty much everywhere else, but down here this simply does not happen – till now. No doubt I wont see it for another 10 years, but what the hell, I’ll take it!
Lastly I have to add that along with the casualties of my modem and router the weather station was also taken out. Its going to be a huge effort to resurrect this as for the best part it was all custom built componentry. After 14 years of collecting data and posting online its silent for the first time. Bear with me, this is going to take a while.
Cheers for now and until next time – keep looking up!