Lightning and Heavy Rains 07-10-05 to 09-10-05

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The Front

 

Next in line was a cold front approaching from the West/ SW. It arrived Saturday morning (8th) bring a nice line of moderate rain to the hills and suburbs. Adelaide itself had 7mm in just 10 minutes with the passing of the front. The radar image below well represents this rain band.

Follow up showers became quite heavy at times with many containing embedded small hail. I also had one very long low rumble of thunder with the passing of one of the cells. An aswa member in Nairne reported some of the heaviest hail showers he has seen hit his area in years with hail piled up 3-4 inches deep by the buildings! Temperatures were already low but the hail and rain dropped the temp to be below 8 degrees in the middle of the day. It just struggled to 9.8 as a maximum and hovered around 7.5 for most of the day. This was the second coldest october day I have recorded at this location. Later in the day the wind swung SW and bought moisture in a very narrow band to a small part of the ranges. This persisted in this stream for most of the night bringing 24 hour totals to sunday morning (9th) well above the inch mark and indeed one or 2 isolated spots recieved 40mm. The radar image below shows just how tight the SW moisture stream was in the line from Noarlunga to Nildottie.

At my location in the rain shadow I recorded a further 11mm to 9am sunday bringing my rain totals for the last 48 hours to 49.8mm. Not a bad drop indeed. Isolated hills locations recorded in excess of 60mm for the same period. Rain totals over the central and mallee districts were very good and widespread. 41mm was recorded from Wynarka, 27mm in the riverland, 40+mm at Gawler... the list goes on! An excellent drink for most and very welcome to thirsty crops.

Photos from the event.

Some of the pictures I captured can be seen from the link below along with the lightning captures by Phil Goodwin.

IMAGES FROM THE EVENT

Tim Eckert also captured some great pictures which can be seen HERE The weatherzone forum is also worth a read.