The October and November 2007 rain events Page 3

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31st October to 5th November 2007 storms, flooding and rain. - the start

It cannot stop it seems. This next system looked to have some serious potential for rain, especially for the southeast districts with a forecast low development. The synoptic loop to the right shows the progression. It starts on the 31st October with a good old fashioned NW cloud band and associated tropical moisture infeed. Storms had developed across inland NW SA ahead of the band and were firing nicely. One such storm looked like a monster on the satellite image!

Above - synoptic loop Left - satellite Image and associated lightning strikes of the monster storm

But with no real human population in these areas the storms immensity went unreported. Shower bands preceeding these storms from a mid level westerly flow had already dropped between 5 and 6mm over the northern hills and the decaying storms seen above dropped another 1-2mm across central districts. The rainfall had begun.

On thursday the 1st of November the NW cloud band was almost upon the central districs. Mid morning saw a few showers arrive with the odd rumble or 2 of thunder heard on Yorkes Peninsula and the Fleurieu. The rain intensified across the Coastal Adelaide areas with some localised heavy falls to be seen. Even as far north as Whyalla, rain was falling. Late afternoon the band passed leaving 9.5mm at my location in the Southern Ranges with 15mm the highest local recording at Happy Valley. The northern hills and suburbs mostly missed the rain with falls at or below 5mm. The passing of the rain produced one of the more speccy fogs rolling up the bull creek valley in the surface southerlies. I snapped a few pics which can be seen in this gallery. A sample...

Rainfall for me so far from this system - 10.5mm (makes the rain total since these events started at 50mm in just 10 days!)

The 2nd- 3rd and some serious rain.

The BOM were getting rather excited by the system and added this to their daily notes on the 1st

"On Saturday a cold pool of upper air moving into the Bight will aid in producing
a band of rain with local heavy falls across the agricultural area. Conditions
will by fine about western inland parts....
Cumulative rainfall totals until midnight Monday are expected to be 10-20 mm
over the West Coast district, Lower Eyre Peninsula and Kangaroo Island.
Cumulative falls of 20 to 40 mm are expected over the rest of the State with
local heavier falls of about 70 mm..."

hhhmmm sounds good! Unless you are cutting hay that is. Friday the 2nd was grey and with the odd light shower. In the mid north a significant rain band was dumping heavy to moderate falls through the Peterborough and Jamestown districts. Near Pt Augusta large storms with lightning and torrential rain was reported. 17mm fell over the town in a short time! Yunta scored an impressive 28mm and Ernableea 19mm from thunderstorms.

The rain band finally made it to the central districts by evening and looked fantastic on the radar! (image to the right) It was consistent and unrelenting with some significant falls building, especially over the south coast where the intensity was greatest. Down the South East things were building also with 14mm in an hour at Naracoorte. This continued all night and by 9 am the morning of the 3rd I had a further 21mm in my gauge!

My rain totals were now at 31.5mm for the system and over 70mm in under 2 weeks.

The best falls hugged the metro coast with 32mm at Noarlunga. Victor Harbor topped the list with an amazing 56mm for the 24 hour period! Some great totals were to be seen.

**SELECTED RAINFALL TO 9am 3-11-07**
Victor Harbor - 56mm
*Yongala - 39mm
*Cape Jaffa - 38mm
*Naracoorte - 36mm
*Parawa - 33mm
*Morphett Vale - 32mm
*Hindmarsh Island - 32mm
*Edithburgh - 30mm
*Maitland - 30mm
*Pt Augusta - 28mm
*Verdun - 27mm
*Keswick - 25mm
*Kimba - 23mm
*Strathalbyn - 20mm

3rd to 4th and the south east pizzling

The southerlies had arrived and for a short while bought "dry" conditions to the southern ranges. meanwhile the SSW stream and wraparound from the developed low now over Victoria, dropped nice and locally heavy falls over the mid north and Yorke Peninsula districts. Late afternoon a few showers were seen locally, nothing heavy, just patchy falls. It was very cold in the southerly winds and temps hovered below 10 degrees for most of the day.

One of these streams dumped an impressive 30mm in 15 minutes on Pt Augusta (again) leaving some serious flooding on the Stirling North road, blocking access and stranding locals for a time while the water drained away.

However down in the southeast conditions were different. Copping the recirculated rain band head on, water fell from the sky. The totals began to accumulate. Mt Gambier recorded over 35mm in 6 hours. This continued all night and by the morning a massive 69mm had fallen over Mt Gambier! Over 100mm in a week for many SE centres!!!!

Locally another 5mm was in my gauge bringing the system total to 36.5mm and over 3 inches or 75mm in under 2 weeks! All starting the DAY after cutting hay. Have I mentioned irony anywhere in these pages?

Its not just SA getting the rains. Flooding in the south of Victoria is threatening towns, claimed the life of one camper and in NSW rainfalls reached record totals with Cobar copping 47mm, their highest 24 hour total in 6 years. Finally a good old fashioned rain event. Pity it didn't happen a month or 2 ago!

Weekly rain

Just one more day of cold southerlies to the morning of the 5th bought another 3mm to my location. Took my system total to 39.5mm and the fortnightly total to almost 80mm! Somewhere along the line I had mentioned hay on the ground.

Meanwhile interstate, Queensland had record breaking rains and cold. Rockhampton had 90mm in 24 hours, their wettest day in 5 years and Bundaberg also drowned under their wettest day in over a year.

Victoria continued to deal with flooding, especially in Gippsland where 2 people were rescued after being stranded on a sand island by the rising flood waters.

Locally Mt Gambier topped the weekly rain list with 101mm in the 7 days to the 5th november. The map below illustrates where the biggest falls fell. Sadly areas of the riverland missed out again.
The whole of southern Australia generally did very well rainwise as can be seen in the smaller inlaid national map.