Notable Weather Events Page 10

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Wild wet day/week 6th June 2003.

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Another significant Rain: A series of fronts move over the state bringing heavy and widespread rains over the previous week. The 6th was by far the most significant day with intense downpours causing localised flooding, cut roads and the Clarendon Weir was seen overflowing for the first time in a number of years. I recorded over 100mm for the week with 49.5mm on the 6th Some of the falls were quite amazing as can be seen from the image below. 
Click here for a more comprehensive report with pictures of the day and radar images.

Flooding in Adelaide 26th June 2003

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A frontal system brings unexpected rains to the Sturt River catchment and Adelaide Plains causing flooding in Glenelg when the Patawalonga Weir gates fail to open. This system was also an excellent example of the NW rain shadow on the districts SE of the Ranges. As the week progressed the weather produced something I have rarely seen, a large blocking high centred WELL south of the Continent (see synoptic chart below) leaving a series of lows that produced some impressive convection over the plains and eastern districts. Not a lot of rain after the initial deluge however.

Dust-storm in July! 6th July 2003

TOP OF PAGE Strong NNW winds preceding an approaching weak front bought something of a rarity for this time of the year, a duststorm! Our maximum wind gust for the day was 72km/h. The dust was quite thick in the late afternoon. This was the view looking across to Mt Lofty from the Bull Creek Ranges. By evening the wind had changed and the dust cleared.

Yet another Dust-storm! 11th July 2003

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Strong NW winds again raise dust, this time much more significantly causing damage to agricultural areas and seriously affecting visibility for those on the road. Conditions changed rapidly with the arrival of a front raining mud for those lucky enough to get the rain! Our max gust for the day was 81.7km/h. See photos of the event "here".

SNOW!!:10th August 2003

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Snow in a northerly?!?!?! A Cold day, one of the coldest on record for August spoiled us with some snow! Our top temp was 4.7 degrees. Hovering between 3 and 4 all day with a bitterly cold North wind. Snow was reported in several centres with some of the rain collectors on this site emailing the following reports:

From Moculta -"It has been snowing here since 4.30pm. Snow from the northeast - now that is something we have never had here before! Our last snow fall was in July 1998. Has been 3 or 4 degrees for most of the day - one of the coldest I can ever remember"
...
From this website location -"it snowed - just a little bit, but actual snow flakes.  As soon as it hit the ground it melted."

and Stirling -"It's 5.30 and snowing at Stirling, temp 3.5c outside!"

Impressive 24 hour stats as can be seen from these 2 images. Certainly an uncommon event up our way... Perhaps best summed up from the BOM summary "thick cloud cover following a cold night resulted in unusually cold temperatures persisting in most districts today, with several reports of light snow falling about higher ground in the northern Mount Lofty and southern Flinders Ranges. Maximum temperatures up until 3 pm were near record lows at several centres, with 4 degrees at Mount Crawford, 5 degrees at Yongala and 6 degrees at Clare, Arkaroola and Hawker. The highest maximum temperature was 21 degrees at Marla"

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