Notable Weather Events Page 17

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Storms 03-01-05

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An approaching trough showed much promise with models forecasting some of the highest storm potential over Adelaide and the ranges for some time.My Baro dropped to 996.02 @ 15:30 on the 3rd. It was below 1000hPa for 20 minutes short of 24 hours. With conditions like this it was not surprising that the day dawned to an unstable sky that quickly developed into an electrically active approaching line of storms. (NB the BOM radar was down - again, so no radar images for this report) See the rest of the report HERE.

Bushfires and searing temps 11-01-05

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A day of extreme fire danger with temperatures over 40 degrees and very hot and strong northerly winds saw the unthinkable happen.

I'll start locally. - A fire starts near the freeway by the Mt Osmond interchange. In the conditions it quicly spreads and comes dangerously close to out of control. Serious damage is averted with the use of water bombers and the arrival of a cool but dry change and a subsequent drop in windspeed and temperature which aids in the fighting of the fire. The freeway is closed for several hours as the CFS and MFS abttle the blaze. VERY fortunate outcome indeed!
This is how the fire looked from satellite images. (fire highlighted in red)

The real tragedy occured on the Eyre Peninsula where a fire suspected of being started by a parked car in dry grass on the monday rocketed out of control in the hot dry winds and extreme temps. 9 people were killed in the fire, in excess of 30,000 livestock destroyed and over 83,000 hectares of farmland and scrub burnt. There are many articles available all over the web, so I won't go into detail here. The sat image from the day tells the story really.

	The image to the left dramatically shows just how much land is being affected by the fire. Fire highlighted in red. The image below shows just how far the smoke drifted from the fires. It arrived here in Adelaide and the southern Ranges so thick it almost resembled a stratus deck. It was incredible. The sunset was also quite impressive.

Storms and Heavy Rains 19-01-05

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An approaching front and trough delivered far more than expected. Read the report HERE.

Australia Day Storms 25-01-05 to 28-01-05

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What a storm season this year has been. More significant and spectacular thunderstorms east of the ranges. Read the report HERE.

Feb Cold snap 01-02-05!

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Rain, Hail and freezing cold temps in febuary! Read the report HERE.

New April temp Records

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March 2005 presented us with one of the most boring and uninteresting months ever as far as weather events were concerned. Mild temperatures and very little precipitation for week after week. Shocking!

On the 30th March temperatures began a climb that would break a few records. The 29th topped out here in the ranges at 29 degrees, the 30th made 31.3 and the 1st climbed again to 31.5. The 1st was the hottest April day yet recorded at this location to date. Minimums hovered above 20 degrees for the duration of the night.
Then the 2nd broke that record again with a maximum temperature here of 32.3! The 2nd was a windy day also with a lot of raised dust. A late change brought with it even stronger winds on the coast and gusts above 80km/h on the Eyre Peniinsula. Some thunderstorm development brewed east of the ranges just after dark with very infrequent lightning activity. The next day was just 17 degrees.

The following week was almost like being caught in groundhog day. The passing of the weak change saw temperatures begin to rise once again. The 8th saw a maximum of 27 degrees. The warming had begun. Temps for the 9th were mirroring that of exactly 7 days earlier. 35 degrees was the forecast and with the temperature at 32 by 10am the record was yet again under threat! ...... more to come......

Some of the temperature stats from various BOM stations tell the story.

• 31st March new minimum temp record beating the old temp of 21.6 in 1994.
• The highest recorded april 1st temp for Adelaide was in 1954 with a max of 34.3. 2005, a new april 1st record max of 34.9 at 1:44pm. (all time April Record 36.7)
• 1st april minimum temp record equalled. Old 23.8 in 1920. New 2005 also 23.8.
• 1st April Ceduna records new record max for April of 40.1.
• SA's new april max temp set at Nullabor with 42 degrees, beating the old SA of 41.8 at Oodnadatta on 3/4/1953.
• 2nd april new minimum temp record! Old 26.3 in 1887. New record 2005 with a minimum temp of 26.6 at 06:05am.
• 2nd april sets the new hottest ever April temperature with it reaching 36.9C at Kent Town.

Meanwhile while SA and the east sweltered over the late march/ early april heatwave, many Western Australian areas under the influence of a strong cold front and low set record low maximums for March! 10.7 at Manjimup set the new standard while four other locations broke the old record of 12.3!! Quite a continent of contrasts.

The full list of broken records can be seen below. Data compiled by and remains the property of Tim Eckert. Please visit his website for more information.

All-time APRIL Temperature Records broken in SA on 2nd April 2005				All-time APRIL temperature records broken in SA on 9th April 2005
LOCATION Oodnadatta Ap Roseworthy Coober Pedy Ap Marla Whyalla Ap Marree Andamooka Minnipa Roxby Downs Ap Woomera Ap Marree Ap Cleve Ap Elizabeth Renmark Ap Nonning Nuriootpa Cleve Kadina Kimba Parafield Ap Port Pirie Hindmarsh Isl Coles Point Strathalbyn Edithburgh Hawker Adelaide Adelaide Ap Maitland Victor Harbor Clare Naracoorte Ap Yongala Eudunda Meningie Mt Barker Coonawarra Mt Gambier Stenhouse Bay Robe Ap Parawa Kingscote Ap Mt Lofty	NEW 42.1 41.6 41.5 41.3 40.4 40.1 40 40 40 39.9 39.7 39 39 38.2 38.1 38 38 38 37.8 37.8 37.7 37.6 37.6 37.5 37.1 37 36.9 36.9 36.5 36.3 36.3 36 36 35.8 35.3 35.2 35 35 33.9 32.8 32.2 32 29.9	OLD RECORD 41.8 36.7 38.2 38.4 38.5 39.8 39 35.8 37 38.4 38 35.7 38.6 36.5 38 32.6 37 36.4 36.5 36.7 37 35.4 na 37.4 32.8 37 36.7 36.6 36.4 35.5 35.2 35.7 34.8 35.7 34.3 35 34.9 34.4 na 31.7 na 31 na	AVERAGE 28.4 23.9 26.8 28.3 23.5 28.3 27.3 25 27.2 25.4 28.9 23.1 22.7 24.3 24.9 21.7 22.6 23.6 23.9 22.3 24.7 na na na 20.5 na 22.4 22.1 na na 21.1 22.3 21.9 21.3 21.6 20.3 21 na 20.4 na 17.3 20.9 15.2		LOCATION Ceduna Port Lincoln Elliston Parafield Strathalbyn Edithburgh Adelaide Stenhouse Bay Coonawarra Mt Gambier Kingscote	NEW 40.8 39.5 39.1 38.2 37.5 37.3 36.9 36.2 35 35 33.9	OLD RECORD 39.6 37.8 36.2 37.8 37.5 37.1 36.9 33.9 35 35 32

Data compiled by and remains the property of Tim Eckert. Please visit his website for more information.

April Dry Spell

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One of the driest Aprils on record sees us with only 13.5mm for the month. The average is 71. Combined with the unseasonally warm temperatures, soil moisture and farm dam levels plummet to dangerously low levels. A very bad start to the 2005 growing season. Many districts all over southern Australia suffered the same dry conditions. The BOM report summarises it well. Also see the State rain report on this site for a complete list of SA Stations monthly rain.

Channel Seven Films us "Stormchasers

Lights camera action! Channel 7 Adelaide comes to the hills to do a feature story on SA stormchasers. Yours truly and other members of the SA ASWA branch found themselves in front of the cameras as Melody Horrill from the news crew grilled them about their weather habits. Read the report HERE

Driest Autumn on Record!

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The April dry spell continued well into May smashing the record books giving Meadows its driest ever Autumn in over 118 years of record keeping. Our total Autumn Rainfall was a mere 43.75mm. The average for Autumn is 205.4mm leaving 2005 a whopping 161.6mm or 6.5 inches below average! The next lowest Autumn ws in 1967 with 52.4mm.

May 2005 is the second driest month EVER recorded with 9.8mm. The driest may was in 1934 with 8.4mm. There has only been 4 instances of May rainfall below 20mm including this year. The average May rainfall is 99.2mm and the median is 92.5mm.

April 2005 is equal 8th spot on the lowest rainfall list. The lowest recorded April total was 0.5mm in 1923. Aprils average is 69.7mm and the median 63.2mm.

March was not too bad in the big scheme of things with 20.45mm and was the 47th driest March recorded. The lowest March rainfall is zero in both 1994 and 1923. The average is 36.4mm and median 27mm.

In an annual sense 2005 is the 8th driest year to the end of May with 135.8mm. Drier years were 1930 with 98.3mm, 1980 with 100.4mm, 1990 with 105.5mm, 1959 with 107.9mm, 1959 with 107.9mm, 1912 with 108.4mm, 1967 with 111.3mm and 1953 with 134.6mm. The average to the end of may is 261.5mm and a median of 220.4mm.

Records were also broken for Adelaide which also experienced its driest ever Autumn in 167 years of record keeping! As well it was the warmest Autumn since 1923 and the second warmest on record. May in Adelaide was the driest May since 1959 and the warmest since 1947. The BOM release gives further information.

A disturbing Season indeed

Hottest June day on Record 07-06-05 !

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In keeping with the swathe of broken records, yet another was broken on this day. A mximum temp of 22.3 degrees at 1:18pm smashed the old max temperature at this location by 3.4 degrees C. The previous max for june was 18.9 degrees. Our average maximum here at this location for june is just 12 degrees!

Adelaide recorded a max of 25.1 degrees making it their hottest day this late in the season. Their previous record was 24.1. Adelaides hottest june day is 25.4 for Kent town and 25.6 at west Terrace. It appears that many other stations have beaten their previous June maximums by a significant amount also.

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