Notable Weather Events Page 18

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Fire and Lightning 08-06-05

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After the driest Autum on record, an approaching trough promises some relief. The unseasonally warm temps and strong winds preceeding the trough saw a fire get out of control in the Mylor Area. Its a heavily scrubbed area and its very lucky indeed that the rain arrived when it did. It must also be mentioned what a fantastic job the CFS did. The trough also bought with it some reasonable rains and another bonus - an evening lightning show! I captured some images of the storms which can be viewed HERE.

Karoonda Tornado 10-06-05

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An approaching NW rainband and front combined delivering a mix of devastating property damage and desperately needed rain. Read the report and see the photos HERE.

Winter arrives in force14-06-05 to 16-06-05

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A deep low bought some amazing rain totals to the Southern Ranges. From fantastic winter coldies to small hail and deluges it was quite a few days indeed. With 76mm in my location for these days runoff was amazing, dam levels rose sharply and again there was minor flooding at the house. The intensity AND duration of the falls were amazing. Something that has been sorely missing at this location for years! The rain graph tells just part of the story. Winter has arrived in force!

Click for full size image

Winter rains continue! 20-06-05 to 22-06-05

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The unbelievable wet continues as the heavens open delivering the wet stuff in monumental proportions for this part of the world. Read the report HERE

July cold snap! 12-07-05

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A low over the Bight combined with an infeed of tropical moisture and produced areas of rain over much of the state. Temperatures were well below average due to the rain and cloud coverage and came close to setting new records. Mount Crawford made a top of only 6 degrees. Adelaide (Kent Town) recorded its second coldest day in 28 years of observations. The maximum temperature was 9.5 degrees which was the coldest day since 8th July 1986 when the maximum was 8.8 degrees.

At this location we made just 5.5 degrees at 10:00am in the morning. Most of the day was below 5 degrees as can be seen from the graph below. A chilly day indeed.

Freaky Front 28-07-05

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Hows this for one amazing linear front?

August "Heatwave"? 02-08-05

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A new record for Kent Town (Adelaide) was set on the 2nd August 2005 when the maximum temperature made 21.7 at 14:01. The previous record of 20.9C was set in 1991.

I recorded a top of 16.6 at 14:40. Not a record here, but mightly warm nonetheless. Topsy Turvey winter, from record cold to record warm in the space of just a few days!

DELUGE! 09-08-05

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An approaching front showed much promise on the models for quite a few days in advance. For once it held up and delivered the goods to the southern ranges. This is how it looked on the mornings synpotic chart.

I happened to be heading south for a truckload of Lucerne. Right into the thick of the storm I went. This is how I saw it......

Left home early with a clearish sky and a line of altocumulus in the west. Low cloud shrouded the more southern ridges and the higher parts of the ranges near Lofty. It was blowing quite hard as I crossed the ranges heading east to Milang for a load of lucerne. The southern horizon looked quite dark and threatening and what looked like thunderstorm tops could be seen through the haze. Static on the radio helped to confirm what I was seeing. The sky was still sunny as I came into Milang, but the western horizon was steadily darkening on approach. I stopped to snap a few pics.
Truck loaded with hay I poked my head around the corner of the shed to be greeted with a totally obscured western horizon that was as black as the ace of spades. The Hills were already blotted from view and drops of rain hit me in the face despite the main rain band still 15 km away. The wind was howling through and carrying rain drops all that way!! The wind intensified to strong proportins as the rain hit and the heavens opened. Time to tarp up the load. The rain was waving through alternating between tropical deluge and just plain heavy as I tarped up. The shed compund went from damp to lakes in just a few minutes. There must have been thunder somewhere because the dog was wimpering.
As I left towards Strath the heavens opened up yet again, this time with small hail mixed in. A slight lull around Strath did not last and as I started up the ranges the wind slammed and the rain returned. As I hit the Paris Creek turnoff it was if someone had emptied a giant bucket of water and hail from the heavens. It was simply astonishing. The intensity dropped for a few minutes as I passed through Meadows. On leaving the town I could see through the rain a wall of water coming down the road at me. Bugger me it was heavier yet again than at Paris Creek! Could hardly see to drive. Apart from the gold plated hay on the truch which is hardly waterproof I was lovin it! Wave after wave of torrential downpours continued all the way into Kangarilla. Localised flooding with huge flowing puddles crossed the road in Bakers Gully. One poor persons driveway had settled across the bitumen and paddocks were awash, cut by temporary rivers. The rain dropped intensity past Kangarilla and stayed as just "rain". The only thing of note after this time was a single bolt of lightning and long low rumble at Coromandel Valley later. All in all one hell of a days drive.

The amazing radar image below shows just what I was driving through. Some images I captured from the drive can be seen HERE

At this location I ended up with 18.5mm, most of which fell in under 20 minutes. The same line was reported to have dropped 14mm in under 10minutes at Brighton on the Adelaide Plains. Yet again some serious driveway damage and a shed full of water resulted from drains unable to cope with the deluge. The weather station captured the downpours intensity as can be seen in the graph below.

So yet again the weather has been as topsy turvy as possible. Cold -hot- and now cold and wet again! Its worth noting that this same front delivered an amazingcold pool over Southern Victoria where snow was reported from many Melbourne suburbs for the first time in 20 years. The Alps also recieved good falls of snow as did Tasmania. A typical good ol' fashioned winter burst!

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