Notable Weather Events Page 22

Move back to page 21

Heatwave and 8 hour lightning show20-01-06

TOP OF PAGE
Hottest spell since 1940 and an 8 hour lightning show.

What a week! Read the report with spectacular lightning photos HERE

Grampians fires blanket state in smoke 25-01-06

TOP OF PAGE
Devastating fires started by lightning strikes in the Grampians National Park over the border in Victoria blanket Adelaide and SE South Australia in a thick pall of smoke. The distance of drift is amazing as can be seen in these satellite snippets below from MODIS.

Above: The source of the the smoke - the Grampians National Park in Victoria

Above : The amazing extent of the smoke drift over southern SA.

It is a devastating fire on many fronts. As a unique and isolated environment this level of destruction will impact for generations. A snippet(s) from an email I recieved from a friend who owns land on the western edge...

"the fire, incidentally, is expected to burn the entire Grampians National Park. It is estimated several hundred thousand sheep have been lost. Those of you who have visited us there would also understand the horrific loss of wildlife that has occurred. For those of you who haven’t, it is usually impossible to drive roads in the area without coming across kangaroos, emus, large lizards and parrots of many varieties including the threatened red tailed black cockatoo."

"For those in the know, the house at MacKenzie Falls is gone. They were able to save the kiosk"

"The next challenge will be water catchment. The Grampians provides a good deal of the water for the area. The erosion to land surfaces is potentially very serious because most vegetation holding soils in place will have been burnt off. Most of the Grampians that have suffered from the fire is in the water catchment area"

A real tragedy.

The smoke did make for some spectacular sunset and sunrise colours as can be seen in this image below.

Image courtesy Peter Wilson.

Morning Thunder 28-01-06

TOP OF PAGE
It caught us by surprise! A band of middle level cloud producing isolated thunderstorms woke residents of the southern burbs and coast with a bang. Falls up to 4mm from tight little rain cores and reports of a house struck by lightning in Morphett Vale.  Lightning thunder on the Victor Harbour Coast and fog on the Fleurieu Ranges. Its all happening on this particular morning!

Above: GPATS grab. Below Left: Google earth screen grab with radar overlay. Below Right: Radar grab

Adelaide Deluges 24-02-06

TOP OF PAGE
February 2006 has been rather boring and stable with only one real event is worth mentioning despite the fact that this was not really something that affected me in the southern hills. In fact these events never do almost without exception. A day of promised instability saw Adelaide's northern suburbs and flats drown under 50+mm of rain. The storms extended south to Blackwood, Echunga and even Macclesfield got 3/4 of an inch, while less than 10km away in the storm repellant capital of SA got but a few drizzles. The rain was intense with over 25 mm falling in well under an hour in many locations. Businesses and houses were flooded and roadsides washed away in rural areas. Reports of paddocks a metre deep under water in the mid north rolled in after a possible 200 points (or 50mm) fell in less than an hour. In Craigburn farm an ugly and inappropriate housing developoment suffered serious runoff issues and flooding with the CFS attending. Stories like this abounded from all over the northern areas and to within 10km of my home near Meadows.

I won't ramble too much on the inequities of these systems, but an interesting phenomenon - thunderstorm outflow - is potentially visible on the Buckland Park Doppler radar. This burst of cool moist air from heavy precipitation shafts can be seen moving rapidly in an arc back AGAINST the general flow. The new radar is an interesting and useful piece of equipment! See the small loop below where the arrow marks the outflow band.

Its also interesting to note that I have NEVER recorded such intense and sustained rain in my location in the southern hills. Why can be partly answered in these pages. The decline of good runoff and sustained heavy falls in my part of the ranges continues despite good annual totals giving the impression of "nothing wrong". If you go back through these events pages you will see that every severe rainfall event has missed my location falling usually over the northern flats and ranges. Damned frustrating!

2 Category 5 cyclones in less than a fortnight!

TOP OF PAGE
It is not often that Category 5 syclones hit northern Australia. Not this year with 2 in less than weeks! First was the 20th March in Queensland with TC Larry who reached cat5 as it was on a collision course with Innisfail. Winds above 250km/h caused extensive damage to the town and surrouning countryside with milllions of dollars of damage to Banana and other plantations. To add insult to injury rainfall deluges following the cyclone caused flooding and other problems. The radar image is telling as is the small satellite loop below.

Above Satellite Loop Left Radar Image grab

Then on the 28th off the coast of the Western Australia another cyclone brewed up. Called "Glenda" it quickly spun itself up to category 5 also! The warning issued by the BOM is amazing.

TROPICAL CYCLONE ADVICE NUMBER 30 Issued at 9:10 pm WST on Tuesday, 28 March 2006 BY THE BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY TROPICAL CYCLONE WARNING CENTRE PERTH A CYCLONE WARNING is now current for a CATEGORY 5 CYCLONE for coastal areas between Wallal and Mardie. A CYCLONE WATCH extends from Mardie to Exmouth. At 8pm WST SEVERE TROPICAL CYCLONE GLENDA was estimated to be 240 kilometres northwest of Broome and 450 kilometres north northeast of Port Hedland and was moving southwest at 18 kilometres per hour. Communities along the Pilbara should be aware that SEVERE TROPICAL CYCLONE GLENDA is expected to approach coast later on Wednesday and during Thursday. Gales with gusts to 125 kilometres per hour may develop along the Pilbara coast between Wallal and Mardie as early as Wednesday night but more likely early on Thursday morning. There is the risk of very destructive winds during Thursday as the cyclone moves closer to the coast. Details of SEVERE TROPICAL CYCLONE GLENDA at 8pm WST Tuesday. Location of centre : within 30 kilometres of Latitude 16.7 South Longitude 120.4 East. Recent movement : Southwest at 18 kilometres per hour. Central Pressure : 910 hPa. Maximum wind gusts : 300 kilometres per hour. Severity Category : 5

Move on to page 23.