Notable Weather Events Page 24

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Average rains!

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The fantastic start to 2006 continues for central SA. But while the northern ranges, mallee and mid north districts have had in general above average falls down my way its steady as she goes rock solid average!

So average in fact that in all the years of my recording rainfall never have the monthly totals been so close to the historical average. Check out the graph below showing current monthly falls against the long term average.

28th April 2006 upper low

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Not really an event that affected me but worth a mention as the northern areas and mallee received significant falls.This system promised much. And deliver it did, but certainly not my area. In fact the falls skirted all around my part of the ranges in the most part missing me entirely. North South East and west all got something. Here it drizzled and was one of the most frustrating rain systems I have known. The good news was that the Riverland and Mallee districts got early season opening and solid rains!

Rain Rain Rain - A wet start to May.

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May 2006 saw 9 out of the first 10 days  with precipitation. 96.7mm fell here in the southern Ranges while totals well above 100mm were seen in the higher parts of the Mt Lofty Ranges.

The "significant front"

During this time the most significant front of 2006 passed over the state on the 6th to the 7th with a nice cold pool of air that bought winter style "coldies", small hail and strong winds to many districts. Some great falls of rain were seen over the ranges in particular. In fact most locations did well out of the initial band but especially the northern ranges to Forreston where falls in excess of 40mm were commonplace. Highest to 9am Sunday morning was 54mm at the Lenswood Creek gauge.

Falls at my place were solid here for some time but never what could be called torrential peaking at about a top of 34mm/h instant rate. Most rain I recorded in 10 minutes was 4mm. Good but not extraordinary. But it certainly was windy! My rain gauge (the one that records properly in strong winds) blew over to a 45 degree angle! I have never had that happen. All the outdoor setting chairs were blown into a corner heaped up over one another! There was 31.5mm in the gauge blown over, the weather station recorded (in total) 33.5mm and is usually a minimum of 10% short when its windy. I have had over 30% variation when unusually windy and saturday was certainly windy!! So how much rain did I get? Take a guess! Its most likely however based on water runoff damage and dam level rise that the 24 hour fall may have approached or exceeded 40mm. If we assume   a more stately figure of 32mm to 9am Saturday then it is the equal 6th highest 24 hour fall I have ever recorded here. Tells the story about the lack of "heavy" falls in this location in recent years.

The follow up streams which went to a classic SW left me high and dry. Hardly a drop since the initial band's passing fell here. Not so the south coast and northern burbs and plains where some pretty heavy showers and "coldies" mixed with local strong winds and small haill roared on through. The weather station graph to the right from the rain shows how it progressed.

I was away when the front hit. I did capture a few images from Copeville of the front and showers and Dave Salisbury in Adelaide captured some images of the dark based coldies over the northern suburbs, all of which can be seen in this gallery.

It just keeps on Raining - the wet westerlies.

Then on the 9th a wet westerly airstream kept on delivering the falls. Strongly orographically influenced in the moisture streams that exist (see these pages for more info on this) in these types of setups rain and drizzle kept up for hours. 10.25 mm to 9am on the 9th and another 19.75 during the day delivered a total of 30mm in 24 hours. This topped the rainlist for the state for the daytime falls! These types of westerly streams have been sorely missing in recent years. (see here for more info on the missing westerlies)

The graph to the right shows the nature of the rain. Never heavy, but never stopping and steadily racking up the mm's during the day and night.

 

08-05-06 Pyrocumulus in Kuitpo Fires.

Burning off in Kuitpo Forest sees Cumulus Streams (known as "Pyro - Cumulus") develop in the smoke. See THIS IMAGE taken from my place in the Bull Creek Ranges.

22-05-06 May update

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After 9 consecutive days and 97mm of rain in the beginning of May, the highs returned to dominate. Since then we have had 9 consecutive days with no rain and just 2 days of drizzle with only 4mm! May to date has been cool as well with an average max of 13 degrees which is the coolest I have recorded at this location. Last years av max for May was 17 degrees.

The cool mornings have given us some pretty good scenery and lighting. I caught a little bit of mother natures best as the fog lifted on this particular morning. You can see a few of the shots HERE

 

23-05-06 Record Low May temps

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As our weather continues to be dominated by powerful high pressure systems a "cold snap" of sorts sets some new benchmarks for many centres in SA.

At my location in the Bull Creek Ranges a top of 7.7 degrees at 2:35pm is the lowest maximum daytime temp for May I have recorded at this location. The previous record here was 9.4 degrees on 19/05/02. The strong highs have seen 8 straight hours of calm weather with not a breath of wind as can be seen in the graph below.

The morning of the 24th May saw the mercury plummet to 1.7 at 7:43am which also set a new record as the coldest may temp at this location. The previous record was 3.2 degrees on 29/05/04. The old records were not just beaten but comprehensively smashed!

The story was the same statewide with many temp records smashed.
Data Compiled By Tim Eckert from Weatherchase using data sourced from Laurier Williams Australian Weather News.

23rd Maximums Records: Whyalla 12.1 (old record 13.5) Edithburgh 13.2 (14.1) Kingscote 14.0 (14.1) Mt Lofty 5.0 (6.4) Parawa 10.0 (10.0) Mt Crawford 6.7 (8.6) Renmark 11.0 (11.4)

Overnight 23rd-24th: Leigh Creek -0.7 (0.0) Moomba 2.0 (2.8) Kimba 0.8 (1.0) Whyalla -0.4 (0.5) Coles Point 2.8 (2.8) Pt Lincoln 4.4 (5.1) Clare -3.7 (-0.2) Loxton -3.2 (-2.8) Renmark -4.1 (-3.5) Eudunda 0.3 (0.6) Keith -2.3 (-1.3) Coonawara -3.0 (-2.4) Cape Jaffa 0.7 (1.3)

The synoptic chart below is a disturbing representation of the strength of the highs dominating Southern Australia

**UPDATE**

The morning of the 24th saw Yongala get -6.1 and Yunta -5.9. These are the second- and third-lowest on record for May in SA (record is -6.7 at Yongala in 1957).

The 24th had amazing grass minimum temps!
-8.0 YONGALA
-6.5 GLUEPOT RESERVE (GLUEPOT)
-5.3 MENINGIE
-5.0 COONAWARRA
-4.2 LOXTON RESEARCH CENTRE
data sourced from Laurier Williams Australian Weather News.

The cold continues to the 25th where a decent frost was to be seen in Kuitpo Valley. See some pics HERE . Light and variable N to NW winds kept the house warmer overnight to the 25th, but the hillsides facing south were frosted to their ridgetops. Its worth noting that Robe, a coastal town in the SE of the state dropped below zero degrees smashing the may record of 0.8 degrees and threatening the all time record of -2.8!

The 25th saw a number of Sub Zero temps statewide notably the following
-3.6 RENMARK AERO
-3.2 LOXTON RESEARCH CENTRE
-3.0 GLUEPOT RESERVE (GLUEPOT)
-3.0 MURRAY BRIDGE (PALLAMANA AERODROME)
-2.7 YONGALA
data sourced from Laurier Williams Australian Weather News.

Some impressive grass minimum temps also on the 25th
-5.7 MENINGIE
-4.5 YONGALA
-4.5 GLUEPOT RESERVE (GLUEPOT)
-3.9 LOXTON RESEARCH CENTRE
-3.1 KAROONDA
data sourced from Laurier Williams Australian Weather News.

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