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March 2008 record temperatures

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The March heatwave discussed on the previous events page resulted in some huge maximum temperature records. rather than outline them all in text, have a look at the data below. Smashed all previous data is an understatement!!

01-04-08 Wind, hail, dust and rain.

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This front looked to have some grunt. Short lived perhaps, but tight pressure gradients, strength in the front itself and a tropical depression off of NW Australia. Lots of the "right stuff" you could say! The sat and synoptic from the 1st looked great! See 2 images below.

It arrived with a bang! Starting with a weak but fast moving band of rain late in the evning of the first and a pick up of winds. Temperatures were very warm in the NW airstream in the low twenties even in the ranges. Around 1:15 am on the 2nd the winds started in earnest gusting to 60-70km/h with regularity. These continued over the night and by morning had strengthened to a savage intensity not seen for years at this location. At exactly 6:39am on the 2nd the winds (already gusting to 80km/h) slammed up the gully like a freight train and wallaped into my weather station recording a gust of 102km/h amid a flurry of gusts in the 90's. I happened to be watching at the time having been woken early by the winds and how the gums stay upright in these winds is beyond me. Tough suckers! This was the highest gust since the 13th June 2003 when I recorded 122.2km/h. Inciidently the 2003 recording is my record gust. Also of interest that since 2003 we have not cracked 90km/h maximums and interestingly rainfalls have also been rather dismal during the same years.

The wind change was not far away and with it a reduction in wind strength and temperatures which were still in the twenties. The effect of the wind change is obvious and best represented by an accompanying rapid rise in humidity which is graphically shown in the graph below.

Rain had still avoided my area while VERY quickly moving cells intensifying in the gulf deliverd up to 5mm in very isolated metropolitan Adelaide locations. A few bolts of lightning were also reported from the transient cells. All this changed around 7:45am when a significant line of rain finally hit my area. Heavy yet not torrential it dropped a moderate 2mm each 10 minutes for half an hour. 8mm to 9 am - the rain had started. The cold pool of air and SW airstream had also arrived. It was impressive on the satellite image and delivered to the city and hills some ipressive hail dumps and heavy rain. However these were so fast moving (approx 100km/h) that rain totals were slow to accumulate.

Due to the presence of the cold air the SW stream also impacted on my location. Occasional hail bursts and light rain passed over during the day. Not outstanding, but its barely april remember! The cold air also dropped the temperature to the days low at 13:30 in the afternoon of an amazing 10.2 degrees! Even more amazing when at 6:30 in that morning it was 21 degrees. Temperature then rose to be 14 degrees at 3pm before plummeting at nighfall to be just 5 degrees at 11pm. A truly topsy turvey day for temperatures. Light showers continued overnight of the 2nd. Int he central hills however the SW stream peaked in the evening over the Woodside-Lobethall-Lenswood region and dumped some torrential rain and hail giving them almost 20mm in just 45 minutes! Genuine coldie action in early april complete with one or two bolts of lightning!! Due to this period they topped the local rainlist fo the event. Meanwhile down south I had not done too badly with a further 13mm to 9am on the 3rd. The system was mostly done with now. Weak showers persisted on the coasts and frontal ranges with a few more mm for these locations. A further 1mm dragged itself to my location to make 22mm in total. A nice start - hopefully not a false start.

Other happenings....

Its worth mentioning that the shocking winds whipped up serious dust storms over the ag areas. Barely a drop of rain in some of these spots could not settle the dust. Not good news for them. The rains were certainly concentrated in the hills and south. This is NOT a statewide rain.

The winds caused significant statewide power outages resulting in some southern hills locations being without power for more than 12 hours.

Of interest is the development and intensification of a low west of Tasmania. See synoptic to the right. This resulted in HURRICANE force winds above 170km/h forcing the BOM to issue a hurricane winds warning!! "Melbourne HURRICANE FORCE 1932UTC: 1. HURRICANE FORCE winds within 150nm of low after 020600UTC." Even more interesting is that a similar event occurred at a similar time last year. (28th March). This resulted in the first ever hurricane wind warning for soutehrn Australian waters. So this development was the second such warning! Is 2007 on replay for 2008?. The report of the 2007 event can be seen HERE. Tasmania bore the brunt of the winds with the gusts above 170 km/h, equivalent to a category three cyclone. Victoria tragically recorded fatalities from the storm with one unfortunate woman crushed after a shop wall collapsed on top of her. An incredible system indeed. I did snap a few local images which can be seen in THIS GALLERY

25-04-08 Barely significant.

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This is not a true "local" event as it for the best part failed many. But it deserves a mention of sorts. Anzac day yet again delivered rainfall, but not quite as expected. Its not often the the weekly rain distributuions for Meadows and Pt Wakefield match, but this is one of those occasions. A front, a cold pool, hail and coldie cells and the rains stayed north. Normally wet Parawa barely 15mm, not even 25mm for the event at my location while meanwhile 50mm in some Adelaide plains spots and over 70mm for some hills spots. Even the presence of the 540 line of cold air failed to assist. I won't go on. A few radar snippets below well sho how the distributions went with significant torrential and hail cored cells north and light drizzle down south

And the rain distribution map below tells it all. A frustrating patchy system that the mainstream press saw as the season break because it rained in Adelaide

A few images I captured of the rain elsewhere and I must say speccy scenery can be seen in THIS GALLERY

27-04-08 Coldest April Day.

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The deep cold southerly airstream did bring one thing to my area, even it wasn't rain. Cold. I did not even reach 10 degrees as a maximum and it dropped to 2.6 overnight. There were mixed reports of possible light snow at Mt Lofty although it was more likely sleet or hail. Certainly large hail drifts were seen through many central hills areas that were under the influence of the gulf SW moisture stream.
My Maximum was 9.8 degrees and is the coldest April maximum I have recorded for my location.
It was also Adelaides coldest April day in 26 years and the coldest on record for several inland towns. Port Pirie not even reaching 15 degrees broke an 86 year old April record!
Amazingly just 6 weeks ago we were sweltering under the biggest heatwave on record

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