Notable Weather Events Page 47

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New years day 2010

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Rip snorting storms over northern SA see in the new year. Check out the radar grabs below.

Heatwave - again 4-11 Jan 2010

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I seem to be reporting a lot of heatwaves in recent years. This one was not outstanding nor record breaking, but it was uncomfortable!. The run of temps with my location as a comparison can be seen below.

KENT TOWN	min	anomoly	Max	anomoly
Mon 04/01/2010	14.1	-2.9	31.3	2.2
Tue 05/01/2010	15.1	-1.9	32	2.9
Wed 06/01/2010	15.7	-1.3	33.6	4.5
Thu 07/01/2010	16.6	-0.4	35.1	6
Fri 08/01/2010	26.7	9.7	41	11.9
Sat 09/01/2010	21.6	4.6	41.3	12.2
Sun 10/01/2010	25.6	8.6	42	12.9
Mon 11/01/2010	28.9	11.9	42.8	13.7
MEADOWS B/C RANGES	Min	Max
Mon 04/01/2010	8.6	26.1
Tue 05/01/2010	10.2	27.2
Wed 06/01/2010	10.1	29.1
Thu 07/01/2010	10.1	33.5
Fri 08/01/2010	16.5	35.2
Sat 09/01/2010	18.9	36.7
Sun 10/01/2010	20.8	37
Mon 11/01/2010	23	35.9

Heatwave breaks with rain! For some. 12th Jan 2010

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Some heatwaves end with a fizzle and a coolish breeze. This one ended with rain! And a reasonable amount of it for some. Falls of 15 plus mm were pretty much the norm across central and western districts. Some outstanding drops were 52 mm at Coles point, 36 mm at Coffin Bay, 25 mm at Ceduna and 24 mm at Port Lincoln.

However for my area and the SE ranges in general the rainband could be considered a total flop. A paltry total of 12mm from mostly drizzle at my spot, 10mm and less a few km from here and 9mm at Strathalbyn. A VERY poor showing considering the widespread generally high falls. This has become an annoying and regular feature in recent years.

A few radar grabs below of the system passing.

Rainfall rate statistics for 2009

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January is turning out to be an incredibly boring and nondescript month. High pressure ridges dominate with fine to warm to hot conditions and very little rain. A real month of groundhog days. So while we wait for a break it is interesting to go back and look at old data.

So while looking through my 2009 data summary in the sheer overwhelming state of boredom I found this little tidbit which has somehow slipped me by. An interesting stat is the duration of rain over the 12 months. In other words if all the rain that fell during the year was continuous how long would it be raining for. It is a bit difficult to calculate to 100% accuracy from the logs my weather station outputs. However my method of doing so is consistent and in this way gives quite a reasonable indicator of one year to the next.
I average 279 hours of rain a year or ~ 11.6 days. Quite a long time for such a moderate annual total. It’s a good indicator of just how light most of our rainfall is, averaging just 3.1mm/hour rate! Consider that the tropics can not uncommonly get our annual average in 24-36 hours at (literally) 10 times this rate puts this into national and global perspective.

Anyways, 2009 was interesting in that it seemed to be a year of generally heavier rainfall. For my 968mm to fall it took 237 hours or ~9.9 days. This is an average hourly rate of ~4mm. Still quite light in national terms, but significantly more than my average and the highest I have yet to record. In this statistic at least 2009 was truly quite significant rainfall wise.

Break over, now back to drolldom........

03-02-2010 Collision of 2 systems. East meets west

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An amazing collision of systems moving in oppsing directions. See more HERE

10-02-2010 Severe storm over northern ranges

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After almost a week of uncomfortable humidity and convective filled cloudscapes it finally explodes. Over the northern ranges of course! This time, Williamstown to Kersbrook in a stationary beast of a storm with some severe dumpage the result. SYW's were issued with flash flooding on the menu! Reports of up to 40mm in 15 minutes from one ABC radio listener. Many trees reported flattened and local flooding from the torrential tropical rain. Meanwhile down south it was clear blue skies as any weather of significance continued to avoid us leaving us high and starting to get VERY dry after more than 2 months with no rain of any signifance. The satellite is impressive as is the 64km bucklands park grab which can be seen HERE

Satellite showing the northern cell. Notice the abrupt ceasation of any development over the southern ranges, stopping just a few KM short of my location.

21-02-2010 Yet AGAIN northern storms

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In perfect definition a stalling troughline from SA to Victoria brews up a huge long thin line of storms. Naturally enough nowhere near the southern areas it is nevertheless worth a look at for its perfect definition. 2010 thus far has been a shocking plethora of storm action up north while the Southern Ranges and SE districts have been relative deserts, in both rainfall and weather event terms.

Broad scale view. Satellite and radar overlay on left and synoptic on right

Closer view of Satellite and radar overlay on left, radar detail showing storm intensity in SA mid north.

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