NSW, VIC, TAS: Strong winds, high seas batter southeastern states
Wed 22 Aug 2018

Gale force winds hit the three southeastern states on Tuesday and Wednesday, with winds over storm force reported at coastal locations. In offshore waters, winds of 70 to 100km/h were forecast to bring 5 to 8m swells onto the NSW coast.

The SW winds are being squeezed between a strong 1035hPa high pressure system over the Bight and a deep 975hPa low SE of Tasmania (see map). This satellite animation from Andrew Miskelly shows the rush of cold air between the two systems like cake mix between the beaters in a Mixmaster, and the long fetch which developed such a large swell. Fronts and troughs in the stream are making for even stronger winds for a few hours as each one passes.

Maatsuyker Island, off Tasmania's South Coast, reported top wind gusts of 146km/h yesterday and 148km/h today with an average speed over the whole 24 hours to 09.00 today of 98km/h. Many coastal locations in TAS, VIC and the islands in Bass Strait saw winds almost as strong. Damaging wind gusts also made their way inland across all three states, with Hobart City recording 120km/h yesterday and Goulburn Airport 100 today. Full lists are in the Daily Weather Summaries for yesterday and today.

While Tasmania's West and mountain areas are renowned for their constant wet weather, they have really turned it on over the past three days. Darwin Dam east of Queenstown has recorded 233mm in the 3 days to 09.00 this morning, 111mm falling in 24 hours to 09.00 yesterday. This ABC video of flooded campgrounds at Mount Field National Park also shows the well-known Russell Falls in robust full spate.

 The News Blog returns on AWN
Thurs 15 Aug 2019

As the note in the header of this section says, "Timeliness of the reports is entirely at the mercy of my available time" and, as my available time has shrunk to zero in recent months, I've been unable to post items on weather events here. Fortunately, that has coincided with a relatively quiet time weatherwise in Australia although not so across the rest of the world.

I hope to restart this weather news blog in the next few days, particularly focusing on the exceptional number of international weather events that get little or no mention in the Australian media. Australian events, of course, will take priority.

During the next week or so, I will be catching up with some of the more significant events that have occurred in the past few weeks so be sure to check the dateline below the headline in all stories. That shows when the event occurred whereas the date in the green bar is just the date the story was posted on the website.