Australian Weather News |
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Saturday 12 February 2000 |
Today's weather extremes |
Flooding
rain continues in southern NT, northern SA, and extends into western NSW Heavy showers in Sydney and strong winds in NSW Gales in Tasmania |
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Highest rainfall, 24 hours to 9am |
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138.6
Ormiston Gorge NT 118.0 Alice Springs AP NT 105.0 Mt Sophia Gordonvale Qld 101.0 Watarrka (Kings Canyon) NT Other heavy SA/NT falls: Heavy NSW falls: |
Flood
rainfall petered out in central Australia late this morning, but
not until giving more record totals to an area that averages 10 to 40mm
for the whole month of February. Alice Springs Airport received a
phenomenal 74mm between midnight and 3am, giving the town a 24 hour to 9am
total of 118mm, a February record. Torrential rain fell at other locations
in the MacDonnell Ranges as well, Ormiston Gorge reporting
138.6mm and Watarrka (Kings Canyon) 101, of which 46mm fell in 3
hours to 6am. In northern SA, heavy rain stopped falling before midnight,
but still gave the police station at Marla, a truck and rail centre
in the state's central north, a record 56.6mm to 9am.
The rain has been produced by moist air converging into a deep monsoonal low in SW NT, and a deep trough extending into NW NSW has transported a tongue of moisture into that area giving rainfalls of 50 to 100mm. The settlement of Tibooburra recorded 87mm in 18 hours to 3pm, while the AWS at the airport recorded 86mm in 12 hours to 3pm, falling fairly steadily and in nearly total calm through the period. This is about 3 times Tibooburra's February monthly average. The met office in Cobar reported 34mm in 9 hours to 3pm.
A southerly change that swept through Sydney this evening produced some unusually heavy showers and strong winds. Little Bay, on the coast north of La Perouse in Sydney's southeast, recorded 32mm in 60 minutes to 9.44pm, while Cromer in the northern beaches recorded 32.5 in the hour to 10.51. Winds strengthened into the early hours of Sunday, with a few hours of galeforce southerlies reported from the south coast in the early morning and moving north to the Hunter coast by mid morning. Norah Head lighthouse reported gusts to 85km/h around 5am. Strong winds were also reported on the Central and Northern Tablelands, where emergency services had to clear fallen trees from roads. Southwesterly gales, cold enough to produce snow on the higher peaks, swept Tasmania today. Atop Mt Wellington, the wind averaged 65 to 100km/h until late afternoon, with the temperature fluctuating between zero and 4°. The strongest sustained (10 minute average) wind was 109km/h recorded at 7.30am, when a gust of 130km/h was recorded and the temperature was 0.1. |
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Highest & Lowest Temps |
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Maximum | Minimum | |
40.0 Richmond AP Qld | 28.4 Winton PO Qld | |
5.6 Mt Wellington Tas | -0.1 Mt Wellington Tas | |
Greatest variations from normal |
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Maximum | Minimum | |
+5.5 38.0 Carnarvon AP WA +5.5 38.0 Geraldton AP WA |
+6.5 22.4 Quirindi NSW +6.5 23.2 Scone Soil Con NSW |
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-14.7 21.1 Marla SA -14.2 22.2 Oodnadatta AP WA -14.0 22.0 Giles MO WA |
-8.1 6.0 Salmon Gums WA |
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Other extreme readings | ||
Rainfall: McCluer Island NT: 49mm in 2hrs to 2am Wind gusts: Keogh's Pimple, Hartz Mtns Tas: 115km/h at 6.22am |
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Records set this day | ||
Alice
Springs AP NT: Heaviest daily rainfall for February, 118mm beating the
previous record of 93.5mm in 58 years of record Marla SA: Heaviest daily rainfall for February, 56.6mm beating the previous record of 36.6mm in 16 years. |
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