Australian Weather News -- February 2000

Australian Weather News

Go to the main news page	Find a place on a map	Friday 18 February 2000
Today's weather extremes		Heavy rain brings floods to N Qld 15 Mar 2000 Storms in the WA Kimberley Hot around the south coast
Highest rainfall, 24 hours to 9am
218.0 Mt Charlton Calen Qld 181.0 Finch Hatton Qld 179.4 Mirani Qld 174.0 Plane Creek Mill Sarina Qld		The monsoon trough continued to drop heavy rain across northern Qld today, with the heaviest falls in the Townsville and Mackay areas. Following a downpour yesterday afternoon, Townsville recorded 94mm overnight to give the Airport 169mm for the 24 hours to 9am. 44mm fell in one hour to 3am. 211mm fell between 9am Thursday and about 5am today at Mt Piccaninny and 186mm at Upper Read in the hills SW of Townsville producing major flooding in the lower reaches of the Haughton River causing traffic problems at Giru, where it is crossed by the main Bruce Highway. Heavy rain also fell in the Mackay area, with 151mm recorded at the Met Office in the city in the 24 hours to 9am and a further 91mm to 9pm, 52mm of which fell between 3 and 6pm. Finch Hatton and Mirani, on the Pioneer River 55 and 30km west of Mackay, recorded around 180mm for the 24 hours to 9am, while Mount Charlton, on the valley's northern side, recorded 218mm. Minor flooding occurred on the Pioneer River around Mackay as floodwaters met high tide in the estuary. Patchy heavy falls were again recorded through Queensland's northern inland, with Winton again featuring. 27mm fell on the town between midnight and 3am, and a further 30mm between 6 and 9pm. Storms moving westward across the southern Kimberley gave some torrential falls this morning. Derby's Curtin Airport recorded 90mm between 3 and 6am. See box for other heavy falls. Derby Airport recorded 18.8mm in 10 minutes to 5am. Hot weather was experienced in SA, Vic and Tas today, with temperatures in the high 30s and 10 to 14° above normal along the SA and Victorian coasts.
Highest & Lowest Temps
Maximum	Minimum
40.3 Kyancutta SA 40.0 Port Pirie BHAS Site SA 39.8 Parafield AP SA	30.0 Karratha AP WA 29.5 Gascoyne Jn WA
19.0 Crackenback NSW	5.8 Perisher Valley NSW
Greatest variations from normal
Maximum	Minimum
+13.9 36.0 Cashmere AP Portland Vic +13.2 35.0 Cape Willoughby SA	+8.0 24.8 Kent Town Adelaide SA
-9.3 29.4 Telfer AP WA	-6.6 13.0 Amberley AP Qld
Other extreme readings
Rainfall: Broome AP WA: 43mm in 6hrs to 9am Telfer AP WA: 84mm in 12hrs to 3pm Parap NT: 184.4mm in 48h to 9am Yuendumu NT: 43mm in 6hrs to 9am Cairns AP Qld: 39mm in 3hrs to 9pm Townsville AP Qld: 66.6mm in 2hrs to 4am Collinsville Qld: 36mm in 3hrs to 6am Hamilton Is Qld: 120mm in 9hrs to 6am Longreach Qld: 31mm in 3hrs to 6pm Flood peaks: Haughton River at Giru Qld: 2.70m at midday with major flooding Haughton at Powerline Qld: 7.27m at 11am Pioneer River at Mirani Weir Qld: 7.49m at 1pm Pioneer at Forgan Bridge Mackay Qld: 6.75m at 10.30am with minor flooding
Records set this day
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Times stated are the clock time in force in the relevant state or territory
Stories, including those in the archives, are as new and corrected information becomes available, with updates underlined
Australian Weather News gratefully acknowledges the Bureau of Meteorology as the collector and main source of meteorological data in Australia, along with the thousands of observers who record the weather and rainfall daily. I also thank Don White and the many contributors to the Aussie Weather mailing list who routinely provide much appreciated information.