Australian Weather News -- 13 July 2000

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Thursday 13 July 2000

Front brings storms, heavy rain and a tornado to SW WA 19 July 00, 29 Sep 00
Thick white frost in NSW

An active front crossed southwestern WA overnight bringing brief heavy rain with thunderstorms, and a weak but damaging tornado in suburban Perth. The F0 strength tornado (weakest, with winds to 150km/h) touched ground briefly around 7am in the suburb of Thornlie, about 13km SE of Perth CBD, causing damage to about 8 houses, uprooting trees and tearing off tree branches. House damage included a front veranda torn from its foundations, roofs and carports ripped apart and a double-brick wall knocked over. The tornado accompanied the passage of the cold front. Earlier, two lines of storms and heavy showers crossed Perth and the state's southwest bringing brief heavy rain and wind squalls. Rottnest Island recorded 8.4mm in 10 minutes to 1.33am, with winds gusting to 93km/h. Late last night, Witchcliffe, 10km south of Margaret River, recorded 12.8mm in 10 minutes to 11.40pm. A detailed report on the tornado is available from Downunder Severe Weather here.

Unusual overnight temperature variations produced a dramatic white frost in eastern and central parts of NSW this morning. It was an unusually cold night, with minimum temperatures typically 4 or 5° below normal. However, many locations had a double minimum temperature, with the temperature dropping below freezing, rising, then dropping again in response to the passage of a narrow cloud band across the state. At Orange Airport, for example, the temperature dropped to minus 6.5 at 10pm, rose to +0.1 at 11pm, then dropped to minus 5.5 at 4am. Despite the low temperatures, humidity levels were quite high (at Orange Airport, the dew point remained within about 1° of the temperature all night), and the combination of this and the unusual temperature variations caused heavy dew to freeze, producing a very white frost, even on the roofs of houses in some places.

Today's highest rainfall totals for the 24 hours to 9am 35.0 Forest Grove Margaret River WA 35.0 Wexham WA 31.0 Dwellingup WA 30.0 Bickley WA 30.0 Glenmore Busselton WA	Today's highest & lowest temps		Other extremes Rainfall: Bunbury WA: 17mm in 2h to 2am Kalamunda WA: 15mm in 2h to 5am Rottnest Is WA: 8.4mm in 10m to 1.33am Dwellingup WA: 27.2mm in 4h19m to 6am Wind gusts: Rottnest Is WA: 93km/h at 1.28am and 1.33am Records set this day .
	Maximum	Minimum
	33.0 Fitzroy Crossing AP WA 33.0 Kimberley Res Stn Kununurra WA 33.0 Jabiru AP NT	23.0 McCluer Is NT 23.0 Coconut Is Qld
	-2.0 Crackenback NSW	-12.5 Charlotte Pass NSW
	Greatest variations from normal
	Maximum	Minimum
	+6.4 25.0 Balgair WA	+6.9 18.5 Balgo Hills WA
	-4.2 12.0 Renmark PO SA -4.2 13.5 Tibooburra PO NSW	-8.0 4.0 Georgetown PO Qld

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, Blair Trewin and the many contributors to the Aussie Weather mailing list who routinely provide much appreciated information.