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Thursday 13 July 2000 |
Front
brings storms, heavy rain and a tornado to SW WA ![]() 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 |
Today's highest & lowest temps |
Other extremes Rainfall: Wind gusts: 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 |
|