Heavy storms continue in Northern Territory
Wintry in Tasmania
29Dec00A complex of surface and upper troughs over central and northern NT again produced isolated heavy falls from thunderstorms. Tindal, 20km NW of Katherine, recorded 104mm in a storm around midnight this morning, while Tennant Creek Airport reported 25mm from a storm around the same time. Larrimah, 150km SE of Katherine, received 48mm between 3 and 9pm.
A 958hPa low pressure system well south of Tasmania continued to produce gale to storm force west to northwesterly winds across the state today. These intensified as a succession of troughs, or perturbations, embedded in the westerly stream crossed the island, adding hail and light highland snow to the mixture. Atop Mt Wellington, behind Hobart, the temperature hovered between -1.5 and +1.0 all day, with the exception of a brief excursion up to 3.6 in the early afternoon, while the wind averaged between 65 and 85km/h all day. Similar conditions would have been experienced in other mountain areas in the southwest and centre of the island, giving the many bushwalkers out for the holidays an unexpectedly severe and possibly white Christmas. Meanwhile, Cradle Valley, at the northwestern edge of Tasmania's central plateaux, chalked up a record 24-hour rainfall total for December in the moist northwesterlies. 103.2mm fell to 9 this morning, comprehensively breaking the previous record of 74.0mm in over half a century of rainfall registration at Waldheim.