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Australian Weather News |
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Friday 05 January 2001 |
| Qld/NT
flood roundup Storms in NSW and Victoria |
| As widespread major flooding
continues across much of northern Queensland and northeastern Northern Territory,
recent press reports give some idea of the problems being faced by residents
and pastoralists in the area. In the Northern Territory, the Cattlemen's
Association has warned that flooding in the Barkly Tablelands area
may damage cattle feed over the coming months resulting in longer term problems
maintaining a food supply for cattle in the area.
In Queensland, the town of Weipa on the western side of Cape York Peninsula has been supplied with basic fresh food supplies by two airdrops this week, with road access to Cairns cut off. The town's alternative access method, using supply barges from Karumba, is also unfeasible as the road between Cairns and Karumba is also cut. Meanwhile, the mining town of Mt Isa in the state's northwest received its first supplies of fresh food in five days yesterday with the reopening of the highway between Mt Isa and Townsville. All roads into the city were blocked, and the highway to Longreach remains cut. Isolated homesteads in northwest Queensland received their first mail since early November today as the State Government used the Rescue Helicopter Service to deliver mail and food. Cattlemen in the Gulf area are also using helicopters to herd cattle to high ground and feed. Don McDonald of Iffley Station south of Normanton says "It's obviously too wet to use horses or motorbikes, so it's a case of using helicopters and moving them across and opening fences, cutting fences where cattle are caught and pushing them across to the high country. In some cases it means getting the mobs to swim across rivers." Widespread storms again developed in eastern NSW and Victoria to the east of a trough through inland NSW. By mid-afternoon, a line of storms prescribed an arc from the upper Hunter Valley in NSW to near Sale in Victoria's East Gippsland, and drifted slowly east dissipating near the coast. There were again scattered reports of hail, including to 3cm at Wentworthville in Sydney's west, while torrential but brief rain fell. Considerable electrical activity accompanied many of the storms, and small fires were started by lightning in the Lithgow area west of the Blue Mountains. |
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Today's highest rainfall totals for the 24 hours to 9am 152.4 Bamaga Qld High falls for other periods: |
Today's highest & lowest temps |
Wind (mean refers to the average windspeed over 10 minutes; gust is the highest speed recorded): . Other extremes . Records set this day Lowest
minimum temperature for January (previous
record and years of computerised record shown in brackets): |
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| Maximum | Minimum | ||
| 44.0 Murchison WA | 29.1 Paraburdoo AP WA | ||
| 15.0 Maatsuyker Is Tas | 7.4 Armidale AP NSW | ||
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Greatest variations from normal |
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| Maximum | Minimum | ||
| +9.4 43.0 Hyden WA |
+7.9 17.4 Geeveston Tas |
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| -6.9 18.0 Ballarat AP Vic |
-7.0 16.0 Longreach AP Qld |
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