Australian Weather News |
Sunday, 06 MAY 2001 |
About Australian Weather News |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
An active trough ahead of a
cold front crossed the WA central and southwestern coasts around
dawn this morning, bringing damaging wind and falls of up to 80mm in a few
hours. A band of moderate rain moving down from the NW extended from offshore
Geraldton to the Perth district after midnight. Areas of heavy rain developed
off the coast from Perth southwards around 3am, then brought torrential
falls as they crossed the coast and moved inland in the Bunbury area. Cape
Naturaliste, 60km SW of Bunbury, recorded 35.6mm in just over an hour
to 4.20am, with 54mm in the gauge for the period 3 to 6am. Nearby Meelup
recorded 79mm for the 24 hours to 9am, and many locations south of Perth
recorded 50mm or more. General falls of more than 25mm over the southwest
broke a long-running dry spell. The period from December to April was the
driest for 101 years in Bunbury, Busselton, Boyanup, Collie and Donnybrook,
with falls of only a few millimetres.
Strong, squally winds ahead of the trough caused damage around Kalbarri, 120km north of Geraldton. Sheds were torn apart and 20 power poles flattened in what the press described as tornadic winds, though no thunderstorms were reported by any Bureau stations in WA during the morning. Power was cut for much of the morning to towns north, east and south of Geraldton. Following on from yesterday afternoon's downpour, central Sydney received another dowsing this morning, with 40mm falling in 3 hours to 9am to produce a 24 hour to 9am total of 94mm. A succession of heavy showers moving northwards off the Illawarra coast crossed the coast into southern Sydney between 9 last night and 9 this morning, bringing 24-hour totals of 50 to 90mm to southern coastal suburbs, the CBD and inner northern parts. On the Central Coast, Norah Head reported 70mm for the 9 hours to 9am. The bands of heavy showers developed along local wind convergence lines in a strong SSE airstream squeezed between a 1029hPa high over Victoria and a 999hPa low near New Zealand. A marked upper circulation together with cold upper air increased both instability and convergence over eastern NSW today resulting in continuing heavy showers and thunderstorms along the coast from around Sydney to Rockhampton, Queensland. A thunderstorm at Wollongbar, 10km east of Lismore, during the early evening produced downdrafts strong enough to unroof a service station and damage a nearby two-storey block of flats. Hail up to 15cm deep fell in the storm, during which trees were blown onto powerlines. Alongside the Bruxner Highway between Alstonville and Wollongbar, drifts of hail up to 30cm deep accumulated, with stones up to 2.5cm in diameter observed. A detailed report is available in Storm News. Storms accompanied by heavy rain and some hail also developed along a weak troughline that moved across Brisbane and the Gold Coast before dawn, then redeveloped between Gympie and Rockhampton late afternoon and evening. |
National
weather extremes for today |
|
Quality control note: Data is complete, and has been visually checked by AWN for gross errors. Less obvious errors may remain. See Explanation of Extremes Pages for more information | |
Records set this day (not checked or entered yet) | |
Todays highest rainfall totals for the 24 hours to 9am. It includes the top 5 totals received, and/or all reported falls of 50mm or more. 94.0 SYDNEY (OBSERVATORY HILL) Sydney--east
NSW |
High rainfall for periods of 6 hours or less. |
Todays highest & lowest temperatures |
|
Maximum | Minimum |
36.5 CURTIN AERO W Kimberley WA 36.4 ROEBOURNE E Pilbara WA 36.0 WYNDHAM AERO N Kimberley WA 36.0 PARDOO STATION E Pilbara WA 36.0 MARBLE BAR E Pilbara WA |
28.0 NORTHERN ENDEAVOUR Islands 27.0 MCCLUER ISLAND Darwin-Daly NT 26.0 COCONUT ISLAND N Peninsula QLD 26.0 VARANUS ISLAND Islands 26.0 WILLIS ISLAND Islands |
1.0 THREDBO (CRACKENBACK STATION) AWS Snowy Mtns NSW 1.8 MT HOTHAM Upper NE VIC 3.8 FALLS CREEK Upper NE VIC 5.0 MOUNT BULLER Upper NE VIC 6.6 MOUNT WELLINGTON Southeast TAS |
-1.2 MT HOTHAM AIRPORT Upper NE VIC -1.0 THREDBO (CRACKENBACK STATION) AWS Snowy Mtns NSW -0.7 MT HOTHAM Upper NE VIC -0.2 FALLS CREEK Upper NE VIC 0.0 CRESSY RESEARCH STATION AWS N Coast TAS |
Todays greatest temperature variations from normal |
Maximum | Minimum |
+9.1 30.2 GOOMALLING Cent Wheatbelt WA +8.9 32.2 MULLEWA Central West WA +8.9 29.4 WONGAN HILLS RES.STATION Central West WA +7.1 28.2 EYRE Eucla WA +6.8 30.5 WILUNA Interior WA |
+11.3 22.6 MURCHISON W Gascoyne WA +11.3 18.8 HYDEN Gt Southern WA +10.9 20.3 PAYNES FIND Murchison WA +10.8 18.4 SOUTHERN CROSS Goldfields WA +10.7 18.9 NAREMBEEN Gt Southern WA |
-6.4 13.4 LOSTOCK DAM SITE Hunter Valley NSW -6.1 14.9 CESSNOCK (NULKABA) Hunter Valley NSW -6.1 14.5 PATERSON (TOCAL) Hunter Valley NSW -5.8 14.1 SCONE SCS Hunter Valley NSW -5.5 19.0 GYMPIE Brisbane/SE Coast QLD -5.5 13.6 PEATS RIDGE (WARATAH ROAD) Hunter Valley NSW |
-6.0 3.6 PARAFIELD AIRPORT Adelaide Plains SA
-5.7 11.0 LORD HOWE ISLAND AERO Islands -4.3 3.4 POLDA (GUM VIEW) W Agricultural SA -4.1 5.0 EDINBURGH RAAF Adelaide Plains SA -4.1 5.0 FLINDERS ISLAND AIRPORT Flinders Is/Bass St TAS |
Highest wind gusts above 89km/h or mean wind above 62km/h (gale force). Wind direction and mean windspeed shown in brackets. CAPE LEEUWIN SW & S Coast WA
: 87 (300/ 69 ) at 09:29 |
Other extremes .. |