Australian Weather News |
Sunday, 09 DEC 2001 |
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Heavy rain from thunderstorms
embedded in broader rain areas created havoc for outback road transport
today. Locations around and west of Alice Springs have had between
half and all their average annual rainfall in the past few days. The Tanami,
Kintore and Docker River Roads as well as the Plenty and Sandover Highways
were closed, along with many roads near Alice Springs. The Stuart Highway
remained open, but caution was necessary due to washaways and water over
the road.
Giles Weather Station, just over the WA/NT border west of Alice Springs, has recorded 260.2mm in the 5 days ended 9am 10 December, with 76.2mm falling in the 24 hours to 9am on 6 December, and 119.0 in the day to 9am today. The previous record November one-day fall of 60.7mm in 45 years of record has therefore been broken twice in 3 days. Giles' average annual rainfall is 275.2mm, while their previous wettest December yielded only 116.8mm for the month. This morning, 89mm fell in just 6 hours to 3am. Other heavy 24 hour falls in the area are given below, along with some of the short-duration measurements at Giles and Uluru, where the airport recorded 46mm for the 24 hours to 9 this morning, but the ranger station reported 85.6mm. The storms resulted when a sharp convergence or trough line developed last night in the SA/NT border area. Moist northerlies, which have been bringing heavy falls to the Kimberley, fed into the trough, which also marked the boundary of much cooler southern air being drifted across the area around a high pressure ridge to the south. Fitzroy Crossing, in the West Kimberley, recorded 83mm in 6 hours to 3am. Heavy cloud cover coupled with the intrusion of cooler southern air kept daytime temperatures 10 to 14° below average across central eastern WA, southern NT and the northern two-thirds of SA. Hawker, in SA's mid-north, recorded its coldest December minimum temperature in 34 years when the thermometer dropped to 5.0°. |
National
weather extremes for today |
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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 (previous
record and years of computerised record shown in brackets): Highest daily rainfall for December: Giles Met Office WA: 119.0 (76.2, 45) The previous record of 76.2mm was set three days ago! Lowest daily minimum temperature for December: Hawker SA: 5.0 (5.5, 34) |
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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. 119.0 GILES METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE Interior
WA |
High rainfall for periods of 6 hours or less. |
Todays highest & lowest temperatures |
|
Maximum | Minimum |
42.4 URANDANGIE Northwest QLD 42.2 CLERMONT POST OFFICE Central Highlands QLD 42.0 CANNINGTON MINE Northwest QLD 41.8 MORANBAH WATER TREATMENT PLANT Central Coast W QLD 41.6 CHARTERS TOWERS AIRPORT Central Coast W QLD |
30.7 MORNINGTON ISLAND Gulf Country QLD 29.0 NARAWILLI Arnhem NT 28.6 CENTRE ISLAND Roper-McArthur NT 28.5 ALYANGULA POLICE Arnhem NT 28.3 GREEN ISLAND N Coast--Barron QLD |
6.3 MOUNT WELLINGTON Southeast TAS 6.9 MOUNT READ W Coast TAS 8.0 THREDBO (CRACKENBACK STATION) AWS Snowy Mtns NSW 10.5 FALLS CREEK Upper NE VIC 11.0 MOUNT BULLER Upper NE VIC |
1.0 THREDBO (CRACKENBACK STATION) AWS Snowy Mtns NSW 1.2 WOOLBROOK (DANGLEMAH ROAD) NW Slopes S NSW 1.3 MOUNT WELLINGTON Southeast TAS 2.8 LIAWENEE AWS Central Plateau TAS 3.0 THREDBO VILLAGE Snowy Mtns NSW 3.0 LAKE ST CLAIR NATIONAL PARK Central Plateau TAS 3.0 MOUNT READ W Coast TAS |
Todays greatest temperature variations from normal |
Maximum | Minimum |
+8.4 41.8 MORANBAH WATER TREATMENT PLANT Central
Coast W QLD +7.7 41.2 COLLINSVILLE POST OFFICE Central Coast E QLD +7.4 39.0 PROSERPINE AIRPORT Central Coast E QLD +7.4 42.2 CLERMONT POST OFFICE Central Highlands QLD +6.1 38.2 INGHAM COMPOSITE N Coast--Herbert QLD |
+6.2 27.9 ST LAWRENCE POST OFFICE Central Coast E
QLD +5.2 27.0 PROSERPINE AIRPORT Central Coast E QLD +5.1 26.2 ROCKHAMPTON AERO Wide Bay/Burnett QLD +5.0 23.4 KAIRI RESEARCH STATION N Coast--Barron QLD +4.8 27.2 RICHMOND POST OFFICE Upper Carpentaria QLD +4.8 26.9 CARDWELL EDEN ST N Coast--Herbert QLD +4.8 25.9 COLLINSVILLE POST OFFICE Central Coast E QLD |
-13.7 21.3 MARLA POLICE STATION NW Pastoral SA
-13.5 23.0 WARBURTON AIRFIELD Interior WA -13.1 20.0 LEIGH CREEK AIRPORT NE Pastoral SA -12.8 23.1 GILES METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE Interior WA -12.6 24.4 CARNEGIE Interior WA |
-10.9 5.0 HAWKER Upper North SA -9.2 1.2 WOOLBROOK (DANGLEMAH ROAD) NW Slopes S NSW -8.7 5.4 EYRE Eucla WA -7.0 7.9 BALRANALD RSL Southwest Plains NSW -6.5 12.4 COLLARENEBRI (VIEWPOINT) Upper Darling NSW |
Highest wind gusts above 89km/h or mean wind above 62km/h (gale force). Wind direction and mean windspeed shown in brackets. None reported |
Other extremes .. |