|
 Heat
sets records, fires continue in the southeast
The slow-moving
trough that has brought hot weather to the southeast for the past four days
ambled slowly across VIC today before a cold front caught up with it this
evening, sweeping out hot air and easing fire dangers.
The night appears to have produced a state record high November minimum
temperature in TAS, with Strahan Airport's low of 20.4 eclipsing the previous
state record
of 20.2 at Currie. The 20.4 figure is the official minimum for the 24
hours to 9am today. However, as this was the temperature when the 24-hour
period
began at 9am yesterday, the night was actually even hotter, with a 24-hour
to midday minimum of 21.3. On the East Coast, Orford PO equalled its
previous November high minimum record of 17.8.
Minima were 8 to 12 above normal across western
VIC, SW NSW as well as much of TAS. Daytime maxima were 8 to 14 above in
the same areas, with the greatest departures in southern TAS, where Hobart
Airport's 32.5 was 13.7 above and Dover's 31.4 was 14.2 up on average.
About 15 fires were ignited by lightning from overnight storms in VIC. The
most serious, in the Angahook-Lorne State Park to the W and NW of Anglesea,
burnt through around 370ha, took 150 firefighters to control, and closed the
Great Ocean Road for about half an hour. Other small fires were reported from
Gippsland and around Broadford, north of Melbourne. Rain with the cool change
during the evening helped bring the fires under control. In NSW, a fire at
Bodangora, NE of Wellington, burnt out 200ha.
Thunderstorms with the change caused injury to a person in Sydney who
was struck by lightning, and brought hail to 2cm diameter to Quakers Hill
in the city's far west.
Storm
causes damage in southern NT
An afternoon thunderstorm caused mayhem in the tiny NT settlement of
Barrow Creek, 240km north of Alice Springs. An intense downburst from
the storm caused violent winds that unroofed the roadhouse, destroyed
two caravans, blew public phone booths several hundred metres and dislodged
petrol bowsers. Electricity and water supplies to the area were cut. Marble-sized
hail fell with the storm.
News sources: ABC, The Age, News.com, Wellington Times |
