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 AUS:
Heat and rainfall records tumble across the south
See this special report on the causes of today's extreme weather in WA and
SA.
 WA:
Wet, windy and record cold in the SW
A sharp upper trough carrying unseasonably cold air swept into a moist
northwesterly airstream over southwestern WA today, producing a wild mix of
weather across the state's south.
A low that developed on a trough east of
the cold air (see the 10am chart above) brought temperatures as high as 43.5
at Red Rocks Point on the coast near Eucla, while maxima in the South West
barely reached double figures. Five locations broke the previous state
low maximum temperature record for March of 12.3: Manjimup 10.7, Shannon
11.0, Pemberton 11.5, Rocky Gully 11.6 and Bridgetown
11.8.
As cold, unstable air pushed into the moist airmass ahead of it, there were
some moderate to heavy falls overnight along the South Coast that extended
more generally during the day. Denmark, 50km W of Albany, topscored in the
24 hours to 9am with 51.2mm, and there were numerous falls on the South Coast
greater than 25mm. Rain spread eastwards with the cold southerlies during the
day, while thunderstorms associated with the preceding trough and low gave
some heavy falls in the Goldfields and southeast -- Salmon Gums, halfway between
Norseman and Esperance, recorded 30mm 9am to 9pm.
A second low, which developed on the cold front east of Perth, gradually strengthened
south to southeasterly winds over the South West during the day as a strong
pressure gradient developed between the 1004hPa low and a 1032hPa high SW of
Perth. Rottnest Island reported gusts to 85km/h early in the evening.
 SA:
Heat continues
Both overnight and daytime temperatures were well above normal across southern
SA today as a slow-moving high pressure ridge over the eastern states continued
to direct hot northerlies over the state. At Ceduna, Wudinna and Port Pirie,
the temperature didn't go below 26.0° all night, Ceduna's 26.3 being 13.2
above normal. Today's maxima were mostly in the mid 30s in the east of the
state (Adelaide reached 35.4, 9.4 above average), but rose to a remarkable
42 to 44 in the SA/WA border region around the head of the Bight. Nullarbor
SA recorded 43.0, equalling its previous April record set last year, while
across the border Red Rocks Point reached 43.5 and Eucla 42.3.
QLD:
Heavy showers north of Brisbane
A procession of slow-moving showers gave isolated heavy totals across the
Sunshine Coast and north to Gympie this morning. Tewantin registered 70mm between
6am and noon, 57.8 falling in the 3 hours 7am to 10am. | 
