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 ACT: Another thunderstorm pounds Canberra.The third storm in as many days damaged houses and brought hail and flash flooding to the national capital. The storm arrived from the south, hitting Tuggeranong around 6pm. By 6.40, torrential rain and hail was falling across most of Canberra's southern, western and northwestern suburbs, not easing until it contracted slowly northwest around 7.15pm. Vicki Munslow from the SES told ABC radio that hail was up to a metre deep in some streets. "Mainly the damage we're looking at is gutters filled with hail," she said, "and because the gutters are filled with hail, the rain's going into the roof cavity and causing a lot of problems with the electricity and the actual roofs themselves." Chisholm and Richardson were the suburbs worst affected. Drifts of hail half a metre deep were still lying in some suburbs on New Year's Day. There were 140 SES callouts, mostly to deal with roof damage, some substantial, and flooded basements. About 500 claims for damage had been lodged with NRMA Insurance by 3 January.
A mudslide blocked the Monaro Highway north of Royalla after nearby Tuggeranong recorded 32.8mm in 48 minutes to 7pm. Flash flooding was reported around Tuggeranong, while there were reports of motorists trapped in their cars by rising floodwaters in Belconnen, NW of Canberra. A 3-metre high wall of water sweeping down a dry creek bed on Lanyon Station near Tharwa carried away fencing, cattle, sheep, topsoil and feed. One farmer at Williamsdale, 6km S of Royalla, said that although his rain gauge had been smashed by the hail, he estimated 230mm of rain and hail fell in one hour, washing away topsoil. Hail fell in sufficient quantities to remain frozen in dams until 10 January. He told ABC Rural Radio "We're still getting stock coming to the surface in the dams every day, dead sheep that have been washed down into the dams. Because of the ice on the dams, the sheep cannot come to the surface and as the ice melts on the dams, the sheep come to the surface. I think we've pulled 15 out already."
The damage bill from this week's thunderstorms is likely to run into millions of dollars, with one insurer alone, NRMA, receiving over 1,500 claims up to 3/1/07.
 NSW: Further widespread but scattered thunderstorms. A trough over western NSW created instability across the state today which reacted with the moist northerly airstream ahead of the trough to give widespread thunderstorms. The slow-moving nature of the storms produced some very localised heavy rainfall totals on the Central and Northern Tablelands, Mid North Coast and in the west, often leaving nearby areas nearly dry. For example, a relatively mild thunderstorm lodged itself over Port Macquarie around 9pm and dropped 93mm on the airport over the next 3 hours before weakening; most centres on the Mid North Coast, however, reported little if any rain. Other high storm totals included 60mm between 6pm and about 10pm at Lithgow and 44mm between 6 and 9pm at Hampton, and 43mm between 6 and 9pm at Denman. Earlier in the day, Broken Hill Airport reported 47mm in 3 hours to 9am. See downpours and today's noteworthy observations for more reports of heavy falls.
NT, QLD: Storms and showers bring heavy falls. There was widespread heavy rain across the NT Top End today, with many locations recording 50 to 110mm in the 24 hours to 9am. Intense falls included 65.6mm in 2 hours at Middle Point, 68.4 in 2 hours at Dum In Mirrie and 55.4mm in 66 minutes at Groote Eylandt Airport. The north/south trough through western QLD has also drawn widespread moisture into the interior -- Longreach registered 31.6mm in just one hour to 10am and Blackall 11.4mm in 19 minutes to 8am. The rainfall map for the week ended 9 this morning shows that there have been substantial falls across much of the tropics.
VIC/SA: Lightning starts fires. About 35 fires have been started across VIC from lightning strikes in the current stormy outbreak. The worst has burnt through more than 70 square kilometres at Tallageira in the Little Desert National Park on the SA/VIC border east of Naracoorte after starting about 10 this morning.
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