Monday 27 March 2006
National Daily Weather Summary
Major Event
SA Rain Event

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Images from the new Buckland Park radar installation NNW of Adelaide spanning 30 hours from 9.50am CDT Sunday (23.20UTC 25 March) to 3.30pm CDT today (05.00UTC 27 March). Intervals between images are mostly 20 minutes.

  • From 9.50am CDT (2320 UTC/25) to 6.30pm CDT (08.00 UTC/26), the trough crosses the southern Eyre Peninsula bringing a slow-moving band of heavy rain. Coles Point, near Coulta and west of Cummins on the map, recorded 44mm between 9am and 9pm, with the heaviest falls between 3 and 6pm. Gusty winds accompany the trough in the north -- 85km/h at Woomera, 78 at Leigh Creek and 68 at Port Augusta -- and Andamooka in the Northern Flinders Ranges had a severe wind and dust storm between 7 and 8pm.
  • From 6.30pm CDT (08.00 UTC/26) to 2.30am CDT (16.00 UTC/26), the surface trough stalls in the Adelaide region, though the upper low and cold pool continue to advance from the WSW bringing an increasingly unstable atmosphere. With little lower-atmosphere movement, rain spreads out, but a succession of heavy rain bands slide diagonally across Kangaroo Island as the cold pool nears. Stenhouse Bay records 37 of its record 55.0mm in the 6 hours to midnight.
  • From 2.30am CDT (16.00 UTC/26) to 6.30am CDT (20.00 UTC/26), very cold air is now aloft and produces strong uplift. Thunderstorms and very heavy showers speckle the map, driven SE as the upper steering wind increases ahead of the advancing upper low. Increasingly dense clusters of storms follow a line roughly from Whyalla to Murray Bridge, giving the Lower North and Barossa Valley torrential falls: Whyalla Aero 11.0mm in 30 minutes to 4.30am, Snowtown 29mm in 3 hours to 6am.
  • From 6.30am CDT (20.00 UTC/26) to 8.50am CDT (22.20 UTC/26), the low-level circulation to the NW of Adelaide becomes apparent in the rain bands. Heavy rain and storms continue in the Barossa Valley: Nuriootpa records 30mm between 6 and 9am.
  • From 8.50am CDT (22.20 UTC/26) to 12.30pm CDT (02.00 UTC/27), the area of torrential rain in the Crystal Brook/ Jamestown/ Spalding area slows (use the zoom feature to zoom in on this area -- click zoom, then click on the area; click reset when you are done) . Farmers around Spalding reported 80 to 100mm falling in one hour, and police reported major flash flooding and road closures around Gulnare, Crystal Brook, Gladstone and Yacka. Much of the record rain at Yacka and Spalding fell during this period.
  • From 12.30pm CDT (02.00 UTC/27) to 3.30pm CDT (05.00 UTC/27) and after, the circulation moved eastwards into far SW NSW. Storms and heavy rain gradually abated as they moved inland, but still gave Loxton 21.8 of its record 26.2mm in one hour to 6.30pm.