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The page is updated every 30 minutes at about 20 and 50 minutes past the hour.
If you are looking for weather news as it happens, use the links on the Severe weather real-time news reports page.
 Tuesday 13: Thunderstorms set records in WA
Thunderstorms in WA yesterday have produced heavy downpours. During this, the dry season in southern WA, storm rainfall provides most of the rain that falls and there were some exceptionally heavy falls with this event. The Kalgoorlie-Boulder Airport weather station, which has been in operation for over 75 years, nearly doubled its former record of 28.2mm set in 1978 with a 24-hour total to 9 this morning of 50.6mm. Somewhat less dramatically, Lake Grace's reading of 34.2 just eclipsed its previous record of 33.6mm.
However, it was the intense nature of the storms that stood out with some very heavy rain falling in short periods. Some of the heaviest yesterday were 19.6mm in 30 minutes at Wellstead, 90km NE of Albany, and 36mm in 2 hours at Katanning. Both Leinster and Mount Keith in the Goldfields reported wind gusts of over 90km/h. The widespread if patchy rainfall will be welcome by those in the track of storms as both spring and especially the month of November were exceptionally dry across southern WA.
 Tuesday 13: Tropical Cyclone Vardah ravages central eastern India
TC Vardah, which had been gaining strength as it moved west across the Bay of Bengal for several days, made landfall just north of the Indian city of Chennai, capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, yesterday afternoon. Sustained wind of nearly 140km/h hit the coast accompanied by torrential rain, with Meenambakkam in Chennai recording 224mm in 24 hours during the cyclone, nearly 100mm more than its average for the whole of December. Flights were cancelled, train services suspended and schools closed as some 23,000 people in Tamil Nadu and 10,000 in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state were moved to relief centres according to a report on Reuters. Despite this, at least 4 people have been killed in widespread damage. There is further information at the Emergency Response Co-ordination Centre site along with a detailed map.
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