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    South West Rocks, New South Wales, Australia

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  1. Remarkably, there was even heavier rain near the end of the month. There were persistent showers and an isolated storm along the coastal fringe which affected this area (as you can see in one of the images below, rainfall sharply decreased away from the fringe) and the Bureau's weather station at Smoky Cape about 5kms away from my house officially recorded its wettest September day on record with 89.0mm falling in the 24hrs to 9am Sep 26th (beating the record set in Sep 1998 by just 0.2mm), and this September was also officially the second wettest on record at that site. The wettest September days recorded since 1939: 1st - 89.0mm 26/9/2015 (I recorded 53.2mm on this day at my house) 2nd - 88.8mm 12/9/1998 3rd - 81.5mm 21/9/1954 =4th - 64.5mm 4/9/1965 =4th - 64.5mm 26/9/1963 6th - 54.9mm 8/9/1961 7th - 53.0mm 15/9/1988 8th - 49.0mm 16/9/1988 9th - 45.2mm 18/9/1976 10th - 44.8mm 10/9/1990 11th - 42.6mm 18/9/2015 (I recorded 44.0mm on this day at my house) The wettest September's since 1939: 1st - 1954: 254.4mm 2nd - 2015: 199.4mm (I recorded 142.2mm for the month at my house) 3rd - 1998: 179.2mm 4th - 1990: 176.0mm 5th - 1959: 141.0mm 6th - 1988: 139.2mm 7th - 1961: 133.4mm 8th - 1976: 124.7mm 9th - 2008: 122.0mm 10th - 1975: 97.9mm 11th - 1943: 81.8mm The September wet here contrasted with dry to very dry conditions over most other parts of the state during the month: http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/month/nsw/archive/201509.summary.shtml
  2. Severe storms impacted the local region yesterday (Sept 17th) with hail up to almost 10cm in diameter being observed at the small coastal village of Red Rock around midday (not far north of Woolgoolga). Hail was reported from a number of other places, varying in size and ground coverage. Red Rock https://www.facebook.com/groups/ncscsocial/permalink/887171531319681/ (Video, need to be logged into Facebook to view it) (All photos above, Source: North Coast Storm Chasers Social - Facebook) Red Rock again (Source: South Brisbane Storms - Facebook) Corindi (Source: ABC Coffs Coast) (Source: Coffs Coast Advocate - Facebook) Grafton (Source: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) (Source: North Coast Storm Chasers Social - Facebook) Ulmarra (near Grafton) (Source: North Coast Storm Chasers Social - Facebook) Article with more detail about the Horse Races incident at Grafton: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-18/horse-put-down-after-hail-strikes-racecourse/6785572 The storm was not unexpected in Grafton, they had a good 30 minutes to take pre-emptive action (storm hit just before 2pm). They prioritised money over safety (you can see on the lightning animation below it was producing a decent amount of lightning too), so the no lightning/thunder thing is untrue. Similar sentiment shared by those living in Grafton on the local newspaper website, you could definitely tell a storm was coming. Radar loop animation (click to make it bigger)(Btw, the radar is just north of Grafton. Rain echoes southwards of about Kempsey are beyond the optimal range of this radar) Radar loop animation with lightning overlay Further south in the Hunter region around Newcastle, storms brought smaller hail but were slower moving allowing for some decent accumulation of hailstones at some places. At Bateau Bay (All above photos, Source: 2GO 107.7FM - Facebook) Yesterday's storm activity and rain brought 44mm here, which was our wettest September day since 1998 (17 years). On average, September is the driest month of the year here and it is quite unusual to get heavy falls during this month. As you can see, it is notably drier than every other month of the year -
  3. Unseasonably severe storms hit areas of NSW and inland parts of far southern QLD yesterday (Monday). Isolated severe storms also affected inland parts of northern NSW on Sunday evening. Of particular note was a storm which produced a tornado near the inland NSW city of Dubbo - Most definitely a chance that other storms could have produced a tornado, but if it doesn't occur near a town then it'll usually go unheard of. The town of Murrurundi in the Upper Hunter Valley was hit by a supercell storm in the evening bringing hail up to and possibly larger than tennis ball size - (Source of both photos: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) Sydney was also affected by some strong storms - Plenty of other images and some videos of the storms across social media. An East Coast Low developed off the southern coast of NSW late yesterday and has brought heavy rain and some flooding to that area. Nowra has had just over 300mm associated with that system - Cloudcover ruined the storm potential here yesterday with only thundery rain affecting us. And in contrast to the Illawarra and South Coast, today was a sunny and warm day on the north coast with temperatures almost reaching 29 degrees. ~~~~~~~~~ In the local area, this winter has been pretty uneventful. It's been a fairly dry winter overall, with us currently sitting nearly 185mm below the winter average. There was a largely unexpected thunderstorm earlier this month here that did get the 2015/2016 storm season underway. It was a high-based and low-precipitating storm (unphotogenic) but the cluster of storms produced a reasonable amount of lightning -
  4. Decent snow fell across the northern ranges of NSW from the last cold front/pool of air that came through. The snow fell on 12th, (mainly) 13th and a little into the early hours of the 14th. Impressive amounts on the southern parts of the northern ranges. Here's a terrain map that shows most of northern NSW (excluding the far NE NSW corner) and adjacent parts of the Granite Belt in QLD (Stanthorpe area). It might help in visualising and locating places. The QLD border isn't shown on this map but just imagine a line and it more-or-less runs Mungindi, Goondiwindi, Texas and midway between Tenterfield & Stanthorpe and then northwards off the map following near the road that passes north through Stanthorpe's "E' (Source: Australian Severe Weather) 8 centimetres of snow was reported from the town of Guyra (at 1330m ASL). The city of Armidale (980-1080m ASL), and the towns of Glen Innes (1050-1100m ASL), Uralla (1000-1040m ASL), and Walcha (1050-1120m ASL) also received settling snow, varying depths from location to location. The Eukey area in QLD near Stanthorpe around 1000m received falling snow. The airport at Armidale was briefly closed. There were heavier falls on the ranges east of Tamworth around Niangala / Topdale area (between 1150-1350m ASL, between Nundle and Walcha on the map), being a bit further south it picked up more precipitation, and Woolomin receiving 60 centimetres of snow! (http://www.northerndailyleader.com.au/story/3212926/tamworth-road-reopens-after-heaviest-snowfall-in-decades/?cs=159)(http://www.northerndailyleader.com.au/story/3208492/snowed-under-mini-business-boom-in-high-country-hot-spots/?cs=159) and the snowfall in this area has been called the heaviest in over 30 years. Snow drifts of one metre were reported in this area (opens into a PDF doc, http://walchatelecottage.com.au/showadvocate/20150715). Also for the first time in decades, 170 kilometres of the New England Highway had to be closed (http://www.northerndailyleader.com.au/story/3208443/snow-and-ice-close-highways/?cs=159) The Barrington Tops (1400-1550m ASL) (between Moonan Flat and Gloucester on the map) also received good snow. Barrington Tops - (Source: Visit Barrington Tops - Facebook) Niangala area (Source: Tamworth & Region Weather - Facebook) Hanging Rock area (Source: Tamworth & Region Weather - Facebook) Near the village of Walcha Road (Source: Tamworth & Region Weather - Facebook) Walcha (Source: Tamworth & Region Weather - Facebook) (Source: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) Armidale (Source: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) (Source: University of New England - Facebook) Black Mountain village (the railway north of Armidale has been closed since the 1980s) (Source: Above the New England - Facebook) Guyra (Source: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) (Source: Guyra Shire Council - Facebook) Ben Lomond village (Source: Ben Lomond Snow - Facebook) Video of snow falling near Ben Lomond on the New England Highway: https://www.facebook.com/geoffrey.w.gray.9/videos/10153492945042437/?permPage=1 Glen Innes (Source: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) (Source: Glen Innes From Above - Facebook) Collection of snow pictures from local newspapers: Armidale Express (28 + 13 photos) - http://www.armidaleexpress.com.au/story/3207156/gallery-let-it-snow-armidale/?cs=471#slide=1 & http://www.armidaleexpress.com.au/story/3209035/gallery-your-snow-photos/#slide=1 Guyra Argus (95 + 50 photos) - http://www.guyraargus.com.au/story/3206765/mega-photo-gallery-snow-day-magic/?cs=605#slide=1 & http://www.guyraargus.com.au/story/3207427/photos-a-selection-of-pictures-from-around-town/?cs=605#slide=1 Glen Innes Examiner (42 photos) - http://www.gleninnesexaminer.com.au/story/3206441/gallery-snow-in-glen-innes/?cs=422#slide=1 Tenterfield Star (31 + 76 photos) - http://www.tenterfieldstar.com.au/story/3206909/winter-wonderland-gallery/?cs=1514#slide=1 & http://www.tenterfieldstar.com.au/story/3204858/a-snowy-sunday-july-12-2015-photos-video/?cs=1514#slide=1 The snow brought masses of people from outside the region, some from the NSW North Coast and others from Brisbane and South East Queensland. All hotels and motels from Warwick in QLD to Armidale in NSW were reported to be booked out (http://www.tenterfieldstar.com.au/story/3212802/sell-out-town-books-out-for-snow-show/?cs=1514) In the highest parts (approx 1200m+) of the northern ranges east of Tamworth, some snow still remains on the ground. With several roads remaining closed from snow and ice. Snow is expected to fall later tomorrow (the 16th) and on Friday (17th) on the northern ranges of NSW and potentially into the adjacent Granite Belt of QLD. BOM are forecasting snow possibly falling down to 600-700m tomorrow and then 500m on Friday!!!
  5. Such an impressive event for early May Styx. Would I be right in saying this would be a decent system for your area even in mid-winter? National summary for April. Out of 106 years, it was the 18th coldest nationwide for max temps (Western Australia 6th coldest, and South Australia 11th coldest), and 29th coldest for mean temps nationwide. http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/month/aus/archive/201504.summary.shtml
  6. A sixth person ended up dying during that East Coast Low. On the 2nd, a young child drowned in the surf on the far northern NSW coast at Ballina while he was walking with his father and brother along the beach. Strong surf from the low was still affecting that area. The Macleay River at Kempsey peaked at 4.9 metres, which is within the minor flood level range. Not much impact at that level of flooding, the 'largest' impact being that it cuts the upstream low-level bridges to the small farming communities/localities. Most of the flooding is contained within the river channel itself at this level. Once it gets above 5.2m at Kempsey it can start causing inconvenience as it can spill over the bank and start cutting off the main highway and other local roads near the river and floodplain. We received 256mm here at the house during the event, mostly concentrated on April 30th when 132.8mm fell and on May 1st when 91.8mm fell. Falls within the local region were as high as about 400mm. Pictures at Kempsey as the river was peaking, and the last photo is from one of the low level bridges upstream. (for comparison, the bridge at Kempsey during high tide https://www.flickr.com/photos/witnesskingtides/8290270696/ ) (Source of all photos above: Macleay Argus) In Northern NSW, there was moderate flooding on the Wilsons, Orara, Bellinger, Nambucca and Hastings Rivers. Minor flooding on the Tweed, Brunswick, Richmond, Clarence and Macleay Rivers. The town of Bellingen was cut in two as the Bellinger River flooded and went over the Lavenders Bridge.
  7. Very heavy downpours here last night with 132.8mm falling in the 24 hours to 9am this morning. The two heaviest showers brought 41.2mm in 35 minutes and the other brought 27mm in 20 minutes, pretty much raining cats, dogs and elephants as they came over. Severe Weather Warning update issued earlier this afternoon - Coffs Harbour is currently hosting the Touch Football World Cup. Today's matches have been cancelled: http://www.sportingpulse.com/assoc_page.cgi?client=1-9035-0-0-0&sID=248914&&news_task=DETAIL&articleID=34450355 Football fields in Coffs Harbour today - (Source: Scottish Touch Association - Facebook)
  8. A flood watch has been issued for here on the northern coast of NSW (the Macleay River is the catchment I live in). The models are still undecided over where they will focus the heaviest rain and how much though. A localised thunderstorm yesterday brought falls of up to 122mm in Coffs Harbour, with 60mm falling in an hour at one of BOM's gauges there.
  9. Certainly quite a strong East Coast Low. Heavy rain, high winds, never pretty when it strikes a populated area of coastline like the Sydney-Newcastle-Hunter area. I probably don't need to post much in the way of info, videos or pics this time as there's plenty of media and social media covering it due to it hitting Sydney and neighbouring areas. There'd be heaps on YouTube too. Significant cold anomalies over much of the country during the past few days focussed mostly in WA, NSW and southern QLD. Some places have broken their April lowest maximum records, including Marble Bar which had its coldest April day in the combined 114 year history of the Marble Bar site. It reached a maximum of 16.3ºC, breaking the previous April lowest max record of 20.1ºC which was set in 1999. Btw, the average max in April at Marble Bar is 36.2ºC. Rainfall during the past week from the initial frontal rainband, which was followed by the formation of an East Coast Low off the coast near Newcastle - The highest total during the past week was 470mm at Brogers Creek in the Illawarra (thanks to orographic enhancement). The next highest totals were in the Hunter, with 454mm at Maitland, followed by 453mm at Tocal, then 441mm at Seaham, and 435mm at Gostwyck Bridge. All these locations are within close proximity to each other. Daily rainfall over the past three days. You can see the sudden divide along the coast between the area of 100mm+ falls and little/no rain at all on the 21st and 22nd, this is fairly typical for East Coast Lows that form near the coast where areas north of the low's centre can receive very little if any rain - The highest 24 hour fall during the event was 312mm at Dungog on the 21st. Intense thunderstorms on the 22nd in the Newcastle-Hunter region brought 148mm in an hour at Maitland, with 214mm falling in two hours. Unsurprisingly, Maitland had the highest 24 hour total on the 22nd with 308mm. 113mm at Brogers Creek was the highest fall in the 24 hours to 9am this morning (the 23rd). 135km/h wind gusts were recorded at Newcastle (Nobbys Head), Norah Head and Wattamolla during the event. Copy of a Severe Weather Warning issued as the system was peaking (the 120km/h gust at Nobbys Head was a typo, it had actually peaked at 135km/h)- 250kms further north of Newcastle around here on the North Coast, there has been minimal rain during this event with just over 5mm falling. On the same day the Hunter Valley was getting soaked with torrential rain and very strong winds, it was a pleasant day here reaching 25ºC as you can see below (person on a paddleboard in the centre left of first photo) -
  10. The past week and a half has been a transitional period from summer to autumn. The passage of a dry change late this afternoon heralding the true arrival of autumn - Last night, three storms moved through town during the period between 10:45pm-2:30am, so needless to say I didn't get alot of sleep. The storm around 2am was the strongest of the three, pretty sure it would've woken everyone up around town with the frequent lightning it contained - It reached into the high 20s here along the north coast of NSW today, but this was in contrast to the rest of the state. The first non-alpine snow of 2015 has fallen in NSW today. Flurries and dustings of snow occurred over the highest parts of the central ranges of NSW today, including in the Oberon area west of Katoomba/Sydney. Video of snow falling at Shooters Hill (near Oberon) - Some photos on this Photobucket account of the snow at Shooters Hill today: http://s1091.photobucket.com/user/Mountainmaid65/media/treedrift.jpg.html The cold pool of air on GFS's display at the 850mb and 500mb levels - Daylight saving time finished over the Easter weekend - Sunrise on Easter Saturday - 7:00am / Sunset - 6:40pm Sunrise on Easter Sunday - 6:01am / Sunset - 5:39pm
  11. It amazes me too, though I think bruisings and minor cuts/abrasions would be reasonably common in these types of storms (especially those occurring between about 3pm-6pm) but are severely under-reported due to home first aid being sufficient without that need to seek medical attention at the hospital. After yesterday's humid 30ºC day (dewpoints were firmly in the low 20s and getting up around 24ºC), a cold front moved through overnight bringing cooler conditions and drier air today. It is looking as though summer ended yesterday, with autumnal conditions now establishing themselves from today onwards. I can't see true summery conditions dominating here again. There may be two or three proper summery days/nights over the next 2-3 weeks but autumnal conditions should be the dominate force now (the forecast below doesn't show humidity but dewpoints this week are expected to regularly be around 15-19ºC rather than quite routinely reaching 20ºC+). The change from summery to autumnal conditions here usually happens in late March or early April, so things seem to be going on schedule here.
  12. That looks like a heavy accumulation of small hail rather than snow
  13. Storm activity returned to the region after a fairly settled first week of March. On the 8th, storms were mostly isolated affecting areas nearer to the ranges and around Coffs Harbour. Heavy rainfall accompanied the storms with 50.2mm falling in an hour at Coffs Harbour and 50mm in 30 minutes at Woolgoolga. A storm warning wasn't issued until after the storms had affected these areas... More storms generally forming in the same area on the 9th brought more heavy rain falling at similar intensities to the day before and a wind gust of 113km/h occurring at Grafton Airport. Storms were more widespread affecting other parts of the north coast, including here during the 13th. Coffs Harbour experienced a severe storm again. Yet again it caught the Bureau unaware as there was no storm warning issued before it came. 46.6mm fell in 30 minutes with rain continuing afterwards over already saturated ground from the wet summer (549.4mm fell in February alone). The 183.4mm fall made it the wettest March day since 1974. The storms brought flash flooding to Coffs Harbour - (Source of both pics: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) (Source of both pics: NBN News - Twitter) Yesterday (the 21st), parts of inland northern NSW and inland southern QLD were affected by very severe storms that brought hail up to 12cm in diameter. Chinchilla (QLD) and eastern parts of Narrabri (NSW) were the worst affected towns. The severe thunderstorm warning issued did warn that the storms could become supercelluar, and supercells definitely developed: "Thunderstorm development in the warning area is expected to be rapid this afternoon with some thunderstorms quickly becoming severe once the storm starts. Supercell thunderstorms are considered a real possibility." Hailstone that fell near Narrabri - (Source: Narrabri Shire Weather Station Network - Facebook) (Source: The Courier Narrbari - Facebook) Hailstone at Chinchilla - (Source of both pics: Chinchilla Community Forum - Facebook) The small town of Bingara was also affected by severe hailstorms - (Source: Tamworth & Region Weather - Facebook) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoQ3oHkk1uE A couple of other videos of the severe hailstorms - https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=853692378035426 https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152753910632844 https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152837033669389 http://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/video-huge-hail-stones-smash-chinchillas-bulldog-p/2582071/ Last night, heavy rain and thunderstorms brought falls of up to 178mm about the southern parts of the North Coast causing localised flash flooding. Lake Cathie, a small town about 10 minutes south of Port Macquarie, had 123mm in two hours (51mm falling in the first hour, followed by 72mm falling in the next hour). The heavier stuff (50-100mm+) was to the south, missing here by about 30kms.
  14. We were near the southern end of TC / Ex-TC Marcia effects. All up nearly 120mm of rain here associated with her, a little further north totals around the Coffs Harbour area were exceeding 200mm which was enough to cause minor riverine flooding in that area. Chicken feed compared to the totals in QLD around the Sunshine Coast and neighbouring Caboolture area where totals were in the 400s and Landsborough receiving 510mm associated with Marcia.
  15. Some hailstorms developed between here and Brisbane on the afternoon and evening of Jan 31st. The largest stones reported were up to around 5cm in diameter. Brunswick Heads (NSW North Coast) - (Source: North Coast Storm Chasers - Facebook) Sunnybank Hills (southern suburb of Brisbane) - Springfield Lakes (outer southwestern suburb of Brisbane) - (Source of both photos above: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) Just thought this was a nice pic after the storms that day at Tregeagle (NSW North Coast) - (Source: Northern NSW Severe Weather - Facebook) Missed a likely hailstorm here by barely a kilometre that evening (there was also plenty of lightning in this storm cell) - Heavy thunderstorms developed about the local region during the evening of Feb 1st and persisted in some areas overnight. We had a storm bring 38mm in 50 minutes here at the house. 74mm fell in one hour at Wooli. The highest 24 hour total among BOM's gauges was 142mm at Bray Street in Coffs Harbour. Unofficially, there was a fall of 256mm at a village called Warrell Creek between here and Macksville. There were heavy storms and showers sitting over that area non-stop for about 5½ hours (whereas most other locations had showers/storms affect them for 1-2 hours and then move on to other places, which generally stopped totals from exceeding 100mm). I'll be in Canberra from the evening of the 13th until the morning of the 17th. The min/max temps forecast for those days are: 13th 15ºC/26ºC 14th 14ºC/26ºC 15th 14ºC/30ºC 16th 16ºC/29ºC 17th 14ºC/27ºC Overall, the temps average out to be basically normal for Canberra during February.
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