Australian Severe Weather Forum

now heres the last one we all thought that yay the suns out but uh..oh whats this? later after this pic was taken a storm is CURRENT NOW and a little wind so lets hope it wont get too bad. i am uploading a youtube video of floods in ross lane that we had to drive thru with half a meter of water. that video is on air now.

movie

just an update now ballina , byron , lismore , kyogle have been declared a natural disaster area and its getting very windy again now NOT GOOD

Rainfall for NE New South Wales and SE Queensland

Some significant rainfalls from 9 am 20/5/2009 up until 9 am 21/5/2009 for north east New South Wales occurred and the highest falls for the period were:-

Mullumbimby - 183 mm.
Lacks Creek (Middle Pocket) - 182 mm.
Myocum - 181 mm.
Green Pigeon - 175 mm.
Tweed Heads - 143 to 146 mm from the local rain gauges.
Murwillimbah - 145 mm.
Tumblegum - 137 mm.
Byron Bay - 136 mm.

Generally falls across the Northern Rivers largely ranged from 100 to 190 mm for the period.

In Brisbane, the rainfall eased after 9 am but the most significant falls for the same period were:-

Gold Creek Reservoir Alert - 286 mm.
Mt Coot Tha Alert - 268 mm.
Pullenvale Alert - 244 mm (Western Brisbane).
Jindalee Alert - 233 mm.
Colleges Crossing Alert - 221 mm.
Koralee - 215 mm.
Enoggera Dam Alert - 214 mm.
Alderley - 206 mm.

Generally other falls across the western suburbs ranged from 101 to 190 mm.
Generally rainfalls across Brisbane's eastern suburbs ranged from 36 to 99 mm.
Rainfall across the NE area of Brisbane ranged from 43 to 98 mm for the period.

For the period 9 am 21/5/2009 to 9 am 22/5/2009, the heavier falls moved further into the Northern Rivers and Coffs Harbour region of New South Wales. The heaviest falls were:-

Northern Rivers

Mullumbimby - 200 mm.
Glen Elgin - 198 mm.
Goonengery - 178 mm.
Casino - 173 mm.
Lismore (Actually at Richmond Hill) - 172 mm.

Northern Tablelands

Some of the big falls occurred over the eastern parts of the Northern Tablelands. Glenn Innes received 122 mm yet Armidale 99 km to the south received 15 mm.

Coffs Harbour / Bellinger Valley Region

Bellingen - 265 mm.
Lowanna - 258 mm.
Dorrigo Alert - 251 mm.
Dorrigo - 227 mm.
Cooks Creek 192 mm.
Upper Darkwood - 189 mm.
Bowra Sugarloaf 173 mm.

The Bellinger Valley has received the third big rain event since February 2009 and the highest totals in New South Wales for the period. Nearby Coffs Harbour received 77 to 89 mm for the period.

The figures are obtained from the Bureau of Meteorology network of rain gauges available at "Water and the Land".

The 7 day rain plot generated from the Bureau of Meteorology "Water and the Land" site at http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/silo/rain_maps.cgi is provided. It is generated for the period 16/5/09 to 22/5/09. It shows the coastal region of north east New South receiving from 200 to 300 mm. It also shows that the big falls have been coastal with lighter but still worthwhile falls across the northern inland of the state.

It also shows that Sydney has received some reasonable totals of between 50 and 100 mm (ie - 50 mm falling at Blacktown where I live from numerous shower activity).

Harley Pearman

A few flood pics to add to Pato's from yesterday. A 24 hour blackout, no phone, and internet outages have made things difficult. I sympathise to anyone else who lost services and experienced property damage.

The Wilsons River in Lismore peaked at 10.4 metres, 20cm higher than the 30 June 2005 event. Certainly another example of how well the levee can work in a low-end major flood. The "metres to overtopped" sign at the pumping station was showing 0.60m at 2pm - which seems inconsistent with the 10.65m at which it is supposed to overtop. You'd think it would have been showing 0.25m.

This first picture is what the Wilsons River has done to Boatharbour Road - which is one of the ways into Lismore from my place (Lismore houses are in the background)




The town was relatively quiet when James Harris, my daughter Katrina and I had a wander around town.

In the Lismore basin area - some caravans not moved in time. Must have been the sudden deluge Thursday night before the rain stopped which caught people out









North Lismore was certainly flooded



South Lismore from the railway viaduct - this is only a few streets away from Pato's house



More cars caught in the basin area




We also had a look at the road wash-out that Jason posted and alerted me to - that was amazing !

Michael

Just got back from Ballina, pretty insane conditions down there. Could barely stand still at the lookout over Lighthouse Beach. Some pretty bad erosion has occurred with Shelley Beach barely recognisable.

Where I took this photo from there is usually sand up to the beach entry ramp which I'm standing on. Over all the years I've been to Shelley Beach I've never seen these rocks exposed nor have I seen that pipe there either, they are usually covered over by sand.



Severe erosion



View up Lighthouse Beach from North Wall, Ballina. There is plenty of debris and driftwood on the beach and up in the dunes.



Then went out to check out the Ballina Bar. It was like a washing machine with filthy flood water meeting the ocean. And there was an almost continuous roar coming from either the ocean or the wind I couldn't tell. It was an awesome sound thats for sure!





Had lunch by the river and was greeted by more debris from the high tides.



Made our way back home but not before grabbing some pics of the substantial wind damage around the Alstonville plateau.







Cheers Jason

Great pics by everyone. I took a few but none as good as what is up here already.

We went out to get some dinner things on Thursday night into Lismore and some idiot in a Sonata thought he could hammer through the water at the Woodlark St roundabout. There was a cop there of course and all we could hear as we were driving off was "Oi! What do you think you are doing?"

Some people had no idea and were just speeding around, only to suddenly brake as they realised the road was under. I think we are lucky there wasnt a major accident.

Event rainfall figures for McLeans Ridges (12km east of Lismore). 24 hours to 9am:

18/05: 0.8mm
19/05: 13.4mm
20/05: 12.0mm
21/05: 100.4mm
22/05: 157.0mm
23/05: 40.0mm
24/05: 28.2mm

Total: 351.8mm

This is one significant widesoread rainfall event. It has to be some years when regions from SE Qld to the Kempsey region has been affected by major flooding simultaneously! The rainfall has occurred over several days as well with mostly two overnight heavy falls dominating as indicated by the rainfall statistics Michael has kindly displayed in his post.

I look forward to an overall climatalogical summary from Harley.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

Dorrigo has measured the stand-out report of 913mm for the week!  Though none of the other automatic sites have come anywhere near that total (nothing else over the 400s). The monthly returns to the BoM should reveal some more high totals no doubt - as they have recently with the 31/3-1/4 flood.

Weekly rainfall map attached.

All my flood pics for the two days are available:

21 May 2009 flood pictures

22 May 2009 flood pictures

North East New South Wales rainfalls 18 - 24 May 2009

I have looked at numerous rain gauges and weather stations from this event for the period 9 am 18 May to 9 am 24 May 2009. This is a seven day period covering the whole event.

Bellingen / Dorrigo Region

As stated in a previous post Dorrigo stands out at 913 mm.

The Dorrigo Station (Station Number 59140) on Coramba Road - Latitude 30.34 S and Longitude 152.72 E - Altitude 746 metres recorded this figure.

Nearby Figures for the same period include:-

Bowra Sugarloaf (Station Number 59138) Latitude 30.66 S and Longitude 152.65 E at an elevation of 870 metres recorded 634 mm. This is a Bellinger Valley station.

The Lowanna Station (Station Number 59105) in Grafton Street at an elevation of 550 metres recorded 575 mm. Lowanna is west north west of Coramba.

Upper Darkwood (Station Number 59070) recorded 494 mm. Darkwood sits below Point Lookout.

Glenreigh Station (Station Number 59054) Latitude 30.05 S and 152.98E at an elevation of 67 metres recorded 414.2 mm.

Point Lookout Station at Point Lookout - Elevation of 1,550 metres recorded 361.8 mm. The Point Lookout Station is at the head of the Bellinger Valley near the tourist lookout.

The heaviest falls occurred around the Bellinger Valley and Dorrigo.

Although I am not sure if there is an error but a nearby station called Meldrum - Coolawarrah (Station Number 59045) at an elevation of 1,230 metres shows 22.2 mm. Latitude is 30.36 S and Longitude is 152.49 E. Given that this is close to Dorrigo, this might not be correct.

Other big North Coast Falls for the same period include:-

Green Pigeon - 447.8 mm.
Uki (Station Number 58167) - Elevation 30 metres - 420 mm.
Mt Seaview - 395.7 mm.
Upper Pappinbarra - 371.2 mm.
Ewing Bridge (Corndale) Station Number 58206 - 351 mm.
Casino Airport (Station Number 58063) - 338.2 mm.
Cover Creek (Cedar Park) - 321.6 mm.
Bellbrook - 320 mm.
Barrington Tops (Moppy Lookout Station) - 317.2 mm.
Comboyne Post Office - 313.5 mm.
Nimbin Post Office (Station Number 58044) - 311.4 mm.
Kindee Bridge - 296 mm.
Rocks Crossing - 204.5 mm.

The figures quoted here are from the Bureau of Meteorology "Water and the Land".
 
The plot provided below is generated via the Bureau of Meteorology "Water and the Land". The region covered is the North Coast North from the Bellinger Valley, West to Armidale and Glenn Innes and much of the Northern Tablelands and north to the New South Wales / Queensland State Border. The coloured dots and table provides some insight into how much each locality received. The various rain gauges are marked with a coloured dot corresponding to the table on the left hand side.

The stations marked with a pink dot received the highest totals exceeding 400 mm from the event. There is a small concentration of pink dots marking out the position of Dorrigo and the Bellinger Valley.

The Green dot close to Dorrigo and Point Lookout is the Meldrum Station referred to that might not be correct given the fact that falls of several hundred millimetres was recorded at a number of nearby weather stations.

Harley Pearman

This radar archive shows the three meso-lows which hit the northern half of the Northern Rivers on Thursday 21st. First is around 16-19 UTC (4-7am), second 05-08 UTC (3-6pm) and the third and most dramatic: 10-13 UTC (8-11pm)

128km Radar Loop for Brisbane, 14:00 20/05/2009 to 14:00 21/05/2009 UTC

My father sent some pictures of the damage to the beaches around Woolgoolga, and the foam blowing over the headland...