Australian Severe Weather Forum

Reported on the news tonight that up to 2cm hail fell in places from this storm, and they also had a bit of video of mostly IC lightning.

On another storm topic, the front that crossed Tasmania and Melbourne today reportedly had gusts of over 100kph and they showed a brief pictures of quite severe looking damage in Melbourne during the Channel 9 weather. Does anyone have any information on this event from closer to the action?

those storms in Melbourne area had winds of up to 160kmh and i have the radar of the cell passing through

see

http://www.theweatherchaser.com/radar-loop/IDR023-melbourne/2009-04-14-13/2009-04-15-13

Dust storm affects parts of inland New South Wales:

The cold front that swept across Victoria and New South Wales 15/4/2009 resulted in a significant dust storm over inland Southern and Central New South Wales.

There were numerous reports of dust and dust storms at 3 pm 15/4/2009 at several Bureau of Meteorology Weather sites in the state. Localities and towns affected include:-

Balranald, Canberra Airport Cootamundra, Cowra, Gundagai, Hay, Hillston, Lake Cargelligo, Narrandera, Pooncarie, Quandialla Tumbarumba, Yass, Wagga Wagga and Wyalong.

Interestingly, the wind speed at 3 pm at the affected places does not appear to be excessive with Canberra Airport receiving the strongest wind gusts of 46 km/h.

(Source - Bureau of Meteorology Daily Weather Bulletin New South Wales 3 pm 15/4/2009).

As stated in the Weatherzone news storey "Dust Storm surges through New South Wales" dated 15/4/2009 from Weatherzone, the dust was whipped up by strong winds ahead of the cold front with gusts of up to 90 km/h in some areas. The wind picked up large quantities of dust from the drought stricken south west New South Wales and carried it eastward with the wind change.

Harley Pearman

I awoke this morning and looking out the window to an eerie look. I could not figure out what it was. Later I realised that it was the remnants of the dust storm producing a dust haze over Sydney.

Based on my perspective, this was the best I could do for the night considering mid-level cloud came through:

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

This was posted elsewhere by Blair Trewin from the BoM:

A further report about the Tasmanian storms during the morning of 15th April, with three tornadoes suspected:



The Hobart sounding is attached, though the profile is incomplete. Hobart was in the rain band south of the storms.

Hi Michael,

My Parents were in Boat Harbour around the 24th April, and saw the damage. The locals described the event to Mum and Dad as a 'mini tornado'  : . Mum has photos of the damage in that area, but I haven't seen them yet. Quite happy to post them here if you are interested in seeing them. Mum tried to get some more information out of the locals, but didn't have much luck! 

Yep sure Jane
I half-recall David Jones from the BoM mentioning something about the damage. It is probably him in the ABC report with a name mis-spell.