Australian Severe Weather Forum

From The Australian - September 22, 2008


- I had some of my staff stuck in this today, apparently they also had a major Dust Storm - will see if anyone took an photos.


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24384395-5006790,00.html

Storm unleashes 120km/h winds on town

TREES and power lines have been brought down by 120km/h winds in a heavy storm causing havoc in Alice Springs.

Almost 5000 homes and businesses in the city are without power, police say.

Most traffic lights have been blacked out by a widespread power failure, with more storms expected later today.

A Northern Territory Police spokeswoman said there had been localised flooding of roads in the town, and warned motorists to stay off the roads unless trips were essential.

The storm, which lasted about 20 minutes, brought down trees and power lines at several sites, the spokeswoman said.

There have been no reports of injuries.

Cheers,
.adrian

I was lucky enough to view about 24 photos from the journos in Alice during on our intranet before and after the event.  The pre-storm photos showed a Haboob looking front moving into Alice - a lot of kicked up dust from the interiors.  Anzac Hill in the centre of town which is a lookout showed locals taking photos and the Australian flag flying vertical!

Huge gums trees downed, several residents cars flattened by large trees.  K-Mart car park which hs blue shade cloth as car park covering was torn to shreds.  The amount of trees downing power lines was an awesome sight - complete streets with trees hanging from them.  A lot of sheet metal fences ripped apart and the  Todd River was flowing.  I believe they had about 14-18mm in a very short time!.

The locals were advised prior the storm to close up shop and head for home.  That's a first for me hearing that kind of warning.

A work mate had just returned from Alice today and he spoke to a couple of people as it was happening by mobile phone.  They report seeing a definite funnel but it did not ground.  The damage swath was pretty widespread so it may have been a microburst?

A YouTube video here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBl0uaZkXfk

Sorry I could not post any pics - they are not available online, but some no doubt will come streaming through.  Everyone there I hear is flabbergasted by such intense storms!

Here's some data for the event. Quite a nice setup for storms on the sounding, though tops would have peaked at 330hPa.

---> Alice Springs radar loop


Alice Springs 00z


0330z

0430z

Somebody forwarded these photos to my Dad to pass on to me. I assume they are happy for me to circulate them.

These photos are from ANZAC Hill. The dust in the gust front is amazing.

The storm blew the temperature screen off our Oz Forecast Alice Springs weather station and sent it crashing through the anemometer, breaking one of the cups! D'oh!

Surprised to see some greenery in the Alice in the photos from the lookout!  Nice pics and shows the worst of three worlds, dust, rain and wind!