Author Topic: Southeast Australia - Hail, Snow & Storms: 21 - 23 August 2008  (Read 18625 times)

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Offline Carlos E

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Adelaide here, I just had some nice hail which lasted about 5 minutes. None of it was large, but still it excited me since Adelaide doesn't get too much interesting weather. I caught it on my phone (very unimpressive quality) trying to upload it to YouTube now. Now it's just freezing.

Melbourne is supposed to cop this later.

Offline Carlos E

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RE: Southeast Australia - Hail, Snow & Storms: 21 - 23 August 2008
« Reply #1 on: 22 August 2008, 10:36:17 AM »
Hope this works, I was getting stung by little bits as well. My dog wasn't exactly impressed with the situation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J3vmG_WiTs

Offline Harley Pearman

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RE: Southeast Australia - Hail, Snow & Storms: 21 - 23 August 2008
« Reply #2 on: 24 August 2008, 05:46:50 AM »
Cold and rain in Sydney 22/8/2008

This is interesting and worth a mention here.

Yesterdays rain, coastal thunderstorms and cold has produced an amazing weather anomaly for Sydney that should not be ignored. I was looking at the weather stations for Sydney and other localities and have discovered how cold it was in Sydney, especially for mid to late August.

Sydney city had a temperature reading of 12C at 3 pm 22/8/08. Most other readings were 11C (Terrey Hills) to 13C. Penrith had 15C at 3 pm.

It was 12C in Canberra at this time. Sydney and Canberra at 3 pm were the coldest Australian capital cities. It was 13C in Adelaide and Hobart being the next coldest main Australian cities.

It was 13C in Bathurst and 10C in Orange at the same time but only 7C in Bowral at 3 pm. Yet Oberon at 1,113 metres above sea level had 9C at 3pm. Oberon is higher in elevation than Bowral.

Sydney city was as cold as Armidale (elevation 980 metres) at 12C at 3 pm.
It was warmer in Glenn Innes on 13C (Elevation 1,030 metres) than in Sydney city. Tenterfield had 14C and that town is quite high in elevation too.

The cloud and rain certainly kept the top temperature down in Sydney and well below the August average.

It was also rather cold in SW New South Wales at 3 pm such as 6C at Temora and 9C at Grenfell and Wagga Wagga. It is not common to see places like Oberon and Orange considering their elevation being a few degrees warmer than places located on the lower slopes and plains in winter. One must also consider that places that are elevated have had a very cold August too.

In addition to the late winter cold came some moderate coastal rainfalls in some coastal areas of Sydney from 9 am 22/8/08 to 9 am 23/8/08. The highest being 26 mm at Hornsby and Randwick, 28 mm at Cronulla South, 29 mm at Little Bay, 30 mm at Ingleburn and Rose Bay and 33 mm at Turramurra. Falls tapered away from the coast.

Another amazing aspect was the thunderstorm activity that occurred along Sydney's eastern seaboard or just off the coast and north east New South Wales and off the north coast. The storms had weakened by 3 pm / 4 pm but there were 3,072 lightning strikes, the majority out to sea by 9.40 pm 22/8/08. Thus, if the cloud and rain had not been around and if it were night time, one would have seen a good lightning show off the coast.

Harley Pearman

Offline Michael Bath

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RE: Southeast Australia - Hail, Snow & Storms: 21 - 23 August 2008
« Reply #3 on: 27 August 2008, 01:23:33 AM »
Flew into Adelaide on Thursday (21st Aug) afternoon for the ASWA conference. The trip turned out to be well timed with plenty of coldie cells about.







After checking into the hotel we (my wife Alison, Rodney Wallbridge and his partner Sonya) went up to Mt Lofty for the afternoon and evening (there is a cafe and restaurant). It's amazing how easy it is to drive up there (elev 710m) from the city. The wind chill was terrible with a fresh southerly blowing but it was cold enough for snow and a few snow showers and graupel (small hail) fell during the evening. An accumulation fell after 11pm but we had well and truly left before then.







We were very fortunate to be treated to some uncommon SA snow !

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Offline James

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RE: Southeast Australia - Hail, Snow & Storms: 21 - 23 August 2008
« Reply #4 on: 27 August 2008, 01:38:52 AM »


After checking into the hotel we (my wife Alison, Rodney Wallbridge and his partner Sonya) went up to Mt Lofty for the afternoon and evening (there is a cafe and restaurant). It's amazing how easy it is to drive up there (elev 710m) from the city.


I was amazed at how quick it was too. Literally its only a 15 minute drive from the CBD, pretty impressive considering it's a fairly large city.

I lived in Adelaide for 8 years and never got to see snow up there. Congrats!!

Offline Michael Bath

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RE: Southeast Australia - Hail, Snow & Storms: 21 - 23 August 2008
« Reply #5 on: 27 August 2008, 02:18:41 AM »
Very lucky timing James :)

The cold front also had an impact on the Northern Tablelands with some snow in Guyra Friday night and early am Saturday (23rd Aug). These pics were sent by Martha at the Guyra Argus.





Quote
Had a brief fall with a fierce wind around 10.30pm, then it cleared with a starry sky. Around midnight I woke up, looked out and it was snowing so I drove into town for these photos.

More here: http://www.guyraonline.com.au/SnowReport.htm

Location: Mcleans Ridges, NSW Northern Rivers
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Offline Michael Bath

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RE: Southeast Australia - Hail, Snow & Storms: 21 - 23 August 2008
« Reply #6 on: 27 August 2008, 09:42:35 AM »
Fast moving thunderstorms passed through NE NSW and SE QLD last Friday (22nd Aug) from this system. I didn't get to see any of it due to the Adelaide ASWA conference trip, though my McLeans Ridges gauge picked up 8mm of rain from a storm that hit at 3.30pm. My parents said the storm hit Ballina with "horizontal rain" and some very small hail.

It was reported on the aussie-wx list that some hail up to golf ball size fell about 10ks NNW of Brisbane city about 3.30pm as well. The cells look quite small on radar and no warnings were issued though I do not doubt the detailed report.

Michael
Location: Mcleans Ridges, NSW Northern Rivers
Australian Severe Weather:   http://australiasevereweather.com/
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Early Warning Network: http://www.ewn.com.au
Contact: Michael Bath