Hi Michael, all
As well as the basic service it provides to the communities concerned, for us here this radar will be very interesting indeed given that this area is, perhaps somewhat anecdotally, regarded as one of Australia's supercell and tornado 'hotspots'. Will we be seeing lots of nice hook echos in the future?!?
My own thoughts; in the early days - well where there's smoke there's fire. There were too many reports from this region to ignore. Twelve years on, with chaser reports, plus model data over this time, wide uptake of the internet, every man and his dog with a camera of some sort etc, the evidence would have to suggest no (on being hotspot) so currently I am leaning more towards the microburst crowd. Of course we did have the 2005 event, and when it comes down to it, the last 10 years is but a snapshot of the severe storm climatology of the region.
