Topic: Alice Springs Heavy Rain: 15-16 November 2008

[David Brodrick]

A low over north western and central Australia generated heavy rainfall in Alice Springs over night. Our weather station at Larapinta in the city has recorded 51.5mm to 7:30am with more rain still coming on the RADAR. The Airport (11km south) currently reports 38.6mm however what's left on the RADAR does show a fair north-south gradient so this difference seems reasonable.

We checked the accuracy of our rain tipper just yesterday, after 10.5mm and previous night and it was spot on. I should get a verification of the 51mm later today.

GFS has done very well at forecasting this event, showing 40-80mm consistently throughout the week. GFS predicts more heavy rain tonight!

This rain comes on top of about 40mm last week. This will likely get the creeks and rivers flowing.

What I find most remarkable is that Larapinta is currently the wettest weather station in the country (to have reported thus far)! I never would have imagined Alice at the top of the rainfall charts.

Alice Springs (Larapinta) weather station link:
http://ozforecast.com.au/cgi-bin/weatherstation.cgi?aws=11212

Cheers,
  Dave

[Michael Bath]

Pretty impressive alright -thanks for posting that detail David.     This news just in from Weatherzone

And the inland deluge came
Jessica Trevena, Sunday November 16, 2008 - 10:05 EDT
Heavy rain over the interior has eventuated over the last 24 hours, with the Red Centre seeing its best rain over a year.

Watarrka, best known for its proximity to Kings Canyon west of Alice Springs, picked up a massive 76mm - the highest daily rain since February, 2002. For November, it is the wettest day in at least 18 years.

Alice Springs recorded 39mm overnight, in persistent heavy showers which dumped 3 to 5mm per 10 minutes for large chunks of the night. It is the inland city's best rain since January, 2007.

A trough arcing across the interior of the country and dragging tropical moisture from the oceans to the north and up, over the MacDonnell Ranges is responsible for the rain.

With thick cloud and instability persisting over the Centre, more falls of similar magnitude are expected over the next few days as the trough shifts only very slowly north.

Storms will also become more widespread over the Top End as the trough shifts north early in the week.

[Richary]

Had a text message about severe storms for Brisbane this afternoon, the warning for the dangerous storm was a massive area and the radar returns look very impressive as well as it moves across to the north of the city.

The Alice Springs weather even got a mention on Ch 9 Sydney news tonight.