Topic: Ballina hail-windstorm 18th December 1998

[Stormhunt]

I was sitting outside watching those larger pointy updrafts into the upper atmosphere with strong northeast seabreezes.
As when i got to Coles to get some food, heard some roar from outside as in approaching gust front came in with some inflow winds and rain. As i rushed to friends place, near Coles (Ballina), saw some small hailstones hitting the windscreen and watched some debris flying in the air with some close cgs and loud thunder.

When i got to the place, saw some giant hailstones falling and the sizes were bigger than human's hand! Smashing windows, skylight, tiles on roof and destroying cars on street. Once the hail receded, saw some debris coming in sky again and the winds started to pick up again since the inflow winds. Some gusts were greater than 180km/hr lashed through Ballina overturning cars, unroofing the homes, shredding trees into pieces and threw away some x-mas lights away!

In next day, saw the big prawn sign was down, trees uprooted and shredded, cars overturned and the Ballina Island was flooded extensively. This was the worse storm ever hit Ballina in history.

Anyone have radar images, satellite and some models set up for this storm?

Cheers.

[Steven]

Here is a storm report for the event. It includes radar, charts, witness accounts and some other info.

http://www.australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/1998/docs/9812-02.htm

[Michael Bath]

From the BoM :

18th Lake Ainsworth/Evans Head/Ballina (Northern Rivers) reported hail ranging from 5 to 8cm, wind gusts to 122km/h and flash flooding from numerous locations in the Mid North Coast and Northern Rivers districts from Yamba to Evans Head and Ballina to Byron Bay. Most damage occurred in Ballina and Yamba. At least 6 homes were unroofed and many others damaged. Other property damage was also reported. Murwillumbah recorded 111 km/h gusts unroofed 3 houses and 100 others sustained roof damage. A light aircraft was destroyed and 3 others were damaged.

Some other weather data for this date that I've put online:

Brisbane 00z


GFS run 18/12/1998 06z

Instability: Lifted Index

Relative Humidity: 0300 / 0500 / 0600 / 0700 / 0850 / 1000

Temperature: 0300 / 0500 / 0700 /  0850 / 1000

Winds (knots): 0300 / 0500 / 0600 / 0700 / 0850 / 0925 / 1000


Matt - you need to back up your reports with real data from the BoM or at least newspaper reports. Cars overturned?   Just think about the damage there would have been in Ballina if winds were 180km/h.

Michael

[Stormhunt]

Matt - you need to back up your reports with real data from the BoM or at least newspaper reports. Cars overturned?   Just think about the damage there would have been in Ballina if winds were 180km/h.

Sorry Michael, i am trying to find the newspaper article showing the picturess of cars overturning, Ballina's Big Prawn sign fell down, flooding on Norton Street and the observations from Ballina CoastGuard which reported 180km/hr+ winds. Not sure about unconfirmed report of 203km/hr gust at Airport??

My apologises!

Cheers Matt

[Michael Bath]

The unconfirmed report at Ballina Airport has been dismissed since that time so we cannot use that - only the 122km/h mentioned in the significant weather summary.

Have you looked at the extra charts I posted - what do they tell you about the atmospheric conditions around the time of the storm that hit the Yamba to Ballina region ?

MB