Topic: Melbourne's wild weather 3 August 2009

[Colin Maitland]

Coastal areas and Melbourne's bayside suburbs were hit by wild weather overnight.

Winds reached up to 120 kilometres per hour at Point Wilson near Avalon, and five millimetres of rain fell across much of the metropolitan area.

An asbestos filled roof and control tower from the Chelsea Yacht Club was blown over, with debris landing on nearby houses.

Steve Read from the club says the damage is devastating.

"The devastation tonight is just unbelievable," he said.

"This club has been founded since 1938 and to see the devastation of our beautiful yacht club and to see that the tower's gone, it's just unbelievable."

Scott Williams from the weather bureau says there could be more short bursts of storm activity.

"This is the time of the year where we get pretty regular strong fronts through August to September, often referred to as equinoxial gales as we're coming towards the Spring equinox in September," he said.

"I don't think we've seen the last of it for this season, perhaps it might just be the first of several events over the next six to eight weeks."

ABC news and Weatherzone News report

I have downloaded the radar and doppler wind for the storm event

[Colin Maitland]

Some photos of the storm from theage.com.au.

Photo 1 taken by Marcus Schnell
Photos 2,3 & 4 by Garry Sisson ( 3 & 4 is what is left of the yacht club after the asbestos roof was torn off)

[Kristy Norman]

I saw the coverage on tonight's channel TEN news. They are calling it a 'mini tornado'! Could it have been more likely straight-line winds??

[Peter J]

Hi all,

The winds were very strong here last night - and as far as a "mini-tornado" is concerned - rule it out! Straight line winds are more likely, but the gusts were phenomenal along the beach front last night with the passage of a cold-front. 5mm is conservative by the BoM - some parts (like my place) got dumped with 20mm in 20 mins (unoffically).

There was no sign of convection/thunder activity, but the noise from the winds was deafening (even upsetting to my poor old dog).


Big Pete

[Peter J]

NB...is on my to do list to kill every person from the media who uses the term mini-tornado.

I'll pay you on contract to do this, lol! (only kidding!!)

I remember a saying from a friend of mine - ".. it's either a tornado or not a tornado..."

Big Pete

[Brad Hannon]

I slept through the lot! although I see on radar that by the time it got to the northern suburbs it had lost its grunt and wouldve been a shortlived event locally for me anyway.

[Mike]

LOL John...I reckon most seasoned chasers feel the same way with regards to that mini tornado phrase - I even chastised my wife the other day for using it much to her disgust!  I even had to bite my tongue the other night at work when a co-worker piped up and said that thunder and lightning only happens when clouds collide - oh dear!!!!  How old is that misnomer!!!  I was going to let loose with the meteorological explanation but it would have gone straight over their heads.

back on topic....I had friends in Melbourne say that it was quite hairy for them also...something they're not accustomed to.  The photos def show some half decent damage to the poor guys home.  Any point discussing the sounding if MB can dig it up?  Would be nice to view it.

[Michael Bath]

Here it is a couple of hours before the squall line:

Melbourne 12z

It would not have taken too much for those 50 to 55 knot winds to reach the surface.  You can see by the time of the next sounding the inversion above 800 hPa has substantially reduced, though it was obviously forced through with the cold change well before this time:

Melbourne 12z


Radar loop: 128km Radar Loop for Melbourne, 12:00 02/08/2009 to 18:00 02/08/2009 UTC

[Mike]

Thanks for the soundings MB.  It certainly changed rapidly as seen on the plot!  Impressive winds right through the levels I must admit.  A decent amount of directional shear would have been so nice to see and certainly changed the character of the system no end.