Topic: Coastal Rain/Storms SE QLD/NSW: 6-10 April 2008

[Michael Bath]

The attached article and waterspout photo are probably from the same thunderstorm that Jason and I took pics of late Sunday arvo (6th April). The photo was taken at South Ballina break-wall.

[Steven]

Oh they love to use that "Mini-Tornado" terminology don't they?

I've noticed the BOM have removed "thunderstorm" from their forecasts, what for? I heard distant thunder this morning.

[Harley Pearman]

Hello

The showers stayed mostly coastal for most of the day. Sydney's NE suburbs scored most of the action with 14 to 20 mm falling for the 24 hours until 9 am 8/4/2008 with mostly lighter falls elsewhere such as 3 mm around Blacktown by 9 am.

For a while today 8/4/2008, I watched only isolated showers come off the coast and remain largely over Sydney's NE quadrant.

However that changed between 3.40 pm and 4.40 pm when a large single moderate to heavy shower cell passed over Blacktown dropping between 3.5 and 8 mm of rain. The shower cell appears to have developed SE of Parramatta, reached its full strength between Blacktown and Parramatta before weakening NW of Blacktown near Windsor.

Harley Pearman

[Jason(pato)]

A Severe weather warning was issued this morning. At the time of writing Evans Head had picked up 146.2mm, Ballina had 59.6mm and Cape Byron had 51.2mm. Still mainly coastal though with only around 25mm falling here in Lismore

 Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
NSW

Top Priority for Immediate Broadcast
NSW SEVERE WEATHER WARNING
for Flash Flooding
For people in
Northern Rivers

Issued at 4:15 am on Wednesday 9 April 2008

Synoptic Situation: 3:00 am EST Wednesday
A strong high over the southern Tasman Sea is directing southeasterly winds onto
the New South Wales coast. Combined with an upper level low over southeast
Queensland, conditions are favourable for heavy rain on the northern New South
Wales coast.


Very heavy rain may cause local flash flooding this morning.

Evans Head automatic weather station has reported 125mm of rain since 9:00 am
Tuesday

[Michael Bath]

50.2mm here at McLeans Ridges till 9am 9th April. Best 24 hour falls around the area are:

153 Evans Head
103 Woodburn
99 New Italy
76 Alstonville
73 Tucombil
71 Ballina

The heavy falls have been quite limited in area with Evans Head certainly the centre of attention in the past 24 hours.

[heavywx]

25.2mm here for the 24 hours to 9am this morning........ bringing the monthly April total to 60.2mm & the yearly total to a very substantial 509.0mm. :D

Good to see some awesome falls over NE NSW/SE QLD, associated with that increasingly intensifying trough.

[Michael Bath]

20mm here since 9am with some centres around the 50mm mark in the same period.
-----


Flood Watch for the Brunswick Valley

Issued at 2:06 PM on Wednesday the 9th of April 2008

A strong high pressure system over the southern Tasman Sea combined with a low pressure trough off the southern Queensland coast is expected to cause further heavy rainfall over the NSW north coast for the remainder of Wednesday and Thursday.

Some local flooding has been reported in the Byron Shire and further local flash flooding and river flooding is expected overnight (Wednesday).

[Steven]

Ha ha, what a joke, Brisbane's Doppler radar is having "technical difficulties" again. Oh well.

Not much rain here, the bulk of it is down south, so that has allowed for some partly sunny weather, but nothing to report.

[lollie3]

We had hardly any rain here today.  But it did rain nearly all night plus 2 blackouts

[Peter J]

Been watching the charts from down south (mexican style hehe) in relation to the NE NSW / SE Qld rainfall events over the last couple of days. Seems as if the storm season hasn't left completely up there.
Still ide love some of that rain in the catchments in Tas, Vic and SA - where it is much needed.

Big Pete

[Richary]

Have driven through some very heavy brief downpours earlier this week in Sydney, but tonight they said on the news only about 3mm in the Warragamba catchment. We have had about 25mm here at Rydalmere since Sunday morning so most haven't even this far inland, it's just not getting inland enough. Obviously the Sydney catchment is in the wrong place, and needs to be relocated. I propose placing a dam at the Heads and flooding everything under about 50m height level. After all, the rain hits the coast more than the inland.

[Michael Bath]

A couple of isolated heavy falls overnight and into this morning 10th April on the NSW Mid North Coast. Someone reported to ABC radio 148mm at Sandy Beach - north of Coffs Harbour. Nearby BoM sites in the region are all around 50mm but I do not doubt the report.

One site in the Port Macquarie area has possibly copped some heavy rainfall. Port Macquarie Dam reported 75mm in one hour to 7am and 36mm to 8am, with a 23 hour fall up to 188mm. Newcastle 256km scale radar shows significant rain in that area over a few hours so the isolated heavy readings are possible. ABC Mid North Coast which is based in Port Macquarie also commented on very heavy rain.