Hello
Other media reports (Various) I came across on this weather event include:-
2 Fatalities although there was a third one indirectly related to this during the clean up operation in Melbourne.
Wind gusts of up to 132 km / h near Colac in western Victoria.
10,000 homes lost power in areas such as Goolwa and Kapunda in South Australia.
There were instance of people being blown of their feet around Melbourne.
1,200 SES repair jobs by 6 pm 2/4/2008.
Large dust storm:
A large dust storm swept into southern NSW and made it as far as Wagga Wagga. The dust storm emanated from the drought stricken Wimmera and Mallee and SW New South Wales and travelled east and south east with the front. The dust storm at at one stage stretched across Victoria through the Murrumbidgee to as far north as Wicannia. Visibility was reduced to as little as 100 metres in places.
Places like Ballarat experienced some showers during this event resulting in wet dust / mud falling carpeting the affected area in red mud.
Impact on temperatures in Sydney - 6 am to 7 am and 3 pm 3/4/2008:
In addition to what happened in Victoria, the cold change went through Sydney between 6 am and 7 am 3/4/2008. I also observed some interesting temperature differences throughout Sydney as this front came through such as:-
6 am Temperatures under a NNW wind - Some samples:
Sydney 22.7 C
International airport 22.7 C
Sydney Olympic Park 21.9 C
Bankstown 21.4C
Badgerys Creek 13.4 C (Take note what happens by 7 am).
Camden 18.8 C
Canterbury 20.5 C
Penrith 14.7 C
Richmond 17.7C
Terrey Hills 20.9C
Temperatures varied from 13C to almost 23C giving a range of almost 10C.
The cold front with its strong gusty SSW winds were howling through before 7 am and sunrise and temperature observations were:-
Sydney 21C
Sydney Airport 19C
Sydney Olympic Park 19C
Bankstown 17.9C
Badgerys Creek 15C (There was a temperature rise of almost 2C across this region).
Camden 15.2C
Canterbury 18.9C
Campbelltown 15.2C
Terrey Hills 19.3C
Temperature variations were less being 15C to 21C giving a range of around 6C.
At 3 pm, the temperature across large areas of Sydney were in the 21 to 22C degree range and therefore uniform.
The 6 am temperatures across many areas of Sydney were warmer than the daytime 3 pm temperatures.
In a large area of western Sydney, especially around the Badgerys Creek region, the temperature rose by almost 2C after the change came through from 13 to 15 degrees. Usually it is the other way around. The front stabilized temperatures to a more uniform level across the city in which they mostly fell but in some regions, the temperature increased.
The front brought strong winds but no rain but I understand did cause disruption to some flights from the airport and a school in Castle Hill was damaged.
Harley Pearman
