Hi All,
As one who lives and works in the outer-eastern part of Melbourne, I don't think I have witnessed live a rain event as intense, in a smallish area, like we had in Melbourne this afternoon for at least 17 years. From around 2.30pm the weather had started to build up in the western sky, as I observed from my vantage point in Nunawading. By the time I had reached my last drop-off point for the school bus run (around 4.35pm), the storm had turned quite dark across Glen Waverley, and south west of the main gust front, the weather was a startling silver white as the heavy rains arrived.
When I looked to the west at this point I noticed the sky had a greenish hue about it, and was expecting to see some hail. What followed was torrential. Travelling west along Burwood Hwy, Vermont south was like driving a boat along a strong river current. The northern (right hand) lane was at least a foot under water, and driving a school bus was treacherous. What was more amazing was travelling north along Terrara Rd and Rooks Rd in Vermont - Terrara Rd was like a river torrent, at least 1.5 foot deep, and made driving really hard. I was struggling to change gears on the bus without the bus slipping in the water. I got the bus to Canterbury Rd, turned right into Rooks Rd, travelled just 100m, and had to turn around as the road was submerged in 2 foot of water, and two cars had become engulfed to the windows, and couldn't move.
Even though the rain gauges said we only got 36mls for the day (to 6pm), I was sure the area where i was got close to 80mls in 1.5 hrs.
Very Intense and very scarey driving.
Hope I didn't bore anyone. Oh and the lightning (quite a few CGs - very silver in colour) was spectacular.
I don't get to see many rain/storm events here, but they are worth mentioning when they do happen.
All the best for Christmas, everyone.
Peter J
amateur weather observer.
