Topic: Intense Low SE Aust: 2-3 April 2008

[Michael Bath]

Quite a significant event is unfolding over the Southeast of the country at present. The current warnings for VIC reflect the seriousness of the expected strong winds.

There should be some snowfalls tonight and into tomorrow over higher ground.


5am 2/4/2008


HIGH SEAS WEATHER WARNING FOR METAREA 10
ISSUED BY THE AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY, MELBOURNE
AT  1932UTC 1 APRIL 2008
HURRICANE FORCE WIND WARNING FOR SOUTHEASTERN AREA

Situation
At 011600UTC: Developing low pressure system 40S135E [988hPa] expected to deepen further and move southeastwards.  Low expected near 43S141E [980hPa] at 020001UTC, 44S143E [970hPa] at 020600UTC and 44S145E [968hPa] at 021200UTC.

Area Affected
Hurricane force winds within 150nm of low after 020600UTC.

Storm force wind warning within
38S141E/38S150E/40S150E/40S148E/47S148E/47S141E/38S141E

Gales for remaining area within  38S141E/38S160E/50S160E/50S141E/38S141E.

Forecast
North to northwesterly wind of 30/40 knots extending to the east by 020300UTC. North to northwesterly wind strengthening further to 40/55 knots in storm area after 012100UTC and reaching 55/70 knots within 150nm of low after 020600UTC. Winds gradually turning west/southwesterly at a similar strength west of low.    Very rough/high seas rising very high/phenomenal in hurricane area.
Moderate/heavy swell.
Some moderation expected from the northwest overnight.

[Peter J]

Mike,

After looking at the sat pic - I noticed a large area of cold air is pooled behind the initial trough and change - this is the stuff the snowfalls will come from. And some areas in SE of Oz will see temps plummet below 10c tonight with the cold change - a real winter foretaste.

Big Pete

[Peter J]

And it is eerily dark and windy here in Mooroolbark at the moment too...

Big Pete

[Steven]

So is there any chance of this system affecting eastern states?

[Matt Pearce]

Well, it's already most definitely affecting Victoria, but if you're talking about NSW and QLD...yes, the winds will pick up in NSW later today and peak overnight and early tomorrow...likely to be around 10-20mm along the southwestern slopes and less than 1mm elsewhere...not likely to be any storms as it's just too dry...

[Peter J]

Winds in my home area have gusted to over 105kph so far. It is blowing a gale here, but no rain as of yet. The BoM reckons around 4-430pm the colder change will kick in. Going around the house here to batten down the hatches, and close the windows.

Big Pete
(getting blown away).

[Ewan]

I spent a lot of time fixing broken glass at work when a large shelf got blown over - missed my car by centimetres...

I took these outside work (in Blackburn) Fist pic you can see the hire car flagpoles doing a bit of bending and the second was a little air vortex over the traffic that kicked up a fair bit of dust

Came home tonight to find one of the rose bushes against the fence has ripped the fence down with it and there is a lot of tree mulching going on up and down the street.

[Harley Pearman]

Hello

I read a late report in the Border Mail - Albury - Wodonga that a dust storm moved over the city of Ballarat and environs late this afternoon ahead of that cold front / change and a rain shower occurred during the dust storm resulting in mud or wet dust falling from the sky over the city.

Further:-

Bureau of Meteorology weather Observations for Melbourne for 2/4/2008 indicated that winds gusts of up to 117 KM / Hour occurred in parts of the city early this afternoon and gusts of between 90 and 105 KM / H were common, all from a northerly direction.

The winds caused blackouts affecting some 200,000 residents across the city and unfortunately there has been one fatality so far from this weather event.

I did not see allot of rain from this event and most Victorian rainfall totals up until 6 pm - 2/4/2008 were light with Melbourne City registering 4.2 mm and other suburbs registering less.

Harley Pearman 

[Richary]

Reports I heard early today on the radio was someone was killed on a building site by scaffolding/building collapse during the high winds. And the weather on Ch 9 tonight showed some severe dust storms in Victoria. Looking at weather observations from BoM it seems there have been pretty high winds. Forecast to hit Sydney by dawm tomorrow but they shouldn't be as strong (better not be or the job is off, supposed to be working on rooftop at the Rocks tomorrow).

[Michael Bath]

The strongest winds measured at AWS appear to be at Maatsuyker Island on the southern coast of Tasmania. Wind gusts got up to 169km/h or 91 knots around 3am today as the pressure bottomed out at 966hPa. The pressure dropped from 1000hPa at 8am yesterday.

5am 3/4/2008

[Michael Bath]

Some amazing wave heights were whipped up by this low - 17 metre waves just off the West Coast of Tasmania at Cape Sorell (graph attached as the data will be gone in a couple of days):

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDT65014.shtml

[Brad Hannon]

Hi, just a brief comment on yesterdays wind event here.  I drove through the city, W and N suburbs between 1-4pm and have never experienced such strong and sustained winds in Melbourne before.  The car was shaking significantly in the CBD let alone out in the open areas around Tulla airport where I watched Qantas and Virgin jets crabbing and wobbling their way into land.  Luckily they predominantly had a head wind to battle rather than crosswinds.  Even so I was amazed at the amount of air traffic that continued to flow throughout the arvo despite the severe winds.

My wife was driving through the Nth suburbs when a crushed drinking can flew like a frisbie into her windshield and cracked it - Doh!  couldve been worse I guess.

Damage was evident everywhere on my drive as well as my (long, slow) drive home from the city last night - shredded foliage,  fallen trees, rubbish and debris, power outtages, traffic light failures, train lines down, bridges closed to trucks and motorbikes, freeway signs snapped, brown dust and mud on surfaces.

Today is just a boring post-svr day in Melbourne

Brad.

[Michael Bath]

Plenty of news reports today of the damaging wild winds which have affected SA, VIC and notably TAS this morning.

These wind graphs are from the CSIRO at Droughty Point - which is the peninsula to the east of Hobart. Winds peaked at 95 knots !






Interactive satellite photo loops of the event.

---> Southeast Australia 03z 01/04/2008 to 02z 03/04/2008   (2.1mb)

---> Australia 19z 31/03/2008 to 04z 03/04/2008   (3.0mb)


MB

[Jimmy Deguara]

Imagine holding a Kestral in a 95 knot gust as suggested on the 'wind graph' Michael posted.You would have to catch a plane back from New Zealand! That is quite strong from land gales.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Peter J]

The wind-storm as it was identified in Melb media today (ref: Neil Mitchell 3AW 1278AM Radio), did a lot of damage to trees and powerlines accross a wide cross-section of metro-Melb. Power was still out to 60k homes as of 3pm today, nearly 15 hours after the peak wind gusts flew accross Central Vic. I worked on the coach today, and endured 5 sets of traffic lights from Forest Hill to Mulgrave along Springvale Rd that still had not been rectified (ie switched back on). Not much rain from it though - just 5mm in my raingauge at home.

Big Pete
(i had heard on the wire - peak gust at Mt Dandenong reached a staggering 147kph unconfirmed.)