Historical records Australia Before 'official' records began

[crikey]

Official records are sometimes only 20, 40, 50 years old , as now we use fancy 'accurate' recording instrumentation. The older observations are often not included in our current all time record analysis.
I thought it would be good to acquire some pre -electronic era records of weather and significant events

This publication archived and digitised is
openlibrary.org
Climate and weather of Australia

source
http://www.archive.org/stream/climatewe ... 0/mode/2up" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Published in 1913
at a time when BOM was called the commonwealth of Meteorology and

cyclones were called 'willy nillies"
and southerly busters were called southerly bursters

when temp was in farenheit and rain in points/inches and barom pressure was in inches
In 1913 they used the word mini tornado and miniature cyclone ..LOL

Just flipped through this gem and l particularly liked
the extensive synoptic maps characteristic for all weather types and extreme events
also lots of events and info recorded. A bit like a weather almanac

-1910 october south eastern Australian cold snap
-recorded snow falls in Melbourne and synoptic analysis sept /oct 1908
-a report on tornado in Marong near Bendigo september 1911: detailed analysis and synoptics
-nov 1910 tornado hergott sprins SA
-1904 avenel n/east vic tornadic winds
-The floods of 1910
-Snow at Gabo island.and other southern land areas
-discussion of ocean currents on climate in 1913..very basic and limited
-cairns the heaviest rainfall in Australia( harvey creek)
-The lowest rainfall also being the lowest altitude. LakeEyre
-Kiandra NSW highest town in Australia
-Abundant rain in the west coast of Australia has almost prohibited settlement
-Quite a detailed record of drought years since 1880
-1911 one of the wettest years in Victoria
-1888 and 1902 noted especially for lack of rainfall
-the 1913 version of our 'special climate statements'
-1889 noted wettest in Vic with 26inches fell
-severe Floods/storms of august 1909..perth 203 points max kyneton 325 .tassie: burnie 271 (very detailed synoptics and reports)
-fiji huricane 1910
-Port dougals hurricane march 1911
-The avoca at charlton was 6 inches above the 1870 flood and 4 feet above any others
-The murray at echuca peaked at 32feet and other records listed..
-The great flood of 1853
-1910 severe floods in the darling tributatries NSW/ queensland( greater than 1864 flood)
-Detailed reports of heavy rainfalls and droughts in all states from 1893
-history of hurricanes in WA from 1872 to 1912
-record spell of heat for Melbourne jan 1908
-the great dust storm of November 1902
-The floods of 1910
-discussion of ocean currents on climate in 1913..very basic and limited
-cairns the heaviest rainfall in Australia( harvey creek)
-The lowest rainfall also being the lowest altitude. LakeEyre
-Abundant rain in the west coast of Australia has almost prohibited settlement
-Quite a detailed record of drought years since 1880
-1911 one of the wettest years in Victoria
-1888 and 1902 noted especially for lack of rainfall
-the 1913 version of our 'special climate statements'
-1889 noted wettest in Vic with 26inches fell?
-severe Floods/storms of august 1909..perth 203 points max kyneton 325 .tassie: burnie 271 (very detailed synoptics and reports)
-fiji huricane 1910
-The avoca at charlton was 6 inches above the 1870 flood and 4 feet above any others
-The murray at echuca peaked at 32feet and other records listed..
-The great flood of 1853
-1910 severe floods in the darling tributaries NSW/ Queensland( greater than 1864 flood)
-record spell of heat for Melbourne Jan 1908
-the great dust storm of November 1902
-a 1913 explanation of tornado dynamics

openlibrary.org
Climate and weather of Australia
http://www.archive.org/stream/climatewe ... 0/mode/2up" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[nafets]

Very interesting! Btw a very good detailed post. Keep it up crikey

[crikey]

Hey !! Glad you enjoyed nafets.

Thanks for posting.

Here is another link
http://climatehistory.com.au/wp-content ... e_AMOJ.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A climate reconstruction of Sydney Cove,
New South Wales, using weather journal and
documentary data, 1788–1791
Joëlle Gergis and David J. Karoly
School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia
and
Rob J. Allan
Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, United Kingdom
, (Manuscript received March 2009;
Revised May 2009)

I haven't read this yet but its on my list of things to read/ summarize
The main page home link from where this documentation came from is
http://climatehistory.com.au/publications/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[crikey]

This article was published by weatherzone and looks at the potential of catastroiphic floods
The Hawkesbury Nepean Valley in Sydney's outer suburbs has a history of massive floods,
"The 1867 flood was around 19.5 metres

Catastrophic flood could sink Sydney suburbs
By David Mark, Thursday February 16, 2012 - 11:02 EDT
ABC image
Up to 70,000 people would have to be evacuated if a major flood was to hit. (file photo) - ABC

As Queensland carries out an inquiry into deadly flooding in that state, the spotlight has turned to other parts of Australia and how well they would be prepared for a catastrophic flood.

The Hawkesbury Nepean Valley in Sydney's outer suburbs has a history of massive floods, and while there has not been a big one for more than a century, plans are in place for such an event.

The suburbs of Penrith and Emu Plains straddle the high banks of the Nepean River in what is a typical picture of Australian suburbia - lots of brick houses, probably built around the 1960s and '70s.

But up to 70,000 people would have to be evacuated if a major flood was to hit the area.

The suburbs sit in a flood plain, and if a flood like the one which hit in 1867 was to occur, the whole area could go under.

Newspaper reports from the time describe an inland sea that destroyed houses, farms and crops and killed at least 13 people. The town of Windsor, downstream from Emu Plains, was submerged.

Steven Molino is principal of Molino Stewart, an environment and natural hazards consultancy that has been working on flood plain management for 20 years.

"The 1867 flood was around 19.5 metres here. So all of these houses would be flooded at least to the eaves, if not higher, in a repeat of the 1867 flood," he said.

He says a major flood today would probably destroy many houses in Emu Plains.

'Hard to comprehend'

Steve Opper, director of community safety with the State Emergency Service, says the Hawkesbury Nepean Valley has a unique shape that can lead to catastrophic flooding.

"The Hawkesbury Nepean Valley is throttled down by a narrow gorge down near what's called Sackville, which is just upstream of Wiseman's Ferry," he said.

"The result of that is that the water can flow into the top of the system very, very rapidly, can't get out, and so you get very dramatic rises in the level of the river.

"So normal river level might be two metres; if you're at the town of Windsor and in the most extreme thought possible, that could rise up to 26 metres, which is a number that's quite hard to comprehend."

That is seven metres higher than the 1867 flood which submerged the valley.

Even if the 1867 flood was repeated, tens of thousands of people would have to be moved.

Mr Opper has designed the evacuation plan for the valley.

"Our contingency planning for evacuation for that valley indicates that we would have to evacuate between 40,000 and 70,000 people just depending on the level of flooding that we're expecting," he said.

"It's a very large number; it would no doubt be probably the largest evacuation of its kind in New South Wales."

Fatal depths



Alan Ashworth's house in Emu Plains overlooks the Nepean River and is in the firing line. It is a double-storey house set high on his block and seems way above the level of the river below.

But the historic record shows his house could be flooded.

Mr Ashworth says he does not have a detailed flood plan.

"Basically anything downstairs you'd move upstairs. By the time we get water on this section of the road, basically you've lost Richmond, Windsor and all that," he said.

Even so, Mr Opper says moving everything upstairs may not be good enough.

"The difference with this valley is that if people stay there, then the depths the water could get to are almost certainly fatal," he said.

"And so you can't even take an option of saying well, maybe if people don't get out it'll be OK because they'll be able to survive in their house; that's just not an option in this valley."

Because of this, a spillway has been built on the Warragamba Dam upstream from the river and roads have been built and upgraded to help with the evacuation.

These measures will help, but when a big flood comes - and the odds say it will - it will not be stopped.

Mr Molino says the 1867 flood had about a one-in-200 chance of occurrence.

"It can happen. And we have sedimentary evidence from the gorge upstream of Penrith that there's been at least one, if not more floods as large as or larger than a one-in-500 flood in this valley," he said.

"Elsewhere in the country we've had floods of that probability.

"These things do happen. They don't always happen where there's people or houses, but when they do we have a major catastrophe."

This report is the first of a two-part look at Australia's flood planning.

On ABC Radio's PM on Thursday, David Mark will look more broadly at how well Australia is prepared for flooding and the battle between development and nature.
source:
http://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/cata ... urbs/20635" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

© ABC 2012