Rain, gales, heat, storms and snow to end winter: August 20-

[Wilko]

Classic rolling thunder for 20 minutes here
Just missed the southern edge of latest cell

[Blackee]

Tornado or severe microburst just touched down at our Mansfield house. Big trees down, debris everywhere

[James]

that was very intense, constant cloud to cloud lightning and very very heavy downdraughts with hail and rain, it just unleashed once it got here

[hillybilly]

Wow, crazy day in Victoria. That has got to be totally unprecedented for winter. Temps widely in the mid 20s, high humidity then too many super cells to count with large hail, big gusts, flash flooding and some tornadoes.

TAS completely uneventful in comparison. Just a light band of rain, though we did have heavy shower last night.

Clearing Monday before gales or worse’s in Tuesday and Wednesday. That next system looks more like a Tassie event.

[snowfall]

Great to see the storm reports. We got 23mm here yesterday from some direct hits, including loads of lightning, hail, and heavy rain. With last week’s rain, we’ve jumped up to 45mm for the month. We’ll likely still end up below average, but at least it’s not as dire.

Nice day today, calm with sunny breaks. Looks like wind will be the big feature for Tuesday and Wednesday, with strong gales, and especially wild for the southern side of the central ranges. Not looking forward to it in the least…

[StratoBendigo]

11mm yesterday, but 19mm just up the road 1 km away.

Worth noting the build up of heat in Northern Australia - the 500 HPa Geopotential height anomaly is quite extreme in the tropics globally at present.

[hillybilly]

Bit of on inbetween day today as wait for the next front. Looks really nasty tomorrow for TAS with winds topping 125km/hr. Looking at the 850hPa winds they peak a little over 150km/hr which is often a pretty good guide to the upper limit on gusts. We get plenty of wind here so not unprecedented but nasty. Southern Victoria and the ranges also looking at a battering.

This system looks very wet for Tasmania, but only showers for more southern parts of Victoria. This system does get chilly for Wednesday so a little snow on the alps, but tbh I think the season is done on the mainland. That record heat in northern Australia is going to repeatedly surge south the next week or two so each shot of snow also has rain and melt.

[Australis(Shell3155)]

Read a post from The Hills face book group yesterday. Seems we’re in for a fair ride starting today then tomorrow and then another session Friday.
Blossom held in for the first show let’s hope I can get a few more bees prior to the wind today. Seems to bee a bee shortage also,

[Skywalker]

*double post*

[Skywalker]

Not at all looking forward to the next week of absolute disgusting windy filth. Really feel for you guys up in the Dandenongs & Macedon Ranges. Going to be quite dangerous conditions.
Hopefully this garbage doesn't hang around for too long.

Impressive light show Sunday night. Lounge windows face North (same side as TV) so had the perfect view.

[hillybilly]

Wild one here today, though winds below what we’ve seen a few times in the past year. Exceptionally mild with an overnight minimum of 12C and a max of 19.2C. Rain moving in now and should be a wet night. Still need about 25mm to get to average, so need this one to deliver.

Rain will thin out for Victoria, but some ok falls near the coast and ranges, and a bit of snow later.

[Wilko]

Gusts regularly over 70km/h here
Predicting lots of carnage by tomorrow morning
The strongest winds forecast from midnight ... scary stuff
This low is around 940hp and big temp gradient with record warmth
Not going to let up until next week at best
Also considerable beach erosion for beaches facing west...surfs up !!!

[hillybilly]

Wild night down here with two fronts in less than twelve hours. Guess that is what a 350km/hr jet will do. Over 20mm in the gauge still pouring. Thats about our average now, so anything from here is a bonus. TAS having quite a turnaround this year at the midway point.

Out west some big falls. Mt Read is headed for a month with well north of 500mm. Great for hydro which has been struggling.

Big snowfalls on the mountain, probably the best of the year.

Victoria mostly too north for the action but plenty of wind. Hopefully a bit of snow for the alps which are seeing the resorts closing down atm. So sad for the folks up there being hit by another record warm winter “spell”.

[Pengaz]

Wild here for the last 24 hours, little rain though.

Bit behind on posts but the storm we got on Sunday night was a beauty. 8.5mm in quick time with a bit of hail and strong straight line winds, one of the most lightning active I’ve seen for a long time.

Our August rain tally looks pretty meagre, struggling to clock up 20mm. Hopefully add to it over the next few days to close the month out.

[stevco123]

I don't get it. The Sudden Stratospheric Warming events over Antarctica have been causing record cold in South America and southern Africa. I was always under the impression that's what they do. Why not in Australia? We instead get the opposite like we're cursed or something.

[hillybilly]

I don't get it. The Sudden Stratospheric Warming events over Antarctica have been causing record cold in South America and southern Africa. I was always under the impression that's what they do. Why not in Australia? We instead get the opposite like we're cursed or something.

It’s been much warmer than average in both. 40C repeatedly in South America and South Africa with so many heat records broken one can’t keep count. Snow season a complete bust in South Africa. It’s on track to be the warmest August on record for the southern hemisphere. Pretty likely it will be the hottest on record for Oz.

SSA just push heat around with large anomalies. On a hot planet it’s the hot anomalies which break records because you are helped by the trend.

EDIT some numbers from yesterday from Max Herrera. It’s quite unbelievable having record heat happening across Southern Africa, Australia and South America at the same time.

40.5 Big Bend SWAZILAND hottest day on record
40.2 Beitbridge ZIMBABWE hottest day on record
SOUTH AFRICA >40 at Skukuza
35.3 Majunga MADAGASCAR

[hillybilly]

Feral 24 hours of weather down here . Nearly 30mm in the gauge, chilly max of 10.2C, hail, gales, crazy storm, big snowfall on the mountain. Awesome weather.

Big storm surge which fortunately has fallen just below the level of flooding property. Here’s some shot from the high tide today at Howden, Seven Mile Beach and Launderdale. Some local flooding in Victoria with just below minor flood levels at Lakes Entrance this evening. The tides on Thursday and Friday will likely get a bit higher in Victoria, while Saturday’s will bring a very large surge here in Saturday.

[hillybilly]

Good to see som snow on the ranges in vic, though gut feeling is the Victorian sites won’t make it more than another week. So much warm air getting brought down ahead of each front.

For rest of the southeast a bit of a break today ahead of another front tonight. Winds increasing later with rain becoming heavy for TAS, and showers for southern and mountain Victoria. Surges continue on the alps. Was some significant street flooding last night near south Melbourne from the storm surge with water up to 10cm deep around Lorimer Street.

Here in southeast TAS had heavy showers all night. Was snowing down to 400m. The mountain has a deep cover our event total is just shy of 40mm. Closing in on 100mm for the month, and nearing average YTD. Would guess we are something around 40mm behind atm. Might almost get that before the month finishes. Also watching pressure values as we are going to get close to the lowest value on record for August.

[snowfall]

Crazy wind here the past couple of days, and it's all set to fire up again tonight and then next week too. Thankfully, we have only had minor damage, nothing too major. Not sure how other people in the area have fared, but I'd imagine there was some larger damage in places given the strength of the wind.

We managed 1.4mm yesterday as the front came through. MTD is a touch under 47mm. We might add a mm or two before the month's end, but otherwise it's a below average month here. Not surprising really, since the first half of the month was dominated by blocking highs and the second half by constant northerly winds and strong but mostly rain-starved fronts. Though it seems things haven't been too rain-starved in Tas!

[Gordon]

Crazy wind here the past couple of days, and it's all set to fire up again tonight and then next week too. Thankfully, we have only had minor damage, nothing too major. Not sure how other people in the area have fared, but I'd imagine there was some larger damage in places given the strength of the wind.

Terrible winds here too - my least favourite weather (not that I get to choose it...). Suspect I'm not alone!
Somehow, not much damage locally so far, which might be the silver lining of another dry month - not having waterlogged soils reduces the risk of trees toppling over. Just 31.5mm mtd here.

Meanwhile, amazing to watching the snow pile up on the Mt Mawson cam in Tasmania. Fair chance somewhere in the Tassie mountains could end up with Australia's deepest snow for 2024 by the time this is over - only has to beat 124.6cm at Spencers Creek .