VIC Trough, Heat, Showers, Thunderstorms, etc Feb 15-22 2012

[Geoff]

Ended up with 43mm here, most of that was between 4pm and 5pm when it really was epic! Final dribbles cleared away now and cooled down to 17.5C. That'll do nicely for this month!

[aussiestormfreak]

Wow! What a day it's been!! This would have to be the best storm I've ever caught on camera during the month of February in any year, and I happened to be in the right place at the right time to catch it... in the Dandenong/Doveton/Endeavour Hills area!


I was out in the area between 2:30PM and 9:30PM. Despite the horrible haze (due to the seabreeze I suspect?) and the unsettling heat (around 32C), the developing squall line certainly seemed quite impressive from afar while I was in Dandenong. I wonder how high those cumulonimbus clouds reached today?


Convection was really starting to erupt over the Dandenong Ranges as the main line edged into the western suburbs around 3:30PM while I was heading into Endeavour Hills. Come 4PM and the whole western horizon and much of the sky to the north is dark with massive storm clouds and it was finally cooling down!

I saw no lightning at this point but I heard some quite angry thunder (especially from some of the cells over the Dandenong Ranges to the north), the storm certainly had a reasonable structure to it, with a few lowerings and intense rain/hail curtains from the Dandenong Ranges cells, and some very strong updrafts here and there (topped off with a massive thick anvil), even a faint splash of green visible, and a roll cloud!

Come 4:30PM and the storm is almost right on top of me, with lightning flashing around as a massive shelf cloud sweeps over, followed by around an hour of gusty winds and heavy rain. I recorded about 30 minutes of footage but most of the lightning wasn't visible; only a couple of CGs (including a staccato bolt) and a handful of CCs were captured.

10.6mm of rain in my gauge, seems that the worst of the storms in the Dandenong Ranges just missed my area, still not bad

[daviescr]

Got home to find 18mm in the guage first real rain in a while, most of the garden is looking thirsty, so very welcome.

After my previous post about a report and picture of a tree that had been hit in Parkville, I decided to take a detour home to take a look.
Was greeted with a group of about 15 people all having a sticky beak and snapping away photos!

Here's a couple of shots from my phone camera. It would have been shocking to see this happening! Amazing how it cut a huge gouge out of the trunk, up to 10cm deep in places!

The debris around the tree

debris.JPG (72.78 KiB) Viewed 5942 times

trunk.JPG (51.13 KiB) Viewed 5941 times

trunk 4.JPG (69.22 KiB) Viewed 5941 times

[mad*moo73]

Those pics are a prime example of why you don't stand under a tree in a thunderstorm!!! Must have been one hell of a bolt. Where exactly is that tree? Will be in the area on Monday & will go take a look for myself.

[James]

Boronia has had some flooding again, whilst not as serious as some other storms..again it shows that the infrastructure particularly in this region is old and need of upgrade..yet they keep building more concrete and run-off without thinking where its going to go.

Here is a video shot at the height of the storm yesterday at a new housing estate, in a known flood prone area that the council knew about and allowed to be built on, sadly these peoples homes have been flooded numerous times and are suffering huge personal and financial loss, with one being severely injured.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1SJOV4i ... ideo_title

[Monbulkian]

Had 30mm here yesterday afternoon.

[daviescr]

Hi Moo, the tree is on Royal Parade, right outside the Monash Uni Parkville Campus. I think it's just slightly past the Zoo turn off, heading out of town. Stay in the service lane, you can't miss it!

[mad*moo73]

Hi Moo, the tree is on Royal Parade, right outside the Monash Uni Parkville Campus. I think it's just slightly past the Zoo turn off, heading out of town. Stay in the service lane, you can't miss it!

Thanks, that's close to where I will be.

[mick]

72% rh here, If I drink a slab it will feel like Darwin!

[HarleyB]

1mm here from a tiny cell at around 9:30am. 2.1mm MTD

[crikey]

'Torrential' downpour causes flash flooding.(.Eastern VIC)
Friday February 17, 2012 - 09:22 EDT

A torrential downpour caused flash flooding at Westbury, near Moe, in eastern Victoria, last night.

A band of storms followed the northern side of the Latrobe Valley in a line through to Toongabbie and Denison.

Charlie Pinch from Willow Grove says his son's property at Westbury had 86 millimetres of rain in an hour.

He says it is the biggest storm in the area for more than 50 years.

"I've never heard that much rain around here ever in that short time," he said.

"We keep rainfall here every day and record it and we we've never heard of that sort of rain ever."

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/torr ... ding/20644" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


© ABC 2012

[Supercellimpact]

He's a good comprison to last year at the same time. Now we are at 23.3mm for the year, this time last year 293mm !!! Look at that difference. After 2 below average months ( Feb is looking likley to be below) we are off to a slow start to the year. I hope it picks up soon. 1 thing I have noticed is the lack of tropical orginated air or systems coming down, but we have have troughs with hit and miss storms.

[typhoon29]

lovely day to be outdoors, good day for cricket if you are a batsman. The ball would not swing. Watched some nice towering Cu bubble away just to north most of the afternoon, I am amazed there was nothing in the state today! What will tomorrow bring, c'mon experts?? I would like a storm with about 10-20mm.

Yeah this time last year I was thinking of buying a boat so I could get to work etc. It sure was wet. Last Year we had 120mm so far for Feb 2011. This year ytd is miles from even that!!!

[stratospear]

He's a good comprison to last year at the same time. Now we are at 23.3mm for the year, this time last year 293mm !!!

That figure isn't accurate because of a data error on the Elders website for January. Officially Bendigo has had 39mm this year which is very close to average. I've actually collected 46mm in my rain gauge.

EC hinting at a major rain system around Feb 27, but that'll be for another thread later in the week if models hold.

Today was quite hot and uncomfortable North of the Divide.

[Supercellimpact]

Yeah, i got that figure of weather-zone which users Elders info ?
I hope that comes off.

[crikey]

Here is the forecast rainfall for Sunday from BOM's combined model



Looks like we will get nothing again out this way ( west of Maryborough) except if we catch a storm cell

Had a look at the Dunolly rainfall records which go back to 1882 to see how many years Jan and Feb rainfall has been equal or below 20mm ( in jan/feb combined )
http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/weat ... bsCode=139" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I was surprised to find it is quite a common finding with 17 out of 129 years having less than 20mm..over the months Jan and feb

The lowest rainfall for Jan and Feb combined was
1892 ...at... 0.5mm

some others low rainfall totals in Jan/Feb
1882 ...... 1.5mm total Jan and Feb
1965 ....... 3mm ''
1983 ....... 1.2mm ''
2009 ..... 2.8mm ''

So 5 years out of 129 years of data . Combined total Jan/feb rainfall 3mm or less

Haven't had any rain in Feb yet and have had 16mm here YTD .. So even if it doesn't rain in Feb for us this year we would still be around the 10th percentile
ooooh it gets dry here at times!

Nice to hear that a model has found some rain. Hope its destination is western VIC?

[Rhino]

I'd hate to think we're I'd be without that 18mm we got 1 1/2 weeks ago, probably 18mm less than I have now for the year, which is bugger all but that's summer for you. Could be a shower or storm about tommorow but not holding my breath, the way this summers going I'm sure someone will get some flash flooding and hail and 5km's up the road will get stuff all, would be nice to get a solid rainband from the NW and deliver for the whole state but I'm sure that's not to far off, hoping anyway.

Rhino.

[droughtbreaker]

NW cloud bands don't start up until around April or maybe late March at the earliest, so a bit of a wait yet.

54.6mm year to date here, so a pretty dry summer (although December was a bit above average). Places like Trentham and also further up the mountain here have had 80-85mm. Melbourne CBD has had about the same as here. In stark contrast Ferny Creek has had 150mm so far this year. Mount Hotham has had 226mm.

This summer has been pretty classic really. Temps have been relatively close to average and most of the rain has fallen over the east of the state as storms and bands of rain have formed there. There have been no tropical systems coming down this year but this is not necessarily unusual for summer, we don't always get these sort of systems.

Western and northern VIC has been drier which is normal as well. The average summer rainfall is much higher in the east of the state than the west.

[dazrain]

Just saw a flash and heard a few rumbles over the Warburton ranges area.

Currently at Yellingbo for the weekend.

No rain as yet but still warm.

[Rhino]

Yeah agree Andrew, has'nt been anything really unusual for summer, the usual storms around the normal haunts although have'nt had the prolonged heatwaves, not here anyway been quite mild imo although I may be a bit thick-skinned, even though temps may be near avg. Waiting for the rains to arrive still, but it's coming.

Anyone want to get back on topic......

Rhino.