Saturday 19 February 2000
Today's weather extremes
Heavy storms in SA
Hot in the southeast
Highest rainfall, 24 hours to 9am
140.0 Saltbush Park Qld
120.0 Mackay AP Qld
119.2 Ingham Qld
Storms
and rain areas continued across central northern parts of the continent
today as the monsoonal trough continued to make its presence felt. As shown
on the map, the heaviest falls for the 24 hours to 9 this morning were in
the WA Pilbara, southern NT and the Qld Central Coast and Highlands and
North Coast.
At Newman in the Pilbara, steady rain began falling shortly before 6 this morning, and fell steadily for 24 hours. The mining town gauged 130mm for the 24 hours to 6am Sunday, or 139mm for the official 2 day total to 9am Sunday. Other heavy 48 hour totals (though falling over about the same 24 hour period) were Wittenoom 130.2, Bulloo Downs 132.4 and Mount Vernon 111.2. In the southern NT, the heaviest falls were around dawn, with the Territory Grape Farm at Ti Tree, about 150km north of Alice Springs, recording 67mm between midnight and 6am and Yulara 50mm between midnight and 9am, 20.8mm falling in the hour to 2.30am. The heavy falls in Queensland were enhanced by a developing midget low off the Whitsunday coast. Mackay recorded 161mm for the 24 hours to 9am, 63 falling in 6 hours to 3am, while Innisfail recorded 118mm in 9 hours to 6am and Townsville AP 103mm in 6 hours to 6am. There were some heavy falls inland, too, with Camooweal registering 47.6mm in one hour to 7am, Mount Isa AP 65mm between 9am and noon, and the by now very soggy Winton 61mm between midnight and 6am.
In South Australia, a band of heavy thunderstorms with falls of up to 35mm swept across the Eyre Peninsula during the afternoon, following a night of exceptional heat, with minimum temperatures in the high 20s. Adelaide's Kent Town Bureau office recorded a minimum of 28.7, 12 above average. Ahead of the change, in Victoria and Tasmania, top temperatures for the day were up to 15 above normal, with Hobart Airport recording a maximum of 37°, and Bairnsdale and Colac Vic 39.
Highest & Lowest Temps
Greatest variations from normal
37.0 Hobart AP Tas
+14.7
36.3 Cape Northumberland SA
+14.6
36.0 Cape Otway Vic
27.5 Kyancutta SA
+13.0
28.8 Cleve SA
+12.8
Parafield AP SA
29.1 Marble Bar WA
10.7 Lancelin WA
Wyndham PO WA: 34mm in 3hrs to 3pm
Newman AP WA: 71mm in 12hrs to 9pm
Watarrka NT: 28mm in 3hrs to 9am
Polda SA: 35mm in 6hrs to 3pm
Cleve SA: 37mm in 6hrs to 9pm, 25mm in 1hr to 6pm
as
new and corrected information becomes available, with updates underlined