Australian Weather News -- 05 September 2000

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Tuesday 05 September 2000

Snow, hail and gales continue in Tasmania 08Sep00
Strong winds in NSW
Heavy rain and storms as front approaches WA
Fires continue in SE Qld

An impressive low pressure vortex with central pressure around 972hPa slowed to a standstill about 400km south of Tasmania today, prolonging the state's wintry weather for another day. Widespread moderate snow continued to fall down to the 500m level, with 15cm reported on the ground at Liawenee and 3cm at Tarraleah at 9am. Snow continued to fall down to around 700m during the day. Huge seas have been whipped up by the continuing strong westerlies, with the wave rider buoy off Tasmania's west coast near Cape Sorell reporting waves to 15.5m just before dawn. The low made itself felt as far north as central NSW, where winds gusted up to 106km/h at Mt Boyce in the Blue Mountains. In the Southern Highlands, winds gusted to around 90km/h at Braidwood and Goulburn.

A front which slowed briefly before arriving on the Western Australian southwest coast brought copious rain to the area this evening. The area around Bunbury and Busselton recorded around 40mm in 6 hours from the slow-moving rain band and a few embedded storms. Wind gusted to 85km/h at Rottnest Island in the northwesterlies preceding the fronts. Some of the heavier falls for the 24 hours to 9am Wednesday were 62mm at Cape Naturaliste and 51 at Busselton. Others are listed on the newspage for 6 September 2000.

Fires continue to spring up in southeast Queensland, with a substantial blaze south of Brisbane yesterday and today. Beginning in the Karrawatha State Forest yesterday afternoon, the fire downed power lines, causing widespread blackouts. Today it jumped Wembley Road and threatened two schools and houses, causing evacuations and damage to cars and outbuildings.

Today's highest rainfall totals for the 24 hours to 9am 39.8 Diddleum Tas 39.5 Perisher Valley NSW 38.2 Strathgordon Tas 37.4 Lake Margaret Tas High falls for other periods: Western Australia: Cape Naturaliste: 41mm in 6h to 6pm Bunbury: 25mm in 6h to 6pm Busselton AP: 22mm in 3h to 9pm Northcliffe: 17mm in 3h to 9pm Busselton: 36mm in 6h to 9pm Katanning AP: 16mm in 3h to midnight Victoria: Latrobe Valley AP: 16mm in 6h to 3am Cape Otway LH: 16mm in 6h to 3am	Today's highest & lowest temps		Other extremes Wind gusts: Badgingarra WA: 87km/h at 11.40pm Rottnest Is WA: 85km/h at 6.19pm Swanbourne WA: 83km/h at 6.30pm Mt Boyce NSW: 106km/h at 3pm Braidwood NSW: 91km/h at 1.25pm Goulburn AP NSW: 89km/h at 2.16pm Thredbo Crackenback NSW: 128km/h at 8am Falls Ck Vic: 117km/h at 4.30am Cape Grim Tas: 119km/h at 4pm Records set this day Lowest minimum temperature for September: (previous record and years of computerised record shown in brackets): Te Kowai Exp Stn Mackay Qld: 3.0 (5.0, 30)
	Maximum	Minimum
	38.8 Victoria River Downs NT	25.0 McCluer Is NT
	-3.0 Mt Baw Baw Vic	-8.0 Charlotte Pass NSW
	Greatest variations from normal
	Maximum	Minimum
	+7.0 26.7 Norah Head NSW	+4.2 17.0 Yuendumu NT
	-6.0 3.5 Thredbo Village NSW	-10.5 3.0 Te Kowai Exp Stn Mackay Qld

Times stated are the clock time in force in the relevant state or territory
Stories, including those in the archives, are as new and corrected information becomes available, with updates underlined
Australian Weather News gratefully acknowledges the Bureau of Meteorology as the collector and main source of meteorological data in Australia, along with the thousands of observers who record the weather and rainfall daily. I also thank Don White, Blair Trewin and the many contributors to the Aussie Weather mailing list who routinely provide much appreciated information.