19Oct00,
23Oct00Strong winds in the southeast, snow in Tasmania
Cold in the Centre
 |
| Rainfall for the 24 hours to 9am today BoM |
Widespread rain fell across NSW yesterday and today, with some record October falls. The heaviest totals, between 25 and 100mm, mostly accumulated overnight across a large part of the Central and Northern Tablelands and Slopes as several rain and storm areas embedded in a huge cloudmass crossed the state. These lay ahead of a significant surface trough and cold front, supported by a sharp upper trough and tongue of cold air. A surface low developed on the front early this morning in the state's central west, then tracked ENE to cross the North Coast near Grafton late morning with a central pressure of 997hPa. The rain and storms intensified under and ahead of the developing low, producing the rainfall bullseye over the Northwest Slopes shown on the map (right), where at least 3 locations received record October falls. Tamworth, Quirindi and Barraba all broke October daily rainfall records that have stood for over 100 years (see records panel below). The higher 24-hour totals are given below and some of the heavier short-duration falls are given in the panels below and for yesterday. Although there were widespread thunderstorms, most of the rain fell steadily -- a fortunate outcome as this is the first significant rain in the area since early May, and topsoil was dry. The falls also extinguished bushfires that have been burning for the past 5 weeks in rugged country in the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park, east of Armidale.
A Strong southwesterly stream followed behind the front, supported by a strong southwesterly jet stream to the west of Tasmania. Snowfalls developed about the Tasmanian high country during the morning and temperatures plummeted as the colder air arrived, with a temperature of -1.4 recorded at 3pm atop Mt Read, just east of Rosebery on the West Coast, and -1.6 atop Mt Wellington behind Hobart at 3.35pm. Gusty winds picked up across eastern Victoria and NSW, with Mt Boyce in the NSW Blue Mountains recording a gust of 85km/h at 3pm
Clear skies behind the front also produced a record cold October night in northern South Australia. Woomera Aerodrome and Andamooka both broke records (see panel below), while Alice Springs shivered with a minimum of 4, 11 below normal.