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Above: Surface
chart for 4pm EST shows a westward-moving trough lying from a Low on the
monsoonal trough
in the SW Gulf of Carpentaria to west of Sydney. The westward movement
of the trough allows warm, moist air from the Coral Sea to invade the area. BoM
Below top: This 10pm EST chart shows upwards of 50mm of
precipitable water is available (lines or isohyets) in much of the area
east of the
trough. Instability
(tot tots index, shading) is moderate, thanks to wind converging into the
trough and cyclonic curvature within the trough. COLA
Below middle: This second 10pm EST chart shows a bullseye of extreme
upmotion in the middle atmosphere (700hPa, around 3.1km) south of Longreach.
This was not present on the previous chart at 10am. The area of heaviest
rain lay to the east and southeast of this bullseye, which may have developed
over the eastern Darling Downs during the late afternoon before moving
northwest. COLA
Bottom: Lightning tracker/radar shows the resulting thunderstorm
situation around 6pm EST, with widespread outbreaks eastwarrds from the
trough to the coast. Weatherzone
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 Heavy
storm falls on QLD Central Coast
A thunderstorm complex that formed along a local convergence line
in the Townsville area late last night drifted southeast this morning,
arriving in the Bowen area a little before 3am. The storms decayed over the
next few hours, but gave
Bowen Airport 71mm between 3am and 9am, and other stations in the area falls
of 50 to 70mm for the 24 hours to 9am. The rain area continued to drift southeast,
giving Hamilton Island, 90km SE of Bowen, 99.4mm between 10am and 1pm.
 Torrential
rain from inland QLD, NSW storms
Very heavy rain, over 100mm in places, fell from storms that were
widespread east of a westward-moving trough lying through QLD and NE NSW
today. The situation is described at right. The heaviest rain in
the 24 hours to 9am Sunday fell in QLD in a band from the Central West around
Blackall, through the Central Highlands to the Darling Downs. This
may have been traversed during the evening, when the heaviest rain appears
to have occurred, by a developing area of enhanced lower/middle atmosphere
upmotion.
The heaviest 24-hour totals were 184.0
at Raymond, 45km SW of Springsure, 176.4 at Ballon, 90km NNW of Dalby, 125.0
at Drillham, 140km NW of Dalby, 112.0 at Tosari, 60km SW of Toowoomba, and
110mm at Tambo.
Among heavy known short duration falls were 22.8mm
in the hour to 4pm at Toowoomba, 50.2mm in the hour to 6pm at Inglewood
Forest, 70km ENE of Goondiwindi, 36mm in 3 hours to 9pm at Miles and 62.8mm
in 3 hours to 10pm at Blackall Airport.
In NSW, there were heavy storm falls during the afternoon. Narrabri recorded
47.0mm in the 3 hour period to 3pm with two torrential bursts: 18mm in 11 minutes
and 8.8 in 5 minutes. Murrurundi PO recorded 38mm between 3 and 6pm.
Sydney
bushfires contained
Fires to the north and southwest of Sydney were contained today. The
Ku-ring-gai Chase fire has consumed 1,400 hectares of national park and the
Wilton fire about 800ha of bushland. |
